Last time I talked about how I tried to get the FI light on in Buenos Aires but was refused.
The Honda XRE300 I own is a Brazilian model that is not sold in Japan.
So I thought a mechanic in Brazil would be able to fix it.
Current symptoms
The FI light is always on and the idle is high.
Issues
〇 Injection (blue) – Injection of gasoline
〇 Idle speed sensor (green) – Control of RPM
〇 Sensor map (purple) – Engine control
I assumed that one or more of these were broken, so I bought these parts in Brazil.
I have all the parts so I’ll see if I can replace it myself.
This is the idle speed sensor.
Well, I think I could remove it myself, but if I make a mistake, I won’t be able to bring it back to Paraguay, so I decided to look for a repair shop.
The motorcycle has over 50,000km on it, so I thought I’d have the inside of the engine checked as well.
To the repair shop
Well, I’m currently in Uruguaiana
After this, I plan to go to Ituzaingo in Argentina, passing through San Borja, so I contacted several repair shops in both Uruguaiana and San Borja
I sent more than 10 messages on WhatsApp, but only 3 replied
I took it to the repair shop that I had contacted several times and seemed the most reliable
*It was close to where I was
I had contacted him in advance, so the mechanic knew the situation
I told him that I already had the parts and asked the price including the engine check, and he told me R$700, about 126 USD
Well, including the engine check, it would be about that price in Japan, so I agreed
I left my motorcycle and went home
Message from the mechanic
The next day, I received a message from the mechanic.
He said to me, “There’s something I want you to look at, so can you come over?”
When I went to the repair shop, he told me, “There’s a crack in the cylinder head.”
When I checked, it was a small area and hard to see, but I definitely found that the spark plug socket was cracked.
I had to choose between replacing it or leaving it as it was.
I still had about 80,000 km to drive, so I chose to replace it without hesitation.
I told him that I was going to buy a new cylinder head and went home.
This is after I removed the cylinder head, and this is the photo where I can actually see the crack.
It has lines on either side of the center spark plug.
I buy parts
I immediately checked the usual website.
I see, it looks like I need to change all of these.
I searched for the product by model number.
OK, I understand.
This is a genuine HONDA product, and I did not get the model number wrong.
So I bought this.
The price was R$1,420, about 253 USD.
Rio Grande do Sul is at the southern tip of Brazil, so it will take about a week for the product to arrive to me.
I will wait.
It arrived but…
Well, the product arrived, and it was the same product with the crack.
“Well, that’s because you ordered it,” you thought.
Actually, before I received it, I was looking into the problem with the cylinder head.
Then I found that there were many reports of this problem with the XRE300, and HONDA was also aware of it.
I found a statement that the cylinder head had been resolved from the 2016 model.
I thought this was the model in which the problem had been resolved, but it seems that was not the case.
Just to be sure, I took it to a repair shop and checked with the mechanic, and he said, “It’s fine to replace it with this,” but with this product, the crack will appear again, so I will have to replace it again.
So, feeling sorry, I went through the return procedure at Mercado Libre.
At that time, the mechanic told me, “You need a tablet, so please buy it,” and told me that there was an additional part to purchase.
First, I look for a solution
Well, first I need to find a cylinder head that has the problem solved.
I tried searching for the model number of the 2017 model on the same HONDA parts search screen, which is after the 2016 model that had the problem solved.
The model number has certainly changed.
In the 2013 model, it was 12010-KVK-B20, but in the 2017 model, it is 12010-KWT-D20.
The big difference is that the spark plugs have been made thinner and longer to prevent cracks, so I will also look up the spark plug model number.
In the 2013 model, it is 31907-KVK-B21.
In the 2017 model, it is 31907-KWT-D21.
I will search for the product on the Internet.
First, I searched for the 2013 model, 31907-KVK-B21.
And this is the 2017 model
These are obviously different in thickness and length.
That means I was able to confirm that I was not wrong with this cylinder head.
Fits or not
I was only able to find a little information on the Internet, but I often see sales sites such as Mercado Libre saying that it is compatible with models from 2010 onwards.
However, I should not trust everything that Latin American sellers say.
So I decided to compare all the model numbers of the products around the injection between the 2013 model and the 2017 model.
The model numbers of the cylinder compressors that connect to the cylinder heads are the same for both the 2013 and 2017 models.
That means they are compatible.
However, there is one thing that bothers me.
The model number of the second camshaft is different.
I tried looking for this too.
It’s R$430, about 76.6 USD, but it’s out of stock
If I were to exchange it, it would be better to have two, so I checked again
The price is R$603, about 106.6 USD
This is a bit expensive
By the way, the price of a 2017 cylinder head is R$2,150, about 392 USD
If possible, I would like to reuse the current camshaft
The result of my worries
There is little information about it, so I watched a lot of Brazilian YouTubes that explain the problem.
But they talked about replacing the cylinder head, but no one talked about the camshaft.
So I thought it would fit, and I passed on buying the camshaft.
I bought a set of cylinder heads anyway.
The packaging was careful
It’s a genuine HONDA product, but the burrs are noticeable.
I later asked the mechanic, “Is this a fake?”
He then told me, “Look, look here. It says Made in Brazil here, right? This is what it is.”
I was convinced when he told me that.
I compared the spare spark plugs I had with the spark plugs that came with it.
This is correct from the information I compared previously.
Now that I have finished checking, I will have the mechanic install this cylinder head.
About tablets
Well, when I took the returned cylinder head to the repair shop, this is the tablet the mechanic told me to buy.
Apparently this is called a “valve pad”.
This was the first time I’d heard of it, so I looked it up.
It says there that it “adjusts the clearance between the valve and the camshaft“.
That part is number 12.
It says that in order for the engine to produce optimal power when the pistons move, the appropriate gap between the camshaft is necessary.
The number written on the tablet is the thickness.
There are many types.
However, I won’t know the thickness of the tablet I need until I assemble it.
When I checked with the mechanic, he told me to order four 200s, so just to be safe, I ordered not only four 200s, but also 190, 198, and 208.
I’m going to the repair shop with these.
To the repair shop
Well, I went to the repair shop with the cylinder head
The mechanic told me “This is fine”
I waited for 3 days, but he didn’t contact me, so I went there to check directly, and he told me “tomorrow”
In Latin America “tomorrow” doesn’t mean “I can do it tomorrow”, but “I won’t know until tomorrow”, so we need to be careful
I checked with him the next morning
He told me “afternoon”
Then he told me at noon that day
“You bring the tablet number 208 at 14:30”
I’m glad I bought it separately
In Uruguayana, there is a siesta, so the afternoon starts at 14:30
I was thinking “Are you really going to finish today?”, but he contacted me and said he finished at 17:00
I will check it
First I would check to see if the FI light issue is resolved.
That was resolved.
And the idling was stable at a low value.
I couldn’t be sure until I drove it for a bit, so I told him I’d come back right away if there was a problem and paid.
That’s not what you said
The amount I was initially told by him was R$700, about 126 USD, but the amount he charged me was R$1,270, about 226.6 USD
When I asked for a breakdown, he told me, “The cost of replacing the cylinder head is not included in the initial amount. The cost of the replacement is R$500. The remaining R$70 is for the oil change.”
I also ordered the “inside cylinder check” at the beginning, so I thought the replacement was included in the price
And I did not hear from him that there was an additional charge if I replaced it
If I replaced the cylinder head, I would also need to change the oil, so I certainly ordered it
R$700 is quite expensive just to replace the parts around the injection and the chain
I was disappointed
This is a Latin country, so I should have checked all the prices every time I added something new
This was my mistake.
Check the run
The next day, I was planning to drive a long distance in one day, so I first tried driving about 10km around the neighborhood.
Because the engine idle is low, I use the clutch a little differently than before.
Perhaps because the engine has not yet been accustomed, I felt that the engine was a little hard at low revolutions.
However, compared to before, it has improved after 4000 rpm.
The only concern I had, whether the camshaft would fit, does not seem to be affected at the moment.
However, because the RPMs were lower, the engine started stalling every time I stopped at a traffic light.
I’ll wait and see.
Check the vehicle
Only the cylinder head part is obviously a different color, which I find strange, but I will try washing the car when I get back to Asuncion
I also need to get the tar off the bottom
I will also look around the sprocket
It was in a bad state before
The chain is well lubricated, so that’s good.
Now I can ride with peace of mind.
Check for other possible problems
Just to be on the safe side, I looked into possible problems that may occur in the future.
Broken main fuse
This problem occurred soon after I bought the motorcycle, so I bought a spare fuse.
Overheating and cracking of the cylinder head
This will not occur in the future because I replaced it with an improved product.
Defective nozzle and pump
This has also been solved by me this time.
I have a DENSO fuel pump, so I will buy a spare injector.
Defective kickstand frame
This is a structural problem. It seems that the kickstand can break from the base.
This has caused me trouble.
This motorcycle has a center stand, but when I’m carrying luggage, I need a side stand.
There are welding shops in every town, so I will keep an eye on this and see how it goes.
These are the main problems.
I will go back to Asuncion and upgrade this for now.
