madrazcbr

The bike is now in the shop. Will check all the suggestion given : 1) to check fuel pressure regulator although I do not know how, hope that the mechanic know how to do it. Update - the mechanic will change the fuel filter, he says that it should not be the problem with the fuel pressure regulator. 2) check voltage when rpm is around 3000 and below Update - check the voltage during idling voltage at 12.4, rpm 2000 to 3000 voltage at 13.5, above 3000 rpm voltage at 14.2. I think this reading should be ok. 3) check valve clearance, checking the shims spacing between each other Update - the bike is being prepared for this. Most probably on Monday the task will start. 4) check timing chain condition whether it is loose Update - will be check together with valve clearance.

Hi All, Thank you for your input. The "tak tak tak ... tak tak tak" noise only happened during idling and the engine is really hot such as when after going thru a bad traffic jam. The bike has new sets of sprockets and chain and so the noise should not be because of it. Will check all the suggestion given : 1) to check fuel pressure regulator although I do not know how, hope that the mechanic know how to do it. 2) check voltage when rpm is around 3000 and below 3) check valve clearance, checking the shims spacing between each other 4) check timing chain condition whether it is loose Thanks again for your input. I hope I did not miss anything.

Hi EVLXX, Thanks for the info. For item 1, my mechanics mentioned that it could be the fuel filter and ask me to change. He also mentioned that the valve clearance need to be check. At the same time I will ask him to check the fuel pressure regulator. By the way how do I diagnostic whether the fuel pressure regulator is working fine ? For item 2, the mechanic is more incline on the timing chain has worn out and it is hitting against the wall. However when he open to adjust the valve clearance, he should be able to see whether the timing chain has become longer than normal. Will send the bike to the mechanic on Saturday, if you have anything that I need to check to solve this problem, please let me know.

Hi All, Need your advice on 2 problems that I am facing. A 2002 Euro Bird, done 69000 km. Valve clearance not checked yet. New spark plugs and fuel injector recently service. Air filter clean. No modification. 1) When the Bird reach 66500 km, the battery when dead on me, after a push start the bike travel for around 5 km before it when dead again. During this 5 km journey the RPM shows erratic behavior and the FI lights was on. I have changed the battery to YTZ14BS similar to the ST13 as the shop only has this model. After the change of battery I continued my journey and feel that the Bird has more power. Not sure whether the battery has affect on the power or just my feeling playing with me. After plus minus 300 km, the Bird when in low RPM, less than 4k or 3k, the Bird seems to lost power. It is not smooth like not enough petrol or something. It feels jerky and not smooth. However if I open the throttle wider I do not have problem, like when I am speeding the pick-up is good and the bike is smooth. No problem with the power delivery here only except when the rpm is low. My mechanics(no Honda distributor in my country) advice me to change spark plugs and service the injector. But the problem did not go away. Anyone can help me on this before the mechanic ask me to change a lot of other things that might not help to solve the problem but only put a big hole in my pocket. 2) In Feb 2007, I have this problem that occurs once in a while. When idling there is a rhythmic sound like metal to metal knocking each other. sounds like "tak..tak..tak" stop and then again repeatedly. First I thought it was the CCT which I changed but the sound is still there. The noise go off when the bike start moving. However recently the noise become louder and more often especially after a hard ride or I could say when the bike is very hot after a ride or go through a jam. Holding the clutch does not help either. Have tried to use thicker oil 15-50w but it does not help. Anybody can help to give idea on how to solve the two problem that I am facing, please.

Hi JBowen4, Have you change the CCT ? Does the knocking sound still exists ? Hi Forumners, What does thicker oil helps ? Was being told the thicker the oil the cooler the engine runs, is it true ? However the engine will "felt heavy" and at the same time smoother. I am using 10-40 from new until now (35000 miles), when should I change to 15-50. Or should I stick with 10-40.

Hi Hobicus, I have been following your article closely. How is your friend 02XX ? Is it still the same with the temperature ? I am very interested on things that can be done cause mine also a 02XX Euro model Red colour(could it be red). I am in Malaysia and the temp here is around 86F. I am always try to be fair so thats why I am using Motul Semi Synthetic 10-40, not mineral not fully synthetic. Fair right. Your friend symptom are the same as mine. When I bought mine new in 02 and with the factory 50/50 coolant, the temp can sometime shoot up to 250 - 260F region. After reading article in this forum(thank you guys) I have change the coolant to ICE COOL cause I am unable to get Water Wetter. I still have problem after that which is due to the mechanic does not burp the system. After it was burp correctly the temp improve compare to using the original factory coolant. The improvement is that it is now having the same symptom as your friend 02XX which includes taking a longer time to cool down to 190 on an open road, it will go up to 220 it is left idle and it definitely climbing, etc. yes exactly the same. I still called it improvement as it is now take a longer time to reach 250. It still reach there if the bike is in idle or in start stop traffic. It cool faster as previously it took around 1.5 to 2 hours and now around 30 minutes. It goes down to 190 in open road as oppose before it only go down to 205. I try to live with it but cannot. I wrote in to this forum. After Joe advice that there it is nothing to worry about, I just enjoy the bike. Although sometime I do feel scared when I see a traffic jam. I cannot join a group ride as a certain time the group will need to go down to 50MPH for a period of time especially when approaching town. These will help the temp to shoot up to 250F. Whatever it is I still love my XX and enjoying it more day by day. I cant sell it as it is very expensive now to buy another bike with 120% sales tax. So if you do find a way to improve the temp of your friend 02XX, hope you can share it with me. I was being told cooler bike go faster.

Thanks for the info Silverbird. Mine are still stock. No mods. I hope I will not experience as what you did. :razz:

Hi Silverbird, I have just change to a YTX12-BS a month ago. Will it give problems ? Will there be disturbance with the electrical system eg; headlight not bright enough, difficult to start, fuel injection going crazy, etc... Please let me know if this battery will ruined my electrical system or not.... Should I change it now or should I wait until the battery dies....

I have found out that the temp problem is due to not enough coolant in the radiator. After adding the coolant in the radiator, my temp problem has gone. The temp reading is almost the same as Pacman reading. Anybody knows how the coolant in the radiator can reduce by itself. I have checked that there is no leakage whatsoever.

Hi All, Will the tarmac temp can effect the thermostat reading ? What happened is that I went for a 125 mile ride yesterday. The Bird temp range from 208 F(98 C) to 233 F(112 C) with speed ranging from 70 mph to 90 mph and sometime reached 120 mph. The temp still the same and the fan is working non stop. It was a very hot day. Suddenlly it started to rain and the atmosphere is much cooler so does the tarmac. During the rain the Bird temp range from 185 F(85 C) to 194 F(90 C) at the same speed. My questions are ? 1) Do I still have a problem, if it is true tarmac temp effect the Bird temp 2) Will it effect the battery and the fan motor as it was working non stop.

Thanks Joe. Will try to get the radiator cap from Honda Singapore.

It happened only last week. I was using 6th gear. The overall system is fine and the fin is not clogged. I do not suffer the overheating symptoms, only annoying hot. By the way, will it be a good idea to change to OEM Honda coolant and a bit of Water Wetter. On the radiator cap, is there any different between the Euro Spec and the US spec or even the Japan Spec especially at what temp it should open, etc.

BTW. The radiator is clean. Nothing block the air circulation. The fins is not bent.

The air temp is around 75(24 C) - 91 (33C). That means I have a problem. How do I solve it..... Now I am really worried........ WHAT SHOULD I DO ???

Mine is a '02 bought in '02 brand new Euro Spec. I'm from Malaysia and very near to the Equator. Even from new, my XX always run hot. I could not get Water Wetter so I replaced the OEM coolant with Engine Ice. The only thing good about the Engine Ice is that it will cool much faster compare to the OEM coolant when the engine is switch off. It tooks around 20 minutes to cool down to 185(85C) compare to the OEM 60 minutes. When I am moving at 70 mph the temperature will still be around 205(96C) - 212(100C). When it reached 212(100C) the radiator fan starts. Only when it reach back to 205(96C) the fans stops. There is one time, I were moving at 70 mph for almost 2 hours, the fan never stop. Will this cause problem with the battery and the motor fan ? Speed above 100 mph will see the temp at 201(94C). The only thing is that not always I manage to reach this speed as the road condition does not allow me to do so. By the way my country speed limit is 70 mph. In traffic jam, in 10 minutes it will shoot up to 239 (115 C). When I start moving again the temp will go down to 212(100C) and stays there. It will shoot up again the minute I stop or slow down. With this info, do I have overheating problem ? Any suggestion to improve the situation. Should I change the radiator cap as it could be only suitable for Euro whether. Do you think it will make a difference if I use Water Wetter and the Honda OEM coolant ? Can I mix it with Engine Ice ? Previously I manage to ignore this however when reading this thread it makes me worry again as 201(94C) is consider high. HELP HELP

Pete, What is your average speed when you do the test ? By the way is it true that for fuel injection bike, if your tank really empty it will spoil the fuel injection system and you might not be able to start the bike after you refill ?

For the fork oil any suggestion on the brand. Is it better to put more fork oil to get a harder and stable ride ? Or should I just follow the OEM level ? What would be the different in term of handling when the front suspension soft or hard ? I was being told that if I want to put Hawkeoiler, I need to hook it up with the fuel injection system. This is actually to control the drip of the oil to the chain is it true ? I try not to do any modification on the bike. Had always heard of the advantage of this automatic chain oiler but is it really that good compare to spray can type that most people use... any comments Different people different story. The more the story the better conclusion you get...

Hi Northman, Thank for the info. Will do the fork oil change soon. And for the chain, I also used Maxima Chain Wax and clean it up quite frequently by applying WD40 followed by the wax. Somehow or rather after the 20k km, every 200 or 300 km I have to readjust the chain. When it reach 22k km, I just cannot take it anymore and decided to replace it. Anyhow thanks for the info.

Hi Everyone, Need some advice. 1) When should the fork oil being replaced ? Yearly ? Every 20k km ? Could not find this info in the user manual. 2) I have just change the sprocket and chain. Honda original sprocket and a DID chain. My chain only last 22k km. I just wonder how some of you can get 20k miles with your chain. My bird is Euro spec and the rear sprocket has 44 tooth. I know the chain should have 110 link. What will be the effect on the bike if the chain link is more let say 115 or less 105 ? Appreciate any advice as I going for a long journey soon. Going to Phuket for the bike week and Water Festival(Songkran) in April.

I have been using Engine Ice for about one month. The temperature in my country ranging around 26-32 C (104-115F) all year long. This is my observation when I change to Engine Ice from the 2002 Euro Spec coolant mixture. When I start the XX, it needs a longer time to warm up as the temperature rise slowly. However when I stuck in the traffic jam the temperature still go up and up with the fan on. Usually when I reach 112 C (259F), I will stop and rest by the roadside to cool down the bike. During cruising at 110 - 170 kmh the temperature will be at around 90-103C (219-243F). The XX fan wil be on when the temperature reached 100C (237F) this also will happen when I am cruising. Not sure whether this has impact on the battery or not. Another thing that I observe is that the bike cool down faster compare to the factory coolant spec. After a 30 minutes stop the temperature will be around 60-70C (165-183F). However this is much better than the factory mixture. A lot better. The next time I change coolant I will try to use the non-mix Honda coolant and Waterwetter mixture. I want my bike to run as cool as possible.

Hi Guys, At last managed to download. Went to an Internet Cafe and asked the guys there to help me out. It tooks only 15 minutes to download. I am afraid that I might missed some pages or files here. Does the file consist of 599 pages in Acrobat format. Joe did mention that I can find the comparison between the 2002 Europe and USA spec, it is not there. Just wondering whether I have lost any file or pages. It will help my mechanic a lot .........

Hi Guys, Dont get me wrong. This mechanical stuff is not my thing. I did not do anything to the bike. What I am trying to do hear is to understand the concept of the steering. As explain in my previous post I am having problem with the steering feel. After I understand the concept then when I talk to the mechanic at least they will not cheat me by repairing the thing that is not broken. The problem in the place I leave is there is no competent mechanic. Most of the mechanic here do the try and error way. I definitely do not want to be the "error". The nearest Honda Authorised dealer is in Singapore 500 km away. Even them do not want anything to do with my bike as I did not buy from them. I really dependent on this forum for advice before I see my mechanic.

Is there anyway that this file can be downloaded let say thru email attachment. I did not have a PC at home and the office PC does not warant me to download the file.

After the mechanic loosen the adjusting nut, the problem is still there. The steering is lighter though and sometimes I feel that the front tyre is floating when I am at speed more than 170 kmh. And now I am feeling that the bike is going sideways to the right. When I go thru rough surface(concrete road surface, pavement) the front fairing and the digital meter shake very badly as such I am riding on wooden tire. I put 40 psi in front and 42 psi at the back. Both tyre(BT020) only have 1500 km on it. Am I having an illusion. Need advice urgently as I am suppose to go for a 600 km ride this coming weekend two up. What is the effect of over tightening the locknut or adjusting nut. What will happen if I loosen up the locknut. Will it effect the steering.

Hi Pete, This is the problem, my mechanic has tighten the upper nut and now when I ride the bike, I really can feel the road(stone, rough road, etc). When I asked him to untighten, he untighten the bottom nut. This cause the steering to be a bit light when you move it left and right. That is why I am asking this question. Just need to understand. Would love to get a Honda Manual. But it is not easy where I am staying. By the way is there a different between the US and Euro spec.