Hey guys, I'm buying my first bike on Monday, a red/white 2001 Honda CBR 600 F4i with 17,000 miles on it with a Joe Rocket textile jacket for $3500. It's never been down or even dropped and the title is clean as a whistle. Overall it's in pretty good shape except for some chipped paint on the rear wheel and a non-working speedometer. The wheel I can paint, but the inoperable speedo has me curious. The tach and everything else works fine. The owner told me it's a somewhat common problem and it's the VSS sensor (vehicle speed sensor), a $125 replacement part and an afternoon of turning wrenches to replace it according to the seller (who says the speedo cuts in and out, and it was out the entire time we checked out the bike, but he says he just rides with the speed of traffic and doesn't use the speedo, so he hasn't bothered to fix it).

I tried to search everything I could but came up empty. Does anyone know anything about this being a known problem? I just want to check this out so I know what I'm getting into before I tear into it, replace the sensor, then find out that isn't actually the problem to begin with.

If it matters the bike has a PowerCommander on it (Stage I) and one of my friends seems to think the PowerCommander and it's install is more suspect than a faulty VSS sensor.

Lastly, as this is my first bike, what is regular maintenance like? Lubing the chain? How often and with what? Also how often should the fluids be changed? In my cars I run full synth and change the oil every 5000 miles or 6 months whichever comes first.

Thanks for any help guys. Hopefully I can get into this bike on a good deal and have a great first bike to learn on and grow into.

 

VSS is indeed a pretty common problem on the F4i's. Not a huge issue like the CCT is, but still not exactly rare either. I had to replace mine too.... it was doing exactly what you described... cutting in and out. There's been a handful of people on here as well that had to replace theirs for the same thing

I think the part was around $60 if I remember right, and a couple hours to put it in (it's kind of a bitch to get to it, but definitely doable)

 

WOW.

I have a an '01 F4i that is near 17k miles and also has speedo issues.

It's so hard to find an immaculate F4i these days.....

 

try this dosent cost a thing ..take the cluster of the bike its only 3 screw's behind the cluster there 2 screw's and in the middle are the wires going into the cluster check the 2 white plugs... on my 2 f4i's the plugs where lose.

 

I assume the fuse isn't blown? If it is the speedo sensor, it's a major pain in the *** to replace...

 

hey guys i got a question because im not understanding the speedometer problem. On my f4i i just noticed that when i ride the gauge is on and everything lights up but the problem is that when im riding all it shows is the 0 km/h for the speed and my odometer doesn't move. is that the same thing you guys are talking about?

 

I bought the bike. I definitely have to get the speedo issue fixed. Would the speedo being out also cause a "FI" light on the cluster? Or is that a separate problem? Would removing the PowerCommander all together help at all? Or if I can't figure this out on my own would taking it to a dealer work and would they be able to sort it out?

Aside from that everything else is pretty much perfect and I couldn't be happier.

 

The FI light is a seperate issue, could be as simple as an unpluged sensor. You can unhook the power commander and see if it helps. If you (we) cant figure it out then your LAST resort would be to take it to the stealership, which will cost you an arm a leg and a left nut. Once they diagnose the problem, dont pay them to fix it, DIY. Thats how I roll, take my car to Belle Tire, the tell me my ball joint (or whatever) is shot and it'll cost like $500 to fix, I tell em thanks but no thanks, go to Murray's get my parts, stop at the party store for a 12er, and go get greasy. And by the way congrats on you're new bike, I got the same one, colors and all.

 

It sounds like your speed sensor came unplugged. Its located under the seat up above the shock. I had that happen to me. Everything is lit up but the speed is at zero. btw a pain to get to.

 

Call me weird...but for my bike..I have to warm it up and THEN the speedometer works..

I know it sounds strange...but I've tried riding it away when the bike barely started and it wouldn't give me anything until I let her warm up.

And she works!