VFR 800

Hawk Joined: Jul 14, 2012 Posts: 389 Location: New Zealand

Anyone own or had one.
Looking at 2006 /2009 .
I found camchain tensioners can give trouble plus thermostats and alternators' the 3 majors.
Any feed back would be great

Cheers Peter .

Posted: Mon May 01, 2023 3:02 am

I have a 2007 low miles. No issues so far

Posted: Wed May 10, 2023 8:09 pm

I have a 2008, almost 60k miles. I'm the original owner. Only thing I've needed to fix was an ignition coil and the charging stator. The coil is a generic Honda part used on cars, so it was cheap. The stator job was made 100x simpler by installing it with the 3 prong connector removed so it could be fished through the fueling system, instead of taking all that business off, which takes hours.

I replaced the OEM cam chain tensioners but that was a piece of mind issue, not a necessity.

The factory manual says the bike needs a valve adjustment at like 15k miles? Don't quote me. I never did that, still running strong with great compression.

Delkevic makes a great cat-less complete exhaust system for the bike which sounds INCREDIBLE. I've had that installed for many years. Having no cat really opens up the bottom end, but it's not like a V4 needs more torque...

Twinstar Joined: Sep 25, 2010 Posts: 238 Location: Vermont

I have a 5th gen (gear driven cams, no vtec, no cats) otherwise roughly same engine/egonomics/etc.

I would scrutinize:

1. the charging system (rough guide - look for above 12.5v at idle and over 14v (but not over 14.8v) when above 3k rpm. I would also make sure to check the factory three prong connection between the stator and r/r - cooked or melted is common and a good indicator you'll have to repair/replace parts).

2. the cooling system (rough guide - Look/feel for the rads to stay cold (ambient temp) when the bike is started, and they shouldn't get warm (with hot coolant) until the temp gauge reads 175 on the dash and the t-stat opens), after the t-stat opens the temp should be pretty stable. I would scrutinize the sides on the engine cases where you can to look for evidence of coolant leaks or coolant dripping/running down the side of the block from the 'V'.

They are great bikes (wildly under rated/valued still) and the v4 engine is very enjoyable on the road. They all have the regulator/rectifier weakness, but is an easy fix. If you catch it in time you can probably save yourself having to replace the stator (they tend to overheat once they r/r goes out, over voltage isn't uncommon). I would suggest you check out a replacement kit from Roadstercycle and moving to the newer SH847 style r/r if the bike needs it.

Thermostat - it is easy to replace once you are in there, but takes quite a bit to get to since it lives in the bottom of the engine V under the tank, airbox, throttle bodies/injectors, etc. I would suggest a thorough inspection of the cooling system for signs of leakage. This is a fairly complex system on these bikes and all that rubber is now approaching 20yrs old. While the hoses were ok on my bike, the o rings on the block were fully toast, flat/brittle/stiff.

Coils are easily upgraded to coil on plug (COP) style also if you wanted to modernize and ditch the factory coil packs.

Valve adjustments are at 16k intervals iirc, with a lot of owners finding that everything was still in spec at 16k and the bike not needing adjustment until 32k.

VFRDiscussion.com is another great bike forum with an active user base and a decent attitude in general. I have learned quite a bit over there since becoming a VFR owner, fwiw.

Hawk Joined: Jul 14, 2012 Posts: 389 Location: New Zealand

Cheers for the info folks ,much appreciated.
Peter .