Transmission recall

[bill lumberg]

NHTSA’s doc says it’s estimated that 50% of the 2016-20 bikes are affected. And that dealer/owner notifications are expected to start Jan 13-15. Let the lottery begin. I pulled a small sample of the vin’s listed. None showed a transmission recall. Some showed unrelated small recall stuff. Others none at all. So the affected
VIN’s don’t appear to have been populated yet.

Looks pretty clear that once the letter is approved, dealers then, immediately after, owners will be notified.

[Hack]

I try not to dwell on it too much but fawwwwk.

So what we're dealing with is a potentially fatal flaw in an otherwise amazing machine.
I wonder how much confidence in their fjr as been lost amongst owners... How much value($)?

I mean... try to sell an a fjr now... even with the recall retrofit completed... how skittish will prospective buyers be?

That said... I'm sure a few G3 fjrs have had to have their engines pulled for other repairs and well... I havent heard of any horror stories...

[wheatonFJR]

USA recall announced.

https://www.nhtsa.gov/vehicle/2016/YAMA ... 00#recalls

Looks like Bungie. Certainly has the 'tude.

[extrememarine]

Reading through this to catch up.

Note 1 - this is for all those whiny bastards that said the bike NEEDed a 6th gear...
Note 2 - Just walked in past my trusty, nearly antique, 2009 and whispered, "5 is just right, baby..."

Good luck to everyone waiting to see where they place in this lottery...

[Hack]

this is for all those whiny bastards that said the bike NEEDed a 6th gear...

[danh600]

Very glad I have a 5 speed right now.

However the only person that I personally know that has had a second gear go out had the same 2013A as I do.

[N4HHE]

Says the VIN is not sequential. How in the world could Yamaha build a transmission that is sometimes weaker or stronger than the next one off the line? And then years later know which ones?

[raYzerman]

From the NHTSA documents........ sounds like a design thing.... cast second gear now being upgraded to a forged second gear.... note, part not supplied separately as a service part, entire trans. gear cassettes being replaced.

Description of Remedy Program : Affected units must have the main axle and drive axle assemblies replaced with the stronger parts and the Engine Control Unit (ECU) reprogrammed to prevent excessive rpm leading to second gear damage.

How Remedy Component Differsfrom Recalled Component :
Second pinion gear is now forged and 2nd pinion on the main axel and 1st and 5th wheel gear on the drive axle have a small identification groove
machined on them to aid identification.

[raYzerman]

Seems some think 6 is good...... meh...

[bill lumberg]

What’s interesting is that only half of the bikes produced across those years are estimated to be affected. I interpret that as roughly half the units will be recalled (for that problem, anyway). Of course, they could recall them all to be on the safe side, but we know there are 2016-2020 bikes in other countries that were not affected by the trans recall (mcatrophy comes to mind). Raises some production part supply questions that we will likely never know the answer to, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if we had the info.

[mcatrophy]

I spoke to my dealer about gearbox recalls while having the brake light switch recall done during a service. He said my '18 wasn't in the gearbox recalls. He suggested the gears may be made by different suppliers, if that is the case there may be a substandard issue from one supplier. This would explain the VIN grouping.

[Hppants]

For the anal retentive paranoid such as myself, there is no easy way to deal with this:

On the one hand, if your bike is in the recall, you have to trust that some filthy mechanic, who is underpaid and could care less about your motorcycle, the steel and plastic stalliion that you gave your left niblet to procure, and to which other than your mother, wife, and children, is your most prized possession in the entire WORLD, will fix it properly and put all of the pieces back where they belong.

On the other hand, if your bike is NOT in the recall, you have to wonder if you are being excluded and singled out, and because of this, your 2nd gear is one missed shift from the well known village we have all come to know and hate: Grenade-ville, USA.

All of a sudden, 4,000 rpm in 5th gear at 75 mph doesn't seem so bad...

[Uncle Hud]

While all you guys diss the dealer, my dealer swapped out my second gear cog (worn-down dogs causing non-shifts) and fought negotiated with Yamaha to get the work done under warranty/YES.

Doesn't sound like the same transmission issue, but the maintenance manager said he'd personally swapped out two prior FJR second gear cogs.

For the record: 2015 ES, US, non-California model. Was not a grenade-like issue; occasionally (once every 1,000 miles?) she wouldn't go into second gear without significant emphasis from my left big toe. I was commuting daily back then, about 35 miles round trip ... so once or twice a month ...

[fontanaman]

What’s interesting is that only half of the bikes produced across those years are estimated to be affected. I interpret that as roughly half the units will be recalled (for that problem, anyway). Of course, they could recall them all to be on the safe side, but we know there are 2016-2020 bikes in other countries that were not affected by the trans recall (mcatrophy comes to mind). Raises some production part supply questions that we will likely never know the answer to, and wouldn’t know what to do with it if we had the info.

Bill is quoting this NHTSA document. The document's header contains this:

Population: Number of potentially involved : 2,285 Estimated percentage with defect :50 %

I used to work at Boeing and early on in my 37 year career I was was a Configuration Auditor. I had a pretty good understanding of engineering / production documentation systems.

If it is true only 50% of the bikes are affected then Yamaha has the ability to track the transmission components and production of second gear was not uniform. What the change was we don't know but Yamaha does. Different suppliers, different production lots, a minor design improvement (that wasn't) come to mind. The speculation could go on and on.

All in all I like my '17. It is just not the transmission but the sum of all the incremental improvements make it better than my 09. I still am not a fan the ES rear shock, but I do like the USD fork. If my bike is recalled I will take it in for repair. I don't like it but I can't change it and I will move on.

Some here may remember the ticky ticky issues when FJRs first came out. It seems owners had to press Yamaha on admitting a problem existed. Not so this time.

Uncle Hud ends his post with this: _________________ You can't get into trouble in second gear. _________________

Not anymore! You feeling lucky punk are ya?

[justacrossthehill]

For the anal retentive paranoid such as myself, there is no easy way to deal with this:

On the one hand, if your bike is in the recall, you have to trust that some filthy mechanic, who is underpaid and could care less about your motorcycle, the steel and plastic stalliion that you gave your left niblet to procure, and to which other than your mother, wife, and children, is your most prized possession in the entire WORLD, will fix it properly and put all of the pieces back where they belong.

You seem to have a low opinion of mechanics. All mechanics aren't filthy and the good ones are not underpaid.
BTW, if you want to slur someone you really ought to say they couldn't care less.
Saying they "could care less" indicates there is care.

[raYzerman]

As discussed in another sandbox.... your VIN may not be there yet, and a couple have been told theirs is included but not in that lookup VIN database. Hang in.
My spin, only Yamaha can determine if there was two different gears and what they went into. If it were me, if my bike was EXcluded, I'd want to know how they figured that out.... I would rather be included than excluded, for peace of mind and for future resale.
I like to do my own work, but this time one has to trust the dealer mechanic will be versed in the whole procedure, I personally don't see how one can really screw it up if they follow the instruction sheets I've seen. The first one may take them 20 hours and they get that done once they've done a couple..... I'd have no problem taking my bike to the dealer for this......
Given "the fix" is a forged gear to replace the cast gear, I have to believe all 6 speeds are very likely affected and y'all just need to be patient until later this month.......

[bill lumberg]

Based upon the information available so far, it is clear that not all 6 speeds are affected. Separate from that, according to the nhtsa bulletin, roughly half of them will be. Time will tell for sure.

[fontanaman]

Based upon the information available so far, it is clear that not all 6 speeds are affected. Separate from that, according to the nhtsa bulletin, roughly half of them will be. Time will tell for sure.

+1 and Like! Since bikes from 2016-2020 are affected it is difficult to understand how parts prior to a production change in say 2017 would not be used up by later in 2017 or 2018. Seems to me Yamaha has some explaining to do to restore confidence in the "Tuning Fork".

Sadly so few FJRs where sold what happened is likely to remain a mystery.

[N4HHE]

My VIN is JYARP29E5... and NHTSA document starts with JYARP29E6... NHTSA says they+Yamaha do not recognize my VIN as anything but Yamaha. Yamaha recognizes it and lists the side stand firmware recall as having been performed. This is correct. Nonetheless I went out barefoot tonight in 43°F with flashlight to verify my VIN.

I have the one of three 2016s from my dealer’s first shipment, received late March 2016.

So either mine is not included or not included yet.

[Hppants]

For the anal retentive paranoid such as myself, there is no easy way to deal with this:

On the one hand, if your bike is in the recall, you have to trust that some filthy mechanic, who is underpaid and could care less about your motorcycle, the steel and plastic stalliion that you gave your left niblet to procure, and to which other than your mother, wife, and children, is your most prized possession in the entire WORLD, will fix it properly and put all of the pieces back where they belong.

You seem to have a low opinion of mechanics. All mechanics aren't filthy and the good ones are not underpaid.
BTW, if you want to slur someone you really ought to say they couldn't care less.
Saying they "could care less" indicates there is care.

Thanks for the grammatical correction.

I stand behind my anal retentiveness, and my opinions therein. As for your response to it, I couldn't care less....