It has been an interesting year, so far, with the 11 new Zforce 550EX but a few problems have come to light.
Seat bolts, nearly all of them came loose, mostly as a result of poor quality spring washers and the Allen headed mushroom screws, changing to stainless spring washers and ordinary M6 x 39 bolts cured that.
Wheels falling off, rear, three rear wheels have fallen off due to the nuts coming loose in the alloy wheels, this then sheared the remaining two studs, regular checks on the wheel nuts is now standard practice twice a week.
Overheating and melting, rear brake caliper seals, this seems to have been stick shift drivers using the left foot and resting it on the brake. Driver education in place and as a precaution the handbrake cables are disconnected until I can sort out a warning for the lever up and vehicle MOVING. Also an extension onto a dash light for the brake light, (AKA, get ya hoof off the pedal idiot !).
Seat belt buckles jamming, we now blow the seat belt buckles and reels out every trip. but that shouldn't be needed. changing to harness might be an idea, CFMOTO seat belt prices ($90) are stupid expensive for generic three point anyway.
Air filters clogging quickly in dusty conditions. We fitted 'turbo' pre-filters which has helped a lot and we may well go for Optiflow or Twin-Air later. On one vehicle the pre-filter came apart allowing direct entry to the air box and it completely buggered the std filter and destroyed the piston rings with oil blowing from the breather into the air box. A top end overhaul at 6k Km should not have been needed but there ya go!
We bought a OBD2 reader from a dealer (the one that does unrestricted ECUs) only to find we could have bought the same thing on eBay for $30 not $180. Ripped off. Needed it once so far to reset the engine light on a 'sensor 1 low' fault that was just crap in the lambda connector.
Valve clearances down to zero on all when checked so they really need keeping a eye on. 'tip'; at TDC slacken off all 4 nuts, Screw all 4 in to 'touch' zero clearance. screw inlet out 1/4 turn and exhaust 1/3 turn, hold screws and lock up nuts, that is perfect clearance according to the manual and not a feeler in sight. (yes I did check with feelers afterwards).
We have had three shunts so far, two by hitting the gas not the brake and one in a ditch and one rolled it and one swerving to clear an oncoming car, (he said) but everyone else managed it! and hit a wall The ball joints 'pop out' easily so the whole wheel assemble is free, snapping the rod end and ripping out the brake line, ripped the inner CV joint and lost all the balls, also sheared the lower pivot bolt off at the rear bending the front mount on the chassis. happy days. $300 in parts alone plus a day to fix it.
The swinging arm pivot bolts seize in very quickly so I would recommend everyone to remove all 8 and clean and grease, even with 6K Km on the clock all the ones we had to remove were SOLID! In fact the last one I had to cut off the bolt head and remove the nut to get it out. Even with grease points pumped the grease is not getting between the bolt, the tubes and the plastic sleeves (bushes), relying on the plastic sleeves for movement.
Keep an eye on the adjustment for the steering column or the little lever to adjust the tilt will fall out.
On only one have we had the 6 x M10 differential crown wheel bolts come undone and smash the cases but any noise from that area, front or rear, strip and check, it's not worth leaving it.
Don't over tighten the dip stick! you can end up turning out the tube from the engine, just nip it in gently.
Before topping up the brake reservoir clean the area above and around or crap will get in the fluid.
Put a bit a black 'gaffer tape' over the mirror arm covers or you will loose them and no, you can't get new covers and mirrors are stupid prices, buy 8" x 4" truck/van mirrors instead, 1/4 the price..
If in dusty conditions such as we have, the switches can get dirty and fail to work, I had an engine kill switch go and it took ages to track don why the darn thing would switch on but not engage starter or spark. With care from behind the switched can be removed and stripped and cleaned, do NOT lubricate, assemble DRY or any dust/crap will stick to it and make it even worse.
Check winch mounts, we have had a few come loose, even loosing all the bolts.
If drive shaft refuse to come out of the diff' when the wire clip on the shaft jams, there are three points on the diff' where it is thicker, place a screwdriver in there and lever at the same time as hitting the joint on the other side, it pops right out, usually.
Well that's all folks, been good so far with 100,000Km on the fleet and well pleased apart from the poor stock of parts and technical support from the importer, so far.
We will be off loading the 14 GS Moon XYKD260s next year, shift these 11 to our other location and bringing in 12 new ones. $140,000 anyone?