Assuming there isn't an MV dealer within 100 mile from your location? Do you go to a Ducati dealer? How are they when it comes to working with a 4 cyclinder motorcycle?

I'm 90 miles away from my MV dealer, but will have to towed it down to the MV dealer for warranty repair of the fuel leak. My local Ducati shop is very good at fixing Ducatis. However, without shop manual, it's a bit of trial and error. I was just wondering how MV owners in states without dealer are fairing for basica service and warranty work.

-- Allan Gibbs (Phoenix, Arizona) (Agibbs996@aol.com), September 06, 2002

Answers

Allan,

I believe this fuel leak is a cracked fuel quick release. This same thing happened to me when I fooled around and lifted the tank and must have jammed the quick release when lowering it. If you lift the tank and turn on the ignition you will see the fuel leak. This quick release is a Ducati/Cagiva part and can be replaced very easily yourself. Give it a shot, hopefully this is it.

Scott

-- Scott Smith (Srfcity@hotmail.com), September 07, 2002.

Greetings Allan- I can sympathize with your dilemma. I use my local Ducati dealer for routine servicing because their techs are really good mechanics. For warranty work the bike goes from the Seattle area over to Idaho. Any warranty related servicing needs to be performed by an authorized MV Agusta dealer. I made a request to Cagiva USA asking that my Dealer, Ducati Seattle be allowed to perform these services. They would not allow it so the bike goes to the next state. I agree with Scott that the problem may be a simple one and if you trust your Ducati mechanic, have him take a look at it. Hope things work out.

-- Tim Willard (provamo35@hotmail.com), September 08, 2002.

Hello all. Scott was right it was a cracked quick release. In a way, I'm lucky because the authorized dealer is only 90 miles away, as opposed to being several states over. The only difficulty is when the MV is not in a drivable condition. I've had a service done and the bike is running great.

I also found that Cagiva does not let unauthorized dealer do warranty work. More accurately, Cagiva doesn't reimburse unauthorized dealers. When the sidestand on the 2000 broke, Cagiva originally agreed to cover the work. Once the dealer submitted the bill, Cagiva had a change of heart. Not a nice thing to do when you don't have a very comprehensive dealer network.

Over all, despite the full day of towing and waiting, I'm glad to have the whole thing over with.

BTW, if anyone's interested in some new 2001 996s, they're going for $14K and the 2002 998s are going for $17K. That dealer was having a sale on almost everything except a 2002 red/silver F4S. Here's the link:

http://www.ducati-az.com/

-- Allan Gibbs (Phoenix, Arizona) (Agibbs996@aol.com), September 08, 2002.