[Devante]

Hey guys,

So I went to go do my first oil change on my 600-mile 2016 Continental GT.

Long story short, all four bolts on the bottom caused damage. Both drain plugs and one of the filter-screen plate stripped the engine threads completely. I can't re-screw the bolts back in now. There's nothing catching onto the bolts now. The thread on the bolts look perfect. The other filter-screen plate bolt broke off inside.

A mechanic friend says it's because of them screwing it in as hard as they could with no regard to torque specs or anything.

I have no idea what I'm going to do now. It's been one thing after another with this bike. I got it 3 months ago brand new.

What can I do, guys?

[Bert Remington]

Find a shop with long experience and excellent reputation for helicoil installation in cast aluminum, then truck your motorcycle and oil change kit there.  Expect to pay $200.  I've had excellent experience with helicoil albeit for American-made after-market parts.  I'm considering preemptive installation for my 2016 UCE.

[mattsz]

1st oil change on a brand new bike?  Never had those bolts out before?  This seems like it should be a textbook warranty repair...

[Bilgemaster]

1st oil change on a brand new bike?  Never had those bolts out before?  This seems like it should be a textbook warranty repair...

Indeed. Were it me, I might insist not merely on some helicoil "patch job", but an entirely new (not refurbished) engine, since I would have real concerns that those drain plugs were most likely NOT the only bits bolted on by Ramesh the Trainee on the line with his pneumatic driver mistakenly set to "tighter than a Scotsman's billfold" (with apologies to Blairio), or merely that the case's casting was faulty. After all, one stripped bolt hole might be a case of simple bad luck, but FOUR?

Unless, of course, YOU gave those bolts the extra heave-ho putting them back in. Then it's on you.

[tooseevee]

Hey guys,

So I went to go do my first oil change on my 600-mile 2016 Continental GT.

Long story short, all four bolts on the bottom caused damage. Both drain plugs and one of the filter-screen plate stripped the engine threads completely. I can't re-screw the bolts back in now. There's nothing catching onto the bolts now. The thread on the bolts look perfect. The other filter-screen plate bolt broke off inside.

A mechanic friend says it's because of them screwing it in as hard as they could with no regard to torque specs or anything.

I have no idea what I'm going to do now. It's been one thing after another with this bike. I got it 3 months ago brand new.

What can I do, guys?

              'Scuse me, but I'm confused 

               Are you saying all these threads were stripped (and a bolt snapped) at the factory and that you didn't know it until you screwed them back in? Did they leak?

                 

[Guaire]

Indeed. Were it me, I might insist not merely on some helicoil "patch job", but an entirely new (not refurbished) engine, since I would have real concerns that those drain plugs were most likely NOT the only bits bolted on by Ramesh the Trainee on the line with his pneumatic driver mistakenly set to "tighter than a Scotsman's billfold" (with apologies to Blairio), or merely that the case's casting was faulty. After all, one stripped bolt hole might be a case of simple bad luck, but FOUR?

The whole batch over torqued?! I agree. Looks like an assembly line created problem.

[KD5ITM]

First of all, by 600 miles you should have already had one other oil change but that's neither here nor there. The engine block is aluminum cast, it can be retaped but no promises that is going to fix the issue. Your best bet is to find a helicoil set that will work with the bolts as long as they're not stripped out otherwise you would need to replace those as well. Drill the bolt holes per the instructions with the kit and then install the Helicoil. I would take some fresh oil and run it through the engine block and drain it out every drain hole to get all of the metal shavings out. Run the oil back through a paint filter and then back through the engine to flush out everything. I would do that two or three times to make sure all the metal shavings come out of the engine from the drilling process. Some blue high temp Loctite will be your friend.

As far as torque specs, I found when I first got the bike before I start writing it that most of the bolts weren't torqued tight enough. Especially the engine mount bolts and the rear shock mount bolts. I would say probably 90% of the bolts weren't tight enough. Looking at some of the YouTube videos of the factory, they use a lot of air tools to screw in all the bolts. Looking at the video, and the way they do it, it's very easy to cross thread the bolt. Some of my Allen head bolts are slightly rounded off where an allen wrench can't grab the bolt to loosen or tighten it. I guess it's safe to say is that what India assumes is good quality control is subpar as far as American Quality Control goes. I've always said, good decent quality control would make these bikes a lot more user-friendly and a lot more desirable and sales would probably rise in the American Market. From what I've gathered from non Royal Enfield Motorcycles is that they assume from what they've heard that the bikes aren't of good quality. Which is kind of a shame.

[KD5ITM]

And yes, if it's a 2016 model, this should definitely be a warranty issue.

[Arizoni]

If the bolts were over-torqued by the factory to the point that the factory stripped the threads out of the aluminum, all of those drains would have leaked like a sieve ever since day one.

I didn't see anything about leaking drain plugs or the oil filter screen plate leaking before this oil change was attempted.

Looking at the original post,

"...
Long story short, all four bolts on the bottom caused damage. Both drain plugs and one of the filter-screen plate stripped the engine threads completely. I can't re-screw the bolts back in now. There's nothing catching onto the bolts now. The thread on the bolts look perfect. The other filter-screen plate bolt broke off inside...."

(underline added)

Note, he says the four bolts caused the damage.

To my way of thinking that means he either cross threaded them and wrenched them in or he did not use a torque wrench and he simply over-tightened them with a wrench.

Likewise, "the filter-screen plate bolt breaking off inside" sounds like a typical case of over-tightening the bolt.
  Those small bolts on that filter screen and on the oil filter cover are only supposed to be torqued to 4 lb/ft of torque.  That's almost nothing.  In fact, when I'm tightening those little cover bolts, I'm always surprised when my torque wrench clicks, telling me the torque has been reached.

As it stands now, if I was the dealer I would chalk it up to user damage which the warranty would not cover.

That leaves having Heli-coil's or similar screw thead insert's installed by a professional, the only easy option.

Sorry to be such a grump but this is the way I see it.

[longstrokeclassic]

My AVL engine had the drain bolts screwed in at the factory with some green thread compound. The first time they were removed both the green compound and the threads in the casework came out at the same time as the drain bolts.
This was factory assembly line 'quality' pure and simple, nothing else. My threads were ruined inside the factory during assembly.
Considering the number of 'quality' issues I've had to rectify on my latest Enfield it wouldn't surprise me in the least that this level of quality control is still alive and well in the bowels of Chennai. Yes quality has vastly improved over the last 24yrs  that I've owned numerous Enfield motorcycles, but it's still sadly lacking.   

[KC1961]

Recently, when replacing the "starting to fall apart" primary chain, I discovered that the chain tensioner bolt had been fitted cross threaded. Makes me wonder what other badly assembled pieces I'll find somewhere down the line.

[gizzo]

Thanks,  you just reminded me to get on and change that chain.  Been sitting on the bench for the last month...

[tooseevee]

If the bolts were over-torqued by the factory to the point that the factory stripped the threads out of the aluminum, all of those drains would have leaked like a sieve ever since day one.

I didn't see anything about leaking drain plugs or the oil filter screen plate leaking before this oil change was attempted.

Looking at the original post, (underline added)

Note, he says the four bolts caused the damage.

To my way of thinking that means he either cross threaded them and wrenched them in or he did not use a torque wrench and he simply over-tightened them with a wrench.

Likewise, "the filter-screen plate bolt breaking off inside" sounds like a typical case of over-tightening the bolt.
  Those small bolts on that filter screen and on the oil filter cover are only supposed to be torqued to 4 lb/ft of torque.  That's almost nothing.  In fact, when I'm tightening those little cover bolts, I'm always surprised when my torque wrench clicks, telling me the torque has been reached.

As it stands now, if I was the dealer I would chalk it up to user damage which the warranty would not cover.

That leaves having Heli-coil's or similar screw thread insert's installed by a professional, the only easy option.

Sorry to be such a grump but this is the way I see it.

             I hafta say that I've got your back here. My immediate impression as soon as I read his post was that this just does not make sense (as I said on June 3).

             They would have leaked from the get-go and especially the broken bolt story just does not make sense- all of a sudden discovered during an oil change? No.

              That's the way I see it.
 

[Richard230]

Perhaps the initial 300-mile servicing was performed by the OP's dealer and the damage was done then and there by their servicing mechanic. After all, how many shop mechanics actually use a torque wrench when performing normal servicing, especially when they probably work on a number of different brands, models and years of motorcycles - most of which have better fasteners and metal quality than use by RE? That makes even more sense to me then that the over-torquing was done during assembly at the factory, where hopefully they are using torque-calibrated air tools at each assembly station.

[tooseevee]

Perhaps the initial 300-mile servicing was performed by the OP's dealer and the damage was done then and there by their servicing mechanic. After all, how many shop mechanics actually use a torque wrench when performing normal servicing, especially when they probably work on a number of different brands, models and years of motorcycles - most of which have better fasteners and metal quality than use by RE? That makes even more sense to me then that the over-torquing was done during assembly at the factory, where hopefully they are using torque-calibrated air tools at each assembly station.

              Reread his first post.

              He says he bought it brand new.

              He says this was the FIRST oil change.

              He does not say he went to a dealer to do the oil change.

              And he does not blame a dealer or a shop. He blames the factory.

              That says to me he did his own oil change. Otherwise he'd be blaming a Dealer or some bike shop.

               Sorry. It just does not ring true that the bike came from the factory with all this damage (and didn't leak all over the place).