In need of illumination...

Hey all.

I'm in need of an enlightened opinion (sorry - no more crappy light-based puns... promise) on a headlight issue with my viffer, but first I guess a little history is required.

I haven't posted here in a while *(hangs head in shame)*, but last time I did it was for help with the proverbial R/R issue, having just bought a 3rd gen as my first bike. I got exactly the advise I needed, and got my muched-loved bike running faultlessly as a result. Thanks again to those who were willing to point the newbie in the right direction!

So... about 6 weeks ago, I get home from work to find that some d***head has reversed his truck into my vfr, not just knocking it over, but running his rear wheel up onto the side of my front wheel once it was on its side. Long story short - it was not a pretty sight. At least the guy had the decency to leave his details with one of my housemates (although whether he would have done if he hadn't been seen knocking it over is another matter). I took the bike in for a repair quote at my local honda dealer, and as expected the quote for damage repair was about twice the value of the bike, as the market value was maybe £1000, and the quote was £1840, so the insurance company (don't you just love 'em?) wrote the bike off and payed me off for its value (after a little haggling). So I was left looking for another bike..... Well it wasn't gonna be anything other than another VFR really.

So as the proud owner of a Gorgeous black '98 5th gen, I am relieved to be back on two wheels, and although I was sorry to part with my faithful '91 3rd gen, I am enjoying getting to know my new vfr. I've zero regrets on my choice (and I got it for a steal of a price to boot!), but I have discovered one electrical issue I kinda need to resolve. Forgive me if this one's been covered before, but I could find nothing relating to it, so here goes.

I'm riding home on a road I know well a week or so ago, in the dark, and getting a real shift on. Lets just say this is a perfect stretch of road that I happen to know very well, and to not let that V4 top-end loose would be criminal:wink:. I spot the approaching headlights of a car heading for the bend ahead, and flick from main beam to dipped lights, but instead of getting a dipped beam, instead my headlight dies, and I'm left flying along in the dark! I have just about time to think "what the FU..." and then the headlight comes back on, dipped as asked for.

After making sure I had a clear stretch in front of me, I try to get the headlight to repeat its temporary strike, and find that it doesn't happen every time, only perhaps one in 6 or one in 8 times. When it does happen, it's always when switching from main to dipped beam, never the other way, and although the length of time it's off for seems to vary a little, it rarely seems to last more than around 0.7 seconds. Now I know that might not sound like a very long time, but believe me, you can cover a very long distance in that kinda space of time, and when you're in complete darkness, It's more than a little unnerving!

A friend who owns the same model, same year, when I mentioned it to him, said "Ah yeah, mine does exactly the same." Clearly as he's never done anything about it, he can see in the chuffing dark! So as it's apparently a problem inherent to the 5th gen, I'm hoping there's somebody who might be able to point me in the direction of a fix!

 

:welcome: back to the madness!!!

I have found that Honda is a big fan of letting their electrical bits be open and rather vunerable to the elements. Connectors aren't sealed most of the time and keeping moisture out wasn't even an afterthought. I would start by taking apart the headlamp switch housing, cleaning up the switch and making the contacts clean, dry and pretty again. Then fill the housing with dielectric grease when putting it all back together to keep out moisture which will cause future corrosion and failure.