Had my bike into local Honda dealer for new cam chain tensioner and replacement of steering head bearings. Got it back last weekend and this evening I was looking at it in my garage and all 4 of the front axle pinch bolts are undone by about 0.5cm each (i.e totally slack and several revolutions short of being tight). I've ridden it about 30 miles since I picked it up. I rode quite fast to see how it was improved or not. It rode fine, but I'm now a bit worried that I might have been in some danger as these 4 bolts weren't really attached. I'm hoping to visit the Honda dealer tomorrow (by car!) and ask if they will come to my house to check the bike over as I am a little concerned that there may be other bolts that they haven't refitted properly and the bike might be unsafe to ride. Also wondering if I may have inadvertently damaged something on the bike by riding it in this condition? Any thoughts or advice? Am I over-worrying?
The axle is bolted in for a reason!! Whilst in general riding you might not notice, with prolonged riding the axle could rotate in the fork lowers and 'grind' out the axle mounts. There'd probably be no risk of the wheel falling out, but it could get a severe wobble in mid- to high speed cornering. If you have a torque wrench you could tighten yourself to the Honda specified 22 NM or 16 ft lb. I would hope the dealer would attend your home, but I'm inclined to think they'll give you the, 'she'll be right mate, just ride it in' fob off.
They're only important if you use the front wheel. If you perpetually ride with the front wheel pointed to the sky, they serve no purpose. Seriously though, I would go back to that shop, undo the lug nuts on their cars and see how they like it. Glad you didn't have a get off due to their gross neglect.
To their credit, they were highly apologetic and waiting for me when I got home tonight. They torqued up the pinch bolts and checked the rest of the bolts they'd touched, so everything now ok and no harm done. Was quite a scare last night when I discovered the loose bolts though...
Glad you’re ok. There is a procedure to follow to centre the Calipers and front wheel in the forks. I doubt they followed it if they just came to your house to tighten said bolts. Have a google or even check the manual for the advice.
I should think they should be apologetic, who knows what else they've left loose?? I've had first hand experience of this sort of slack workmanship when my sump plug was left loose!! And mean loose...... I could turn it easily with my fingers. It was so loose there was oil covering my shed floor when I came back to it the next day. What's worse is I rode the bike home from the dealers after a service, it could quite easily have rattled out and spewed oil all over my rear tyre and caused some serious damage to my bike and worse.... Me!!! These guys are supposed to be experienced and we put our trust in them to look after our bikes...... Not only that we are paying a fortune for it!! This particular service was in preparation for a track day on my previous bike, it could have been a catastrophic outcome had I not noticed this neglect!!!
I'm not here to name and shame....... I hope what happened to me was an isolated incident. I was well compensated too. But you'll always have that niggle in your mind that something could be a miss! Short of stripping everything down and checking everything serviceable you'll never know for sure...... But if any of us had the inclination to do that we'd be doing our own servicing!
Wow! What a learning experience that was. I had no idea such finesse was needed to properly install the front wheel. I remember after a tyre change on my 2011, I did what other dropkicks would have done and just banged in the wheel, tightened the axle and pinch bolts and then bunged on the calipers. I am now ashamed of my DIY. Quite honestly though, I can't see too many service centres adopting Dave Moss' approach.
I'm away this weekend, I'll have a look at the manual when I get back. I don't remember any tyre shops ever doing anything other than unbolt and re-bolt though. What's the consequences of not following the Honda process I wonder?
Probably no real consequence aside from maybe uneven pad wear or the front wheel not in perfect alignment. Probably right Nige but isn’t it nice to have the information at the back of your mind? You’ll most certainly do it then next time won’t you?
When the pinch bolts are backed off you can pull or push the lower forks to and from the wheel to get the correct disc to calliper gap ,,,,, discs and pads don't always wear down equally
If the forks are not settled they could be out of parallel, This can cause scratch marks and wear on the stantions due to them binding, I have seen this before
The CCT and gasket cost about £108 inc VAT as parts. Labour cost to do this and the head bearings was £180 inc VAT for 3 hours total to do both jobs.
