Honda African Twin Motorcycles Investigated For Stalling Engines
The Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) have opened an investigation into certain 2018-2020 Honda African Twin (CRF 1000-1100) motorcycles, after 26 consumer complaints alleging that a sudden loss of power occurred because of an engine stall.
Drivers say the motorcycle suddenly stalled while riding at highway speeds because of clogged fuel filters becoming contaminated with zinc-oxide (corrosion) from the inside of the fuel tank end seam joint weld. The corrosion clogs the fuel filter, restricts fuel flow to the engine and causes a sudden engine stall.
Sometimes the bike can be restarted after the initial stall, but this restart gives a false sense of security because after the restart, when trying to accelerate and merge into traffic, the bike quickly stalls upon throttle demand. This time the rider is placed in the middle of traffic, potentially causing a crash or risk of injury.
ODI also learned that Honda implemented a fuel tank cleaning improvement campaign in mid-production (March 6, 2020) as a result of these failures. ODI is not aware of any complaints in the population of bikes manufactured after this production change was implemented.
A Preliminary Evaluation has been opened to determine the frequency of this failure.
| Motorcycles Affected |
|---|
| 2018-2019 CRF1000 |
| 2018 CRF1000D |
| 2020 CRF1100A |
| 2020 CRF1100D4 |