The coolant/oil change rant

First, thanks to TexasRich for all the info on flushing the coolant. Now for my rant, WTF did the designers put the radiator with the cap on the opposite side of the reservoir ???? Why would these asswhipes force you to take both side panels instead of one. And on top of that I am doing my first oil change. Why would these numb nuts make it so complicated ? It is as if they designed these bikes so they can jack you up at the dealership. I am totally disgusted and frustrated here because I feel these are simple processes that were made complicated on purpose. On the old Nighthawk all I needed to do was reach between the pipes and presto I could unscrew the oil filer. Here I have removed so far 5 clips 8 screws, had a hell of a time removing the left cowl from under the front cowl (praying I would not crack anything) and I am still not finish. These designers are a bunch of dicks. I am in full blown postal mode right now. I am a fracking engineer, stupid designs piss the crap out of me.

BTW, I am going to use as coolant the Prestone Dex-Cool 50/50 mixture. It is suppose to last 5 years instead of the usual 2 years. Will report about temperature whenever I am finished...which at this rate will be in November !!!!

 

I used to share your admiration to the design but trust me. Remove the fairings a couple times and it becomes rather simple. Those plastic fairing clips are another matter though. If you break any, google search "Bolt Fasteners". They make great alternatives, better designed, and o e hell of a lot cheaper than OEM.

 

Frrrrraaaaaaaaaack me ! You know the screw that secures the side cowls to the front fearing. Well these 'geniuses' at honda surpassed themselves. The screw thread is inside a rubber casing that goes inside the side cowl screw hole. Somehow the rubber casing (don't know how, maybe glued ????) is suppose to stay lock against the cowl side so you can unthread the screw, otherwise the whole thing spins. Well GUESS WHAT ! THE WHOLE FREAK'N THING IS SPINNING. I can't unscrew my left side cowl which is where the radiator cap is. I might have to take the entire front fearing TOGETHER with the side fearing so I can actually extract this rubber POS !!!! This is a freaking nightmare.

 

BTW, I would like to know what size of clips and where you got them because you are right. You can't start working on this bike without having a box of those are your disposal. The ones that come with the bike are made out of cheese.

 

The radiator cap location still makes me a little pissy to this day.

 

OK, calm down Skippy------First off I'm with ya on how f#cking complicated they made this body work---shit on my old 900SS I could have it stripped in two minutes.
When I change my oil I just take the inner black plastic chin thingy out (connected by clips on both sides) and its straight forward to the filter, second when adding coolant on the left I just take that one bolt out right behind your knee and pull it out just a little and have a long funnel for the over flow bottle, don't know about the right side to the cap, as I'm just about to tackle a flush as well

 

Could this Honda a-holes had put any more shjjjt in front of the oil filter ? What dicks !

 

Like Duc said. Breath deep. It is not all that bad. Those rubber surrounded bolts you speak of are called well nuts. YOu can get them from HOnda, but they are readily available at cheaper places like Lowes and Home Depot. You just need to know what size. Take one of your bolts to Lowes for comparison. Just keep in mind, that new, they do not look like one that has already been crushed like they are supposed to

Shop Standard (SAE) Well Nuts at Lowes.com!

The Fairing clips are from Bolt Fasteners. I looked at their specs and measured my OEM and came up with this one:

M6 Nylon Push Rivets/Plastic Clips: 10 Pack - Nylon Rivets/Plastic Clips - Sport Bike - Products : Bolt Motorcycle Hardware

They fit very snug but they work great. And are far better than the OEM as far as I am concerned.

 

I've got it down to a science now. Yes it sucks having to take both sides off, but having to do this on two VFR (01, 09) I have come to terms with it. What I hate about taking the filter off the VFR is the oil drains right on top of the headers when you remove the filter, unless you cover them with foil or something that doesn't melt/burn. Duccmann is right though, the 900SS is way more simple to deal with!

Has anyone converted their 5/6 Gen to use Dzus fasteners? That might be "the" mod to do right there.

 

I am beginning to think you need to sell this bike or get the shop to do your work. There is not a machine out there that does not have some design issue that someone does not like. Just learn to over come them and work with them rather than getting all pissy about it. You may find that you actually enjoy working on it. Then some of us just like to vent from time to time.

I flushed my rad and flushed the clutch lines for my very first time just a couple days ago. Did it go smoothly. Absolutely not. It will the next time though. The first time I changed the oil myself, I stripped the plug hole in the oil pan. First time I loaded the bike onto the back of a truck, the day after it was painted, I did that wrong too. I fell off the ramps 2 feet to the sidewalk below and did a nice job on the bike and my ribs. But I sure learned a lesson that day. Now I know how to load a bike. I found noises that I could not figure out but people here helped me to a satisfactory end. You will learn the bike if you make an effort.

Don't over tighten those bolts that go into the well nuts though. That is why yours is no good. Someone over tightened it somewhere along the way. I would suggest that before you put those bolts back in, you apply a little Tri Flo Superior Lubricant Drip (VERY LITTLE) to the threads of the bolt. I had one seize on me and it was a bitch to get it off where it was. The Tri Flo will prevent that from happening. Don't get it on the rubber of the well nut that meets with the plastics of your fairings or that won't work properly.

Good luck.

 

I just googled those. Didn't know what the hell you were talking about but I am now a learned man. Interesting. You would have to do some real searching to get the right ones, and even then, I think you would be in for a fair amount of work for little in return. But who knows. Try it out on a couple spots and let us know what you think.

 

Yeah, I feel for you. On my old CBR600, the model I had, you had to remove the whole fairing to get to the radiator cap (not to mention the hours it took to change the plugs). But like others have said, do it often enough & it's a piece of piss (easy). I sure engineers & designers get together over drinks & laugh their arses off over the shit they do to make life that bit more harder for the end user. All bikes have their quirks.

 

OH MY! I had to cover my poor Valerie's ears! (Yes, I have named my bike Valerie!)
I feel your pain though. First time I took my fairing off I busted a few of them horrible black tab things. I got some replacements but where they are hidden, I replaced them with cable ties. Can't see them. And whenever i want to take a part of the fairing off I cut the tie on the inside of the fairing and replace.

God luck with the service and remember, the harder it is now, the easier it will be for you next time.

 

THANKS MAN ! Fantastic info on the clips and the well nuts. I am going to get some of those clips. Now that I know where to get it I won't be worried about busting the well nut. I can see a bit of it behind the front turn signal if I stick my hand through the front of the bike. I gotta come up with some MacGyver method to keep it from spinning. Yes, the thing was over tighten.

 

When I moved to SC I had to put the bike on a moving truck and had to do the ramp thing, I almost killed myself. I was on the bike and had two friends pushing me from behind while I rode up the ramp slowly. I wasn't sure how to do it. At one point they stop pushing and I am stuck in the middle of the ramp and felt I was going to fall over and get crushed, at that point it was all or nothing, I gun the bike so hard I stopped 1 foot short of going through the back of the moving truck's cabin.
I just recently sold that bike to someone that did not have a license yet. He came with a ramp. I said, NO WAY MAN I am not riding this thing up onto your truck and you should not either. I had to ride the bike to his house and then he had to give me a ride back home.

PS Yes, someone did over tighten that bolt. Still working on it ... ... (tbc)

 

Geez you guy's, We all have ridden bikes that are "naked" and yes they are easy to work on, but when you buy a bike that we the motorcycling public have demanded, you get what you get. Any full faired bike makes it harder to get at things.....so what, look at how a VFR is packaged, you want a slim design with a V 4? Fully faired? We don't buy these things based on how easy they are to work on, if so, buy something else! Go buy a ZRX1200, super easy to work on.....especialy compared to a VFR, and faster to boot. Handles as well or better as well! Get over it...... Every winter I completely remove the fairings, check everything over, flush ALL fluids, and she's ready for next season, NOT a big deal. Go buy a naked bike if you can't handle it.........Rant over.

 

I have found that The first 15 times i had to remove the fairings it was a MFer however the last time i was so happy to get it done in like 15 mins. no mods just learning all the little spots that honda decided to hide black push pins in where the shadows are. I found that if you just undo the bolts and then pull those push pins break away like they were made for that. Just replace each time with new and break. It shaves at least 10 mins off. Also it saves what little hair i have left from being pulled the fark out.

 

Anyway you guys can change the plastic and other fasteners to Dzus fasteners? Southco has many different types.

DZUS® Quarter-Turn Fasteners - Southco

 

Randy, do you know how to install the well nuts in ? I had one that came off and I managed to put it in by twist/turn/pulling but I am sure there is some 'reasonable' way. Is there a special tool ?

The screw that was spinning in inside the well nut, I was unable to get it out (the one that connects right behind the headlight). I was able to flex the panel far enough to be able to get my hand and remove the radiator cap and drop a long neck funnel in there.
In order to fix it I would have to either remove the front fearing, in order to be able to work on it, which I am not looking forward to it since it seems like a big job, OR I would drill the screw out somehow and replace the well nut. If someone else has run into this problem (thread barrel spinning inside rubber well nut) maybe they can share how they get them out.

In any case, she is all back together again, I was only left with one clip in the box of 'wtf did this come from ?'.

 

I've had bikes before where you need to take a fairing off to top up the oil...my last bike required a socket wrench to take off the seat FFS, so at least the VFR doesn't have that annoyance!

The VFR absolutely does not have an intuitive fairing mounting design. Took me probably an hour to figure out all of the little plastic black thingys the first time I took the fairings off, but it does get better. I haven't tried changing the oil yet without taking off the side fairings, but I think I may give that a go next time.

My recommendation for all of the rad hoses in front of the oil filter is make sure you do not over tighten the filter (hand tighten only!) because getting any sort of tool in there is a PITA.