Africa Twin Adventure Sport Recall.

[Gerontious]

Finally got the recall notice on my bike.. for this odd problem.

Odd.. because it seems to be far more prevalent in some parts of the world than others.. to the extent I thought it might be some weird interaction between foreign fuel additives and the tank welds. It has happened in the UK.. but in a very small number of bikes.

 

Apparently.. something happens to the welds in the tank and particles of metal are released from the welds into the fuel and this can.. and has caused a blockage of the fuel filter which has resulted in the engine suddenly losing power. Its not something Ive experienced. But is very common in the USA and the far east. Much rarer in Europe.

 

Seems Honda are taking it very seriously and have issued a worldwide recall, which they have done in stages and its recently hit the UK.. and now my bike.

 

Be interesting to see if they find anything.

[husoi]

That's why my car and bikes are Japanese.  

They take these matters seriously.

[Gerontious]

58 minutes ago, husoi said:

That's why my car and bikes are Japanese.  

They take these matters seriously.

 

pretty much the opposite of what BMW do. (unless forced to)

 

when BMW identify a problem they tackle it with something they call a "Campaign"... so, you buy a brand spanker and it has a problem from the factory. one that you may never notice. BMW wont send out a recall, they just quietly let the dealers know the problem exists and it needs to be fixed at the next service. Which has the unfortunate side effect that if you dont use a dealer for maintenance your bike is likely to slip through the cracks and never get fixed. Just hope you never experience the problem whatever it is.

 

This happened a few times to the bike i had. the R1100GS. early bikes had plastic tanks that were gas permeable, so the fuel would effectively leak as a gas very very slowly through the tank walls and cause the decals to bubble. it was so slow you would never notice any smell. if your tank bubbled then they would replace it with a metal tank. But.. to this day you can still find these bikes with plastic tanks. most do not have the original decals on them, for the obvious reason. They also did the same over a gear box issue that was present for several years where the bike would get stuck in third and no fix was really possible, it was easier to just replace the entire gear box. And they did to a load.. but, again, not all. And even now... all these years later this problem occasionally reappears on bikes that were never fixed. only now its for you to try and source a new gearbox. tough titty. BMW will only do recalls if forced to by a countries version of our old VOSA. And then they would only do a recall in those particlar countries.

 

This is one reason why its never a good idea to go independent with a brand new BMW.. or if you do, take it back to a dealer every year or so just for a check-up. or the cheapest possible jobbie and then hope the dealership is square with you and will tell you of any "campaigns".

[Slowlycatchymonkey]

13 minutes ago, Gerontious said:

 

pretty much the opposite of what BMW do. (unless forced to)

 

when BMW identify a problem they tackle it with something they call a "Campaign"... so, you buy a brand spanker and it has a problem from the factory. one that you may never notice. BMW wont send out a recall, they just quietly let the dealers know the problem exists and it needs to be fixed at the next service. Which has the unfortunate side effect that if you dont use a dealer for maintenance your bike is likely to slip through the cracks and never get fixed. Just hope you never experience the problem whatever it is.

 

This happened a few times to the bike i had. the R1100GS. early bikes had plastic tanks that were gas permeable, so the fuel would effectively leak as a gas very very slowly through the tank walls and cause the decals to bubble. it was so slow you would never notice any smell. if your tank bubbled then they would replace it with a metal tank. But.. to this day you can still find these bikes with plastic tanks. most do not have the original decals on them, for the obvious reason. They also did the same over a gear box issue that was present for several years where the bike would get stuck in third and no fix was really possible, it was easier to just replace the entire gear box. And they did to a load.. but, again, not all. And even now... all these years later this problem occasionally reappears on bikes that were never fixed. only now its for you to try and source a new gearbox. tough titty. BMW will only do recalls if forced to by a countries version of our old VOSA. And then they would only do a recall in those particlar countries.

 

This is one reason why its never a good idea to go independent with a brand new BMW.. or if you do, take it back to a dealer every year or so just for a check-up. or the cheapest possible jobbie and then hope the dealership is square with you and will tell you of any "campaigns".

Very useful info. What a bunch of so n so’s though. 

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

Years ago I drove one of the big Vauxhalls for work. It had a recall for an electrical component that was generic across all Vauxhall cars. So when I took the Senator in I asked when I'd get the recall on my Cavalier. They told me they were only recalling the top range cars, those plebs who drove cheaper models just had to wait for it to break and then pay to have it fixed.

 

Not a great move as we were due to replace the work car so when they rang I repeated the story and said they'd lost a customer.

[husoi]

Do you guys remember years ago Renault having an issue with the bonnet in the clio that would open on the motorway?

Renault never gave in to the evidence that there was a problem and left customers with the bill.

[Pie man]

I think all motorcycle dealers act in a similar way, and all have good and bad points. I got a recall notice in 2015 for my 2005 GS. BMW issued a recall for the rear wheel flange, they recalled 43K bikes built between 2003/2011. No issues at all, phoned my nearest dealer and booked it in, great service to be fair and free coffee . I never had the bike dealer serviced either. I don't know how the manufacturers recall a bike that has been sold on and never dealer serviced.  

[Gerontious]

14 minutes ago, Pie man said:

 I don't know how the manufacturers recall a bike that has been sold on and never dealer serviced.  

They can't. It becomes the owners responsibility. This information isn't exactly hidden. If my own bike had never seen a dealer.. and in fact it hasn't since its first 600 mile service in January 2019.  Ive been aware of this problem because its been talked about for years and yesterday someone posted that the recall notice had appeared on the Honda website. So, I grabbed my V5 and checked my bikes VIN and voila.

One. minor side effect of todays social media. My bike hasn't been anywhere near a dealership for over 2 years now and yet I found out about the recall within 12hrs of its announcement. Last night.. its possible I knew about it before the Dealership!

 

If its a "campaign" the same applies, people will talk about it, even if they had no idea the problem existed in the first place. The vast majoity who buy new bikes do, usually, use dealerships. most are forced to by the terms of their finance agreement.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Gerontious

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

They can issue recalls using the registered keeper's details because it's a safety issue. Or anyone can check for recalls on the MOT check DVLA website.

[S-Westerly]

Bought my bike for cash but still had to use dealer for first two years for warranty. My model hasn't had any recalls but others have and certainly for first owner they are quite good at contacting folks.

[Bender]

6 hours ago, husoi said:

That's why my car and bikes are Japanese.  

They take these matters seriously.

Hmmm didn't do the micra owners with stretching timing chains much good when the car packs in, or the petrol juke owners who's engines disassemble them selves because of miss matched pistons, Nissan is no Saint when it comes to avoiding expensive recalls.

 

@Gerontious hope the dealers sort it out, presumably they've had a problem in production, unusual for  machine welding fail like that.

[smallfrowne]

Toyota Prius also had a bit of bother iirc with an erratic throttle didn't it?

 

Anyway what's the special pannier leaflet? "Do not exceed 130kph"? - this what was on snodder's K100 panniers, but he smashed it (the limit, not the panniers), as can be seen from his profile pic which was achieved avec luggage.

[Gerontious]

50 minutes ago, smallfrowne said:

Toyota Prius also had a bit of bother iirc with an erratic throttle didn't it?

 

Anyway what's the special pannier leaflet? "Do not exceed 130kph"? - this what was on snodder's K100 panniers, but he smashed it (the limit, not the panniers), as can be seen from his profile pic which was achieved avec luggage.

Its for the original Honda Plastic panniers.. which I dont have. so is irrelevant for me.

 

The letter about the fuel filter recall arrived today. same as below.

 

Apparently they will empty the tank and give it a clean/rinse out, then replace the entire fuel filter assembly. takes 3 hours.

 

Edited February 19, 2021 by Gerontious