Starting problems, cutting out, poor fuel economy

Dealer and my own research informed me of the same thing. Honda does show that another recall was performed, so I am curious if I have 1 'punch' or 2. need to look when I get home. Either way, dealer said since it isn't 'official' until Honda reports it complete, he can do the repair.

 

??? I'm only aware of the front and battery sub-harness recall, though God knows there should have been several. What's the other one about?

 

" February 2005

IMPORTANT SAFETY RECALL NOTICE

Dear Honda Motorcycle Owner:

This notice is sent to you in accordance with the requirements of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

What is the reason for this notice?
Honda Motor Co., Ltd. has decided that a defect relating to motor vehicle safety exists in certain 2002-2004 model year VFR800/A motorcycles. The brake proportioning valve could develop a leak. Over time, the leak could result in a total loss of brake fluid in the rear brake system. If the motorcycle continues to be used after a leak occurs, the rear brake would eventually become inoperative. In the worst case, a loss of rear brake force may cause a crash without warning."

Check yours here:
Honda Automobile Recall Information

 

When the Harness recall was performed on my '02 I respectfully requested that the punch mark at he beginning of the VIN not be done. Ball Peen hammer and a punch on my frame...no too likely. My dealer was happy to tell a prospective purchaser that the work had been completed.

 

See what I mean? A visual inspection is very important and can reveal many things.

Now can we see an Avatar with a big smile on it? LOL

 

Just got the call from the dealer, they have to send pictures to Honda to verify....and thus disconnect and remove any accessories in their entirety, and report back to Honda. So, there goes the phone charger, LED lights, Gerbing wire, and Battery tender lead :'(

 

A small price to pay to get the bike back to running reliably?

I'm sure you'll be able to address those items once she's fixed up. Besides, with spring and summer right around the corner, you don't need the Gerbing.

 

Happy to pay the price, and when I have to go back to re-wiring those items I plan to use a thread or 2 I found here to make sure I am within electrical limits of the bike. Always wanted to learn how to be an electrician.

Tho, the dealer was very specific in saying that Honda does not recommend any accessories on this bike, as it supposedly does not have much power to spare, and again, the wiring is bare bones. I wonder if a VFRness and new R/R would still be a good idea to take on the load of the Gerbings......

 

That is utter BULLSHIT! My local shop did the same thing to my mods too. Thing is, there's a few problems with Honda's WAG:

A) NO ONE has shown me where or how any of my mods could have possibly had anything to do with the original RR/stator burnout
B) NO ONE has explained how totally disconnected mods could have possibly caused the second stator to burn out less than 30 minutes after coming out of the shop
C) Why the problem magically disappeared after the HONDA RR/Stator stock connector was replaced with the wire to wire mod (Shop Googled the fix)

I carefully planned out each of my mods (stebel airhorn and relay, security system, Signal Dynamics voltmeter and Powerlet) to look stock, with proper length and over-gauged wiring to ensure there would be NO load issues. In fact, my installs were so good the local shop needed me to show them what was OEM and what was RDT.

Apparently Honda's made a corporate decision to blame "Unauthorized modifications" to dodge responsibility for their design flaws...

 

Oh, HELL YES! The day i got my VFR back, with stator #3 and the Stator/RR wire to wire mod, I reinstalled all my mods, routed them to a custom made accessory fuse box and installed a VFRNess. I would also note for the record that with the VFRNess in place, the voltage (at any RPM from idle to 5k) is 14.6, when before it varied around 14.2. I was also told about how little spare power the VFR has by the shop tech, service and general managers. None of them was amused when I observed the bike seemed to have enough to cook itself regularly...

 

So the r/r going out and the melted wires were causing the problems? If someone smarter than me could explain how that was causing the symptoms he was having I would love to be educated. I had my wires melt and my r/r go out but I never had any symptoms like he had. My battery went dead and overcharged but while running it ran fine. Is the sixth gen a lot different than the 5th which I have? I don't doubt that that could be the problem but I don't see how it can all be fine for a day and then go crazy the next. Either way I hope the dealer gets it all taken care of for you under the recall. Keep us posted bsims this has been a very interesting thread, thanks.

 

I may not be able to give you the exact reason/cause, but I can tell you this....when I inspected my wiring, at the stator connection and again at the battery charging connection (both I have pictured, battery charging is the small skinny terminal near the battery, stator has the 3 yellow cables near the wiring harness on the front right in the 6th gen)......I was able to replicate the bike cutting out when disconnecting the corroded battery charging cable, and I was able to observe a continuous drop in voltage when the stator was disconnected....disconnecting the stator diverts all electric requirements directly to the battery, without replenishing it, therefore it will soon die/fall below operational limits. The dealer has not yet told me if the stator, R/R or battery are good or bad, but I believe if there was enough corrosion between the 3, voltage would become an issue. Mine seemed to run fine until things started to heat up, then it would stall like crazy, start up, stall again, and so forth.....so my guess is that the stator may be bad, only deciding to kill the bike when it gets too hot to work effectively. When I get it back I will have to test it with a voltmeter.

Unfortunately the bike is at the dealer, and I am at the mercy of them and Honda for the time being.

 

I have read a bit about R/R's and from what I understand the MOSFET type are a little better than what is on the VFR, so I had found this, and am considering it if mine is bad.

MOSFET Regulator Rectifier VFR 800 Honda

 

Being that I'm in the process of replacing my RR as well, bsims, I researched the hell outta this stuff. Not that research was necessary, because quite simply, MOSFET is the way to go.

Where you buy it is your choice. But I'll give a shameless plug to Joshua at (click) Wire My Bike

I ordered it on Saturday, I got e-mails that it was shipped, tracking numbers, etc. and it showed up on Wednesday. No extra charge for shipping. R/R and the VFRness for $190.

 

Just got the call from the dealer I've been waiting for. Everything is bad, and Honda is replacing the stator, harnesses, and R/R. No word on the battery. Hopefully I'll have her back next week!

 

Now that makes more sense with all the symptoms you were having.

 

That's good news! Glad to hear it. And like Taylor said, definitely makes more sense. (I mentioned in the other thread that after replacing my RR this past weekend, I am no longer getting codes for my speed sensor, or the MAP/BARO sensor). You'll be rolling soon!

 

I finally got the bike back today, along with a bag full of wiring the dealer told me to never put back on the bike. The dealer believes the extra wiring is what caused the issue.

Any of you have thoughts on this? What was installed was:
LED light kit which hasnt been used since summer
DC phone charger, which again hasnt been used since summer
Gerbings wiring, which was used extensively over the winter for short rides.

Dealer believes that having these wired to the battery caused extraneous load on the stator and wiring system, therefore destroying it all.
I am curious, is there any way to wire any of these devices to the VFR properly, or does it simply not have enough juice? The one that stands out to me the most is the gerbings, while I think the LED's would not take much power, and the same for the charger.....
Thoughts? Can I reinstall anything, or leave it all off....if so, anyone have charging solutions for phones?

FYI: Just did some math, does anyone know the excess electrical of our bike, or how to test for it?

The estimate of my lights is 46 watts
Gerbings states 77 watts for jacket, 27 for my gloves.

If I had only been using the jacket and gloves, which was the case, i would have been using 104 watts. If know the excess electrical current for the bike (say it is 180 watts) and use a 15 amp fuse which should blow if i exceed that, would this protect the electrical?

 

I believe I would take the dealers advice and keep that stuff off unless you absolutely must have it. I can understand the heated gear but only for long cold rides not short 2 mile commutes. My other advice is to let your bike warm up for a while before you first head out and maybe suffer through taking the long way to and from work to let your bike run on the road a while. Although the battery tender is good for your battery the best thing for your bike is to ride it.

 

I'm not so sure, there are too many instances of the RR/stator burnout where there was NO mods involved. In my own bike's case:

A) First burnout happened with a security system, air horn, powerlet and PC3 in place
B) Second burnout, with a new Rick's stator, happened with all the mods disconnected less than 30 minutes after getting out of the shop
C) With a new OEM stator and all mods still disconnected, shop tech noted the stator wiring heated very quickly at startup and would have burned up he hadn't been watching for it.
D) No one has yet to explain how any disconnected mod (or no mod at all) could have caused the burnouts.

The problem, like with so many others, disappeared when the shop tech (getting a We-Don't-Know from Honda Corp) googled the problem, found and used the wire to wire solution. In short, Honda's Stator/RR connector, NOT THE MODS, caused the burnouts. IMO your shop guy is feeding you a line of Honda BS about "unauthorized modifications" to dodge responsibility for the repairs and possibly another expensive recall.