Servicing and warranty issues.

Hey all you knowledgable folks. My service manual for the Kwak clearly states that to keep the warranty my bike "MUST be serviced by an authorised Kawasaki MAIN dealer". Bearing in mind the warranty period is 3 years this seems a little much. I was hoping to use a trusted mechanic and get him to stamp the book, while he is a mechanic by trade and is VAT registered as such he is not an authorised dealer so would this void the warranty? Seems a bit harsh to me!

I thought that was illegal and whatnot now... thought you just had to have someone who is qualified to do the job?

Well blow me. I just phoned Kawasaki and was given some rather good news. News which actually contradicts totally what the service manual says. All the items in the service scheduled that HAVE to be done by a Kawasaki Authorised dealer are denoted by a 'K'. Things such as valve clearances. I asked them if I could do oil/filter changes myself and they said that would not be a problem. In fact I can do any and all service items which are not denoted by a 'K' and if there was a service schedule which did not have any 'K' items on it then I could do those myself. I would just need to keep receipts to prove dates and times of work done and I could sign the service manual myself. This would not void warranty. They did say though that should the bike go wrong and they could prove the problem was attributed to the work I had carried out THEN the warranty would be void. Fair enough I think.

If it's like the zed manual, all the service items with a 'K' next to them have full instructions in the manual too.

[northwind]

Insisting on main dealer servicing was outlawed in Europe a few years back, it's considered anti-competetive, mainly because it blatantly is. I think it's still legal in the USA. But it's much easier to get a warranty claim through if you go to a dealership, in fact, the easiest way of all is to use one dealership then take the bike there for the claim. If you self-service and make a big claim, you'd better be willing to fight tooth and nail for it.