Radiator fan failure?
Discussion
The radiator fan on my 8th gen Honda VFR (2015) appears to have failed, resulting in coolant dumping all over the road as I couldn't get the bike pulled over in time to switch the engine off.
It's been in the Honda dealership and they said I need a new fan motor. The total cost of this including adding the new coolant is £650! The bike has only done about 14,000 miles.
Is it normal for a fan motor to fail so early in the bike's life or am I being ripped off?
I'm considering just getting the bike delivered back home and I'll do the work myself as I don't want to be paying that sort of money to Honda for such poor reliability early in the bike's life.
It's been in the Honda dealership and they said I need a new fan motor. The total cost of this including adding the new coolant is £650! The bike has only done about 14,000 miles.
Is it normal for a fan motor to fail so early in the bike's life or am I being ripped off?
I'm considering just getting the bike delivered back home and I'll do the work myself as I don't want to be paying that sort of money to Honda for such poor reliability early in the bike's life.
CoolHands said:
We’re you in heavy traffic? Seems odd it came on if you were riding, normally when your moving on a bike the fan doesn’t come on.
Yes, it was in slow moving traffic and the fan should have come on. It obviously didn't Despite riding in and out of central London for the last seven years, I've never had this issue before so I'm very annoyed that it's an expensive repair on a reasonably low mileage bike.
Chicken_Satay said:
Despite riding in and out of central London for the last seven years, I've never had this issue before so I'm very annoyed that it's an expensive repair on a reasonably low mileage bike.
I wonder if it's just worn out if it's been used in central London traffic a lot. The fan could have done a lot more work than similar bikes not used to commute in traffic.
6 years for a fan motor to fail does seem a little quick but not desperately so. With only 14,000 miles and commuting it suggests that the bike has been used for lots of short journeys which generally are not a good thing and tend to shorten the life of components.
£650 to replace a fan does sound excessive. I think you need to review what is actually being done and what is being replaced. I'd think there may be more than a simple fan replacement happening here.
£650 to replace a fan does sound excessive. I think you need to review what is actually being done and what is being replaced. I'd think there may be more than a simple fan replacement happening here.
black-k1 said:
6 years for a fan motor to fail does seem a little quick but not desperately so. With only 14,000 miles and commuting it suggests that the bike has been used for lots of short journeys which generally are not a good thing and tend to shorten the life of components.
Why would a fan motor wear excessively on short journeys?black-k1 said:
£650 to replace a fan does sound excessive. I think you need to review what is actually being done and what is being replaced. I'd think there may be more than a simple fan replacement happening here.
The cost of the fan is £413.29 apparently. The rest of the charge is the labour i.e. fitting of the new fan motor and adding and burping the coolant etc.Chicken_Satay said:
The cost of the fan is £413.29 apparently. The rest of the charge is the labour i.e. fitting of the new fan motor and adding and burping the coolant etc.
Crikey, a quick look on Fowlers parts does support that price - they want about £424 for the radiator fan motor assembly. Seems a bit nuts for something that's given up in 6 years when most will outlast the rest of the bike they're bolted to!I can't come up with anywhere else selling the same or a pattern part for appreciably less and there doesn't seem to be anything used on eBay, so it looks like you might just have to swallow the pill and pay them
Krikkit said:
black-k1 said:
6 years for a fan motor to fail does seem a little quick but not desperately so. With only 14,000 miles and commuting it suggests that the bike has been used for lots of short journeys which generally are not a good thing and tend to shorten the life of components.
Why would a fan motor wear excessively on short journeys?jjones said:
I had a 1999 model, thermostat was a common failure point on these. If the stat failed closed could have caused this (guess fan would not come on as the hot water would not make it to the rads).
There is no temp switch on the radiator if that's that you're referring to? The ECM sees coolant temp from the ECT sensor and sends a grounding output from the ECM to a fan relay to energise it.black-k1 said:
My comment was not specifically aimed at the fan, as, without careful analysis of how the fan failed, it's impossible to say if the short journeys did or didn't have an impact. That said, assuming these were in town commuting journeys, there'd be limited movement airflow over the radiator so lots of get hot, fan on, switch bike off. I suspect that proportionality, the fan has been on an off a lot more on such journeys than other "general use" 14,000 mile bikes.
The fan probably has been on and off a lot more than other "general use" 14,000 mile bikes. However, I had the previous generation VFR with radiators on the side and, therefore, a less effective cooling system. I rode that for four years on the same route and that bike had done 40k miles. I never had an issue with the fan so that's why I'm really annoyed that this piece of crap has packed up already. That's assuming it is actually the fan motor and not just a corroded contact or damaged fuse and the dealer is trying to con me!£400 upwards does seem rather excessive for what is quite a compact fan unit for a motorcycle radiator. Where do the manufacturers draw the line at what is considered a rip off to the consumer???
As an aside I ordered a dashboard switch for a Mercedes Benz Atego truck last week, nothing fancy just a plastic on/off switch that is a tailored to fit into the dashboard. Not an obscure part, but one that must be fitted to hundreds of thousands of these trucks across the world. The price including our trade discount - it was around £53!!!
As an aside I ordered a dashboard switch for a Mercedes Benz Atego truck last week, nothing fancy just a plastic on/off switch that is a tailored to fit into the dashboard. Not an obscure part, but one that must be fitted to hundreds of thousands of these trucks across the world. The price including our trade discount - it was around £53!!!
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