VFR800 2002 vtec - cam chain knock.

[glegge]

I was wondering if anyone else has seen/heard of any issues with this.
all i have seen to note is that people are replacing there cam chain tensioners(seems odd) and the knock goes away.
at cold, it's quite a rattle/bang/knock, clears mostly when warm. (I think it used to be the other way around).
so yeah - thoughts/comments..?
I wish they had stayed with gear driven cams like my ol vf1000r..

2002 VFR800 VTEC, about 117,000km's on it. seems pre-mature to me, should get hundreds of thousdans out of these pupies before problems.
anyone claimed back to honda for this problem?

many thanks for any comments.

[vifferman]

Yes, it's fairly common. You'll find that it's invariably the front tensioner that goes. The VTR1000 had the same problem. Part of it is that Honda is shit at making camchains and/or tensioners, and part of it is that on the v-engined bikes, the front tensioner gets less oil, so the spring craps out. Replace it before it goes "Sprooiiinnnnng!!!" and you lunch some valves.
Check out www.vfr.discussion.com for some useful info about how to do it yourself.

[quickbuck]

Yup,
Honda should have stuck with the gear driven cams they developed in the VFR700, and continued them through the 750, and earlier 800's.

Going back to Chains for the VTEC was a mistake in my opinion....

[glegge]

Yeah, i was/still am REAL happy with the VF1000R gear driven cames from the 80's...
many thanks for the pointers, best i get onto that knock then and stop it turning into a quiet no engine running noise.

many thanks.

[vifferman]

Yup,
Honda should have stuck with the gear driven cams they developed in the VFR700, and continued them through the 750, and earlier 800's.

Going back to Chains for the VTEC was a mistake in my opinion....

Maybe so, but they had to do it as the cam gears in the 1998-2001 VFR800s didn't allow the bike to pass Euro noise regulations. They shifted the camdrive from the centre of the cams to the right-hand side, and it got much noisier as a result. The Vtec was adopted for the same reason.

[quickbuck]

Euro Noise regulations must be an a$$!

Heck a semi reasonable pipe will drown out the noise of any cam gear....
Don't tell me......

A great reason to stay in Gods Own.... Shame all our motor vehicles are build for world markets though...