Magic and Electrical Issues - 6th Gen VFR

Hey Guys,

Noob grease monkey but experienced rider here. About 2 months ago my 2005 VFR800 ABS stopped working suddenly. No warning symptoms at all. Too keep a long story story I have done the following:

1) Spark test on cylinders 1 -4. Only Cylinder 1 fires.

2) Swapped the coil packs around and rested all cylinders. Same exact results as step 1.

3) Realizing that the coils or plugs werent the issue, the only thing that it can be is the wiring harness, or ECU.

4) Purchased a used/tested EDU and got the same results as step 1.

5) Unless I am the unluckiest man in the world and got another faulty ECU (and i should throw the bike off a cliff) this lead me to the conclusion that its the wiring harness thats at fault.

6) Frustrated I tried to pass it off to a local shop to fix it and they wanted close to 800 USD to fix and diagnose the bike (not including the cost of parts)

So my question to the forum is that, has anyone experienced this before? How difficult is to replace the main wiring harness on the VFR on a scale 1-5. Ive done plenty of oil, brake, plug and throttle sync changes. But this is getting into grease monkey territory and I want to make sure I dont shoot myself in the foot taking on a task thats better off supervised or just sent into a shop.

Thanks a ton for everyones patience with my noobness.

 

First off - welcome to the MadHouse

It is always sad to see an initial post on this forum is to report a bike in problems.

However before I would be willing to offer even a wild guess as to what may be happened to your VFR, I think we need more information from you so we do not send you off in the wrong direction.

In general it is good form to keep posts brief, but in this case I think we need to understand better your comment "stopped working suddenly" so don't hold back on the information. I suspect there is a lot of information which you have already concluded is irrelevant, and therefore left out - however without that information, it is pretty well impossible to offer sensible advice from the other side of the planet.

You might prefer to post up a short video showing us what is and is not working when you try to start the bike.


So - what happened exactly - did the bike simply cut out while were you riding, or did it display some preliminary warnings - misfiring, loss of power, dashboard lights going dim?

Did the bike work perfectly one day, but the next time you tried to start the bike it was totally dead?

Are there any coincidental factors which may be at play? Did you have the bike serviced or have someone else work on the bike before the bike failed? Was the bike dropped?

Have you recently fitted any extras which might be contributing to the problem - heated grips, upgraded lights, battery tenders - flux capacitors...

Were their any MIL codes flashed from the ABS light? (Malfunction Indicator Light). (Youtube has a video on how to check for codes,)

Was there a specific reason you focused on the coil packs? Which suggests you have concluded you were dealing with an electrical issue rather than something mechanical.

Are we correct in assuming you have had the official Honda loom recall done?

Sorry more questions than answers at this stage, but hopefully you know all this stuff. Obviously at the moment we have no idea what is or is not pertinent so I look forward to your update.



SkiMad

 

You have to think about what your time is worth and the level of frustration you're willing to endure. If you are willing to accept the pain, which you have already started to feel, I would suggest starting over from step one, which is to get a factory service manual and walk through the troubleshooting, inch by painful inch, step by painful step. That is why it's $800 for the labor to do it, as the tech will do exactly the same thing. Keep a detailed record of what you have done and don't skip any steps. It will be time consuming, and yes, you will have ups and downs. If you don't do it like this, you will generate way more questions than answers from the folks willing to give you a hand. There are some pretty sharp cats around this place, but you have to give them something concrete to work with.

Quite frankly you have to WANT to do it, and the tone of your post already makes me believe you're mostly over it, which I TOTALLY understand. Be honest with yourself and determine whether or not your heart is truly in it. You will get a great education if you do it yourself and you will know your machine like it's the back of your preferred hand Take a breath, source a factory service manual, and roll up your sleeves. There are no silver bullets and electronics troubleshooting can make you want to ram bamboo shoots under your fingernails.

I would say replacing the wiring harness for a new mech is a 6 on a scale of 1-5. However, that doesn't mean you can't learn. I wish you the best of luck and I hope you get it sorted.

 

Yes to the above - we need far more info.

2005 VFR800 ABS

How many miles?
How long have you had it?
When was it last serviced?
What has happened to it?
Were you riding it at the time?

Especially:
1) Spark test on cylinders 1 -4. Only Cylinder 1 fires.

Is this test on ALL CYLINDERS? or 1 & 4
Are you using new plugs?
How are you testing this?
Whats the compression?
etc,
etc.

89441000300 795710668

 

It also helps to know where youre located. You may be just down the road from one of these gurus.