Hello all from a very sad and unsettled VFR1200DCT owner based in London UK. After last weekend I count myself lucky to be alive. For those interested I will post details of the story so far in: VFR 7th Generation 2010 to Present Forum. In brief my engine has blown itself to pieces after 17000 miles and a full service history conducted by Honda dealership. The 16000 mile service was conducted 2 weeks ago. Pitfox
Pitfox, Welcome to the forum. It is good to have a new friend, but I am very sorry to hear about your bike. You have the right model and the right mileage where I be that the crank exploded. From reading the blogs some of the owners stated that Honda blamed them for lugging the engine and not keeping the revs above 5,000 rpm. However, you have a DCT, so that cannot be right in this case unless it was an ECU programming issue. Other threads show a Honda bulletin which states that there was metal in the engine and Honda was supposed to inspect and replace the affected units early on. Hopefully you will be covered by Honda. This has happened to certain European owners. I do not know for sure but have not see anyone elsewhere report the problem. Here are some stories: http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/41501-VFR1200FD-engine-failure-at-23572km http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/topic/74035-23k-km-and-a-possible-dct-failure/
Thanks for your kind words. I saw those threads and from what John Banks Honda in Bury told me, the pictures in the thread, resemble very much what he described as having happened to my engine although it was only a cursory inspection. Honda Chiswick will provide me with the full details when they get the bike next week. Best, P.
Welcome to the crazy house! Sorry to hear about the bike. Wow. That would be scary. Any assessment on how / why it blew up?
Hi Jeff, Nothing more than what I have said here: http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthre...CT-Catastrophic-Engine-Failure-at-17000-miles Should have more details next week from Honda in Chiswick where they are doing a full diagnosis to send to Honda UK. P.
Keep in mind that the dealership sold you the bike and the dealership bought the bike from Honda. This puts you at the end of the food chain. It you were in the US, I'd say stick to your guns. Both the dealership and Honda have the advantage even though you will have accessed data, facts and anecdotal "evidence" in your favor. These folks do this sort of business every day and your bike getting fixed or repaired is money out of their pockets. Dig out every scrap of paperwork that came with your bike and read it carefully. A blown engine with the labor is not going to be the price of some fish and chips or that God Awful curry that smacks of BISTO you guys eat sometimes. Don't let them stall you. They will try. You will have all manner of new friends at the dealer upon your next visit. Seen all this shit more than once..
Yeah... I don't suppose they are going to fall over themselves. I thought it might be an idea to let Honda Motorcycles in Japan know since they were the ones who finally helped out the guy in Nigeria even after Honda UK washed their hands of him. I have contacted Motorcycle News here in UK to see if they have an email address for someone at head office of Honda Motorcycles Japan. Best, P.
