6th Gen Recall (Problem with Accessories)

Took my '05 to the dealer for the wiring harness recall. It seems that Honda will not pay the dealer to remove/reinstall any accessories (not even Hondaline dealer-installed saddlebags). The dealer explained this up front; I took the bike home and removed the bags and brackets myself.

I also have a lot of electrical accessories (GPS, radar detector, communicator, etc.) that had to come off. Fortunately, they are all connected to an Electrical Connection fuse block and grounding block. Thank goodness nothing was spliced into the Honda wiring! Nevertheless, all had to come off because I had twist-tied the wires to the wiring harness.

I have not seen mention of this in other posts, so I thought I would post it to save anyone else the aggravation of being surprised at the dealership.

 

Why would the hard bags have to come off? The only panels that have to come off are the right front faring and the nose piece. I can understand about the electrical accessories as that would take extra time and risk damaging something. I have seen other post where the dealer said the same thing but I'm not sure if it was on this site. How did everything go? Did the dealer do a good job?

Action

 

I took all my accessories off before I took the bike in, just because I didn't want to get into that "who shot Annie" discussion. I did remove the Honda saddlebags, mostly because I didn't want them to get scratched at the dealership, but I did not remove the brackets. I took off my PCIII and a GPS wiring harness. It didn't take too long and that way I avoided any discussion about liability.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts I noticed what I though was a distinct change in the bike’s low speed performance when I removed the PCIII before I took it in for the recall. I noticed the opposite effect when I reinstalled it. The engine was smoother and more tractable once reinstalled. The most noticeable performance factor was low speed throttle response. When I first rode the bike it surged a lot in low gear and low RPM. I though it was too much driveline snatch. I though maybe it would smooth out when the mileage came up, but now I have nearly 3K miles and the PCIII still makes a very noticeable difference. It’s not about high speed performance or chicken stripes, just drivability in a normal commuting environment.

 

The dealer said the hard bags and brackets had to come off because the harness they are replacing goes all the way to the tail. They apparently have to take off the rear plastic (under the seat). I was surprised about this, too, as I thought I had read that only the harness under the front fairing had to be replaced.

I just took the stuff off yesterday; the bike goes back to the dealer tomorrow. I'll let you know how it turns out.