Stuck thermostat... ?

[benVFR]

Anyone ever have a stuck thermostat?

I think mine is stuck open. This morning on the way to work the bike was just ridiculously cold blooded.

It wouldn't really go much above 130F on the highway normally it would be 165F on the highway in 30 degree temps and around 175F on a normal day.

It did get up to around 165 when I was off the highway in stop and go traffic but it would normally be closer to 200-220 in that situation depending on the air temp.

I'm taking it in to have the valves adjusted so I asked to get the thermostat checked just wanted to see if anyone had this happen.

It should be covered under warranty unless they try to blame it on my PC3 or something.

[KB]

The thermostat on my truck is stuck open right now same symptoms. I installed a fial safe one that when it fails it stays wide open.

Well it failed!!!

My Superhawk had a bad thermostat when I did the motor swap. Same thing cold when it's cold out and hot when it's hot out. On the Hawk it's an easy change. Done in about 10 minutes.

Good luck.

Lastly. You can get a couple guys and lift it on the deck!

KB

[benVFR]

My brother is coming over tomorrow to help me put it on the deck.

Anyway I rode around at lunch.. it's definitely stuck. The radiators get hot immediately when you turn it on and it takes forever to heat up. Normally if you start it, it will be up to 130+ by the time you put on your gear.

It turns out like everything else on the VFR it's a total bitch to change. It's buried under the throttle bodies inside the "V" on the engine. Sounds like it may be possible to finagle it in/out without taking them off but officially you're supposed to take them off.

Since the dealer will have to take the throttle bodies off to do the valves I'm going to let them deal with this mess.

[mikeb]

long term maintance was always a worry i had with mine. everything seems complicated with the v-tecs. i'm glad i unloaded mine with 12000 miles and no problems.

still thinking of trading?

[highsider]

Originally posted by rmbbikes


Lastly. You can get a couple guys and lift it on the deck!

KB

He needs a crane. Dumbass.

[KB]

Originally posted by highsider
He needs a crane. Dumbass.

Fuck.............a crane? Really? You think it'll work? Sounds fishy!!

Did you get the stuff I told you about your bike? Jet's manuals? Hello McFly.

KB

[benVFR]

WTF? Dealership didn't find anything wrong with the thermostat and claims it is working properly after changing the coolant, and they even took it for a ~20 mile run on the highway to test it.

Of course the fact that it's so freakin warm may hide the symptoms but they said the cooling fan came on when idling so it's definitely not behaving the same way it was last week.

Oh well.. I'll go for a ride tomorrow and see what happens.

[ZX-12R]

Most injected bikes have a temperature sensor in the airbox which is used by the ECU to adjust fuel and timing depending on the incoming air temp. Perhaps it was being a little flakey and was causing you to run rich (antagonized by the PC3). How did your exhaust smell the past couple of days?

Time to trade it in and get a ZX-14!

[benVFR]

Exhaust smell was fine.

Only other thing was I did use a different fuel stabilizer - if I put too much in would it have any effect?

Of course unless the dealership drained the gas and put different gas in, it still has the stabilized gas.

I think the fuel stabilizer causes it to smoke/steam more maybe? Or maybe when the weather was cold I was just getting a lot of condensation in the exhaust.

You guys are hysterical with the trade in stuff.

Getting a different bike especially a new bike like the ZX-14 would be way more expensive then maintenance on anything.

Definitely won't be any trade in throughts going through my mind for another 15,750 miles or so till the valve adjust comes up again.

I'd never get a ZX-14 anyway. If I get a different bike it will be smaller/lighter/lower displacement then the VFR. I already feel like I can't use the VFR on the street unless I want to be a tool on the highway.

[ZX-12R]

I was just being a wiseass about the trade-in because you know how unreliable Hondas are!

I guess it is possible for fuel stabilizer to make the engine run cooler because it does not burn like normal gas. If anything, your engine would feel sluggish if you used too much.

[benVFR]

I got it back, $571 for everything, which is about $200 less then I expected/feared after hearing the horror stories about the valve adjustment on this bike.

Maybe it was the fuel stabilizer. It is definitely running perfect now, maybe better then ever. (Guessing cause they synced the throttle bodies when they put it back together.. it is supposed to help on VFRs a lot)

It was at operating temperature before I left my block this morning, 40 miles on the highway at 80mph in 33 degree temps and it never dropped below 169F coolant temp.

Whatever.. as long as it's running good I'm cool.

I would say the power loss was definitely noticeable when it was running cold, but otherwise the bike was still running just fine. Totally tractable, no real sign anything was wrong other then a loss of power. I would have expected it to somehow run/feel weird with that much of a power loss. It was not like a cylinder wasn't firing but it was noticeable.