Failed Final Drive/shaft

[Dae]

Coming off a corner at around 150KPH, all of a sudden I heard a loud clang metal grinding noise and abs light flashing. Pulled over to side of the rode and knew something was broken inside the final drive system. Luckily I was only about 200 meter away from the freeway exit and managed to push the bike off the expressway into a neighboring road. While pushing the bike the wheel would not spin and I would have to rock the bike back and forth to finish pushing the bike to a safe area.

Called the closet Honda motorcycle dealer which was 100 miles from where I was stranded and after about 3 hours later the tow truck arrived and proceeded to the Honda dealer here in Seoul, Korea.

The cause of the final drive cracking/coming apart was the parking brake cable/abs sensor (DCT model only) which is housed inside the final drive unit and must have come loose over time. It somehow wrapped around the shaft drive unit and cracked the assembly.

I’m now $1,700 dollars poorer.

[Rice]

WoW!

That sucks. Sorry to hear.

On the bright side, you are here and ONLY 1700 poorer...

Could have been MUCH MUCH worse.

Now, watch all 1200 owners tare into their final drive assemblies. It's what I would do if I had one and read this post.

Thanks for the heads up!

[2thdr]

I would contact Honda and see if you can get any compensation for this failure...can't hurt to try.

[BrianF]

What is this, a BMW forum? That's terrible man! I think you're the first to have this happen, at least that I've heard of.

I'm at the office so I can't go out and check, but doesn't the parking brake cable run under the swingarm on the outside? And unless I'm completely nuts, I think the ABS sensor cable runs along the wheel side of the arm? Hard to imagine why Honda would run anything inside the housing other than the shaft itself.

I don't even have the shop manual for the DCT so I can't check. Dang.

[Dae]

I don't know if the parking brake cable and abs sensor wire runs inside/outside of the final drive housing or not, but I was there at the dealer when he opened up the swing arm unit and saw the parking brake cable wrapped around the final drive assembly along with the abs wire being shredded. The dealer contacted Honda Korea and was told they never heard of this happening before and would not compensate for the damage.

I instructed the service technician, NOT to replace the parking brake cable of fear of this happening again in the future, besides I barely used the brakes anyway.

I'm hoping this doesn't happen to anyone else with a DCT model.

[Dutchy]

Sorry to read this Dae....

But do write to Mother Honda in Japan, am sure someone here has the correct address.

Tell them that THOUSANDS of VFR owners are reading your mishap with Honda's quality.

[Polarbear]

Ouch!!

[BrianF]

I'll definitely be looking into this a bit more when I get home tonight. Sorry this happened to you, but thanks for the heads up.

[hvfrdave]

I'll definitely be looking into this a bit more when I get home tonight. Sorry this happened to you, but thanks for the heads up.

What's going on at Honda lately, I always thought Honda was a quality product, not so, these days, and their customer care, ain't much better. The VFR1200 is a cracking bike, let down by silly issues,

Cracked r/h panel,

Rear Shock, spring preload adjuster seizing.

Heated grips, falling apart, or getting water in the control modual.

Some engines seizing, yes down to certain engine batch.

Now a rear prop shaft snapping, due to another fault as yet not proven.

Honda quality is turning into something of a joke, but only its not that funny.

[ilprofessore]

Parking brake cable and ABS cable are outside of shaft housing, then they can't be the cause of failure.

They are close to the universal joint (the broken part), but outside the plastic cover that protect this joint.

I can suppose that the joint was broken first, then it has damaged the plastic protection and then the cables were wrapped around the shaft.

It is not normal, but it can happen a failure like this one at 94k km

It is also very important the way you have used your bike.

Between make a wheelie every 100 meters and go always quite and slowly, there is a world of difference.

[Volfy]

I suppose there are a lot of bikes that happily go over 100,000+ km with no problem, but 94,338 is still a lot of km's.

I'm just glad you are physically okay. $1,700 is a chunk of cash for sure, but at least it's not a chunk of your flesh. A catastrophic failure like that could have landed you in the hospital... or worse.

[Cogswell]

Sorry to read this Dae....

But do write to Mother Honda in Japan, am sure someone here has the correct address.

Tell them that THOUSANDS of VFR owners are reading your mishap with Honda's quality.

I can't remember for sure - but didn't the 7th gen owner that had the rod bearing failure that ruined his motor get some sort of help from Honda after making some similar appeals?

[MBrane]

The more I learn about shaft drives the more I like chains, and sprockets.

[fotodadi]

I can't remember for sure - but didn't the 7th gen owner that had the rod bearing failure that ruined his motor get some sort of help from Honda after making some similar appeals?

I am sure he did.

So sorry about this failure. Still cant understand how it could have happened. I doubt that the cables in question have the strenght to tear apart the drive shaft the way it seems to be thorn. It completely sheared off!!! And after 90,000.00, are you must out of warranty?

Japan will definitely love to hear your story.

You could send me a PM if you would like some info.

[luvtoleanit]

The more I learn about DCT the more I like tradional clutch.

Fixed that for myself.

[spinalator]

Unless this is the 10th time we have heard of this failure (and I looked and can't find another), then this is not reflective of the entire brand, the entire model, or the entire universe, it is a mechanical problem that we are speculating about and may be the fault of the factory, the dealer, or sometimes even the owners (no offense). I had a Ford F150 truck, and Ford sells MILLIONS of these around the world, and it had a failed tranny at 2000km. It turned out to be a top end oiling issue that affected 85 transmissions across the world, and I happened to have one of them. Ford does not make the transmissions anymore so it was a supplier's fault. This was after a head gasket failure on a 2 year old Ford Ranger, which have a reputation of being boring but bulletproof. So in 4 months I had two massive failures on Ford Trucks, which turned out to be freaky, and bad luck.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves until we have more information or see more failures and can see the pattern.

Original poster, sorry about the breakdown, glad you are OK and let us know how things go.

[MBrane]

The more I learn about DCT the more I like tradional clutch.

Fixed that for myself.

That was Reg Pridmore's response too when I asked him why he got rid of his DCT. Said he liked the bike, but simply needed more control in low traction situations.

My comment about driveshafts wasn't meant as a slam against Honda (BMW could be a whole 'nother thread) just a generalization that I prefer traditional chain & sprockets for ease of maintenance, reduced weight, and cost for comparable service life.

[luvtoleanit]

The more I learn about DCT the more I like tradional clutch.

Fixed that for myself.

That was Reg Pridmore's response too when I asked him why he got rid of his DCT. Said he liked the bike, but simply needed more control in low traction situations.

My comment about driveshafts wasn't meant as a slam against Honda (BMW could be a whole 'nother thread) just a generalization that I prefer traditional chain & sprockets for ease of maintenance, reduced weight, and cost for comparable service life.

I don't mind it. I have a 1200 and I'd prefer chains/sprockets over the shafty too so I could alter the gearing ratios. I paid $9999 new so it's something I'll happily live with.

[Guest]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves until we have more information or see more failures and can see the pattern.

well said....everyone jumps on the old "Honda's quality sure has gone downhill" bandwagon when a single failure occurs...

it happens.

[Dae]

I'm not going to give up on Honda because of my mishap, I had good luck with Honda products in the past such as motorcycles, automobiles and lawnmower. I don't feel like I'm an aggressive rider or have abused my machine but interpretation of abuse various from individuals. I just love the DCT transmission and hope other motorcycle manufactures offer it on their sport, sport touring and sports bikes.

I couldn't have timed it better for my bike to break down because I'm currently in the United States dropping off my 2nd daughter for college in Virginia. The bike won't be ready until mid September and while it's at the shop ,will have other services performed such as fork oil, valve clearance.

Happy riding everyone with fall weather coming and kids off to school

I love shaft drives, never have to worry about oiling and chance of failure on the road (except for my breakdown) or aligning the rear wheel. Unless I have multiple failures in the future, motorcycle with shaft drive will be an important consideration for my next ride.

[MBrane]

never have to worry about chance of failure on the road

You may want to do a bit of searching on shaft drive failures in general before you make that assumption. At least with a chain you can see if it's got a serious issue before it leaves you stranded for 7 hours waiting for a tow or worse.

[kaldek]

never have to worry about chance of failure on the road

You may want to do a bit of searching on shaft drive failures in general before you make that assumption. At least with a chain you can see if it's got a serious issue before it leaves you stranded for 7 hours waiting for a tow or worse.

Yep, those car drivers don't know what they're missing.

Seriously though, suggesting that shaft drives are bad because you can't see what's going on is a silly argument. Aside from chain driven motorcycles, everything else on the planet is a shaft drive.

[MBrane]

never have to worry about chance of failure on the road

You may want to do a bit of searching on shaft drive failures in general before you make that assumption. At least with a chain you can see if it's got a serious issue before it leaves you stranded for 7 hours waiting for a tow or worse.

Yep, those car drivers don't know what they're missing.

Seriously though, suggesting that shaft drives are bad because you can't see what's going on is a silly argument. Aside from chain driven motorcycles, everything else on the planet is a shaft drive.

I was speaking as someone who has had personal experience with multiple shaft drive failures on bikes.

[Dutchy]

As a LeMans 1000 owner with twice a universal joint failing (once returning from the IOMTT, glad it didnot happen on Mad Sunday...)

I too know that shafts are not perse they best thing since sliced bread.....

"Aye, she's fooked...."

[Volfy]

I've seen and heard just as many chain drive failures as shafties. Including some pretty nasty chain-slapped legs and thighs. They both have their place in cycledom. For sport touring rigs like the VFR, I prefer shaftie. For sportier rides, chain is better.

if you are scared off a certain feature just because of some known failures, you might as well not ride. Every one of them have failure cases some place, some time, to some one.