GL1800Riders Forums banner

1800 Voltage Regulator

13K views 38 replies 20 participants last post by  revrunt 
#1 ·
Just lately I have had two friends who have had the voltage regulator go bad on their GL 1800. I am wondering if any of you have had or heard of one going bad or is this just a isolated happening?
 
#27 ·
#30 ·
I bet this regulator could be found a lot cheaper through an alternator repair facility. I bought a new one for a Honda car a few weeks ago and paid $20 for it though a place that does alternator rebuilds. I bet if you carried an alternator to a rebuild shop, they could match up the regulator for you.
 
#31 ·
I bet this regulator could be found a lot cheaper through an alternator repair facility. I bought a new one for a Honda car a few weeks ago and paid $20 for it though a place that does alternator rebuilds. I bet if you carried an alternator to a rebuild shop, they could match up the regulator for you.
Funny you mentioned that Fred. There was a guy on Ebay that had the OEM regulator for the 01-05 bikes for $49. He's gone now, but did sell them for about 5 years.
 
#32 ·
I had one....

My '06 had a voltage regulator go out. It was not consistent for failure and was only on one leg of the AC generation. I ended up having to ride it for over a year with 16+ volt spikes in the system because I could not find a dealer that would look at it short of me footing the bill on a 6 month old bike. It was getting annoying enough that I was ready to buy a rebuild and put it in just before my cross-country yearly ride. But I did not need to do that as it finally stopped charging when it got warmed up (about 10 min. of riding). Then the shop forgot that I told them that it charges cold and did not want to let it run fist. And for some reason, Mother Honda wanted to change the brushes first. So the shop practically had to send them pics of the near new brushes in the failing alternator.
 
#33 ·
My '06 had a voltage regulator go out. It was not consistent for failure and was only on one leg of the AC generation. I ended up having to ride it for over a year with 16+ volt spikes in the system because I could not find a dealer that would look at it short of me footing the bill on a 6 month old bike. It was getting annoying enough that I was ready to buy a rebuild and put it in just before my cross-country yearly ride. But I did not need to do that as it finally stopped charging when it got warmed up (about 10 min. of riding). Then the shop forgot that I told them that it charges cold and did not want to let it run fist. And for some reason, Mother Honda wanted to change the brushes first. So the shop practically had to send them pics of the near new brushes in the failing alternator.
So you couldn't find a dealer that would look at it unless you paid for it? You should have pitched a bitch at Honda USA. They did sell you a warranty with it and are obligated by contract to repair it.
 
#34 ·
voltage spikes.

So you couldn't find a dealer that would look at it unless you paid for it? You should have pitched a bitch at Honda USA. They did sell you a warranty with it and are obligated by contract to repair it.
Part of the problem was getting past the service manager because they did not believe the volt meter readings (even from two of them) because they were not "Honda" certified measuring equipment. The come and go part did not help matters either. I did not buy the extended, but that did not matter being within the original 3 years. When it decided to stop charging when hot was at the 2 year and six month mark and finally got a new alternator under warranty. I never got the extended for that bike due to warranty hassles encountered thinking it was equivalent to tossing a bunch of money in my fireplace insert (before Bay Area air quality board banned its use). Strangely enough, the same bike was also the reason I got the extended warranty for later bikes (two 2010's).

Enjoy,
Douglas
 
#35 ·
My '06 had a voltage regulator go out. It was not consistent for failure and was only on one leg of the AC generation. I ended up having to ride it for over a year with 16+ volt spikes in the system because I could not find a dealer that would look at it short of me footing the bill on a 6 month old bike. It was getting annoying enough that I was ready to buy a rebuild and put it in just before my cross-country yearly ride. But I did not need to do that as it finally stopped charging when it got warmed up (about 10 min. of riding). Then the shop forgot that I told them that it charges cold and did not want to let it run fist. And for some reason, Mother Honda wanted to change the brushes first. So the shop practically had to send them pics of the near new brushes in the failing alternator.
Warrentee issues are like health care. If health insurance does not pay the bill, the patient has to agree too up front by signing an agreement. With warrentee its the same. Honda is probably very willing to repair an issue they are responsible for, but they need to know that it is a warrentable issue first. Unfortunanly, especially with Wings, many electrical accessories are added that cause issues. Until it can be determined that it is a Honda problem, the owner is responsible for the bill. Intermittant problems makes it frustrating for all including the customer.

On the flip side of it all ... imagine a customer who goes to Honda everyday saying there is a different problem with his bike and no problem is ever found. If Honda paid for all the hours of checking, they would occur huge costs. There are people out there that do such things. When I was working for VZW, each call into a call center cost VZW $7.25/call to handle the callers issue. All accounts are notated and tracked when they call in. Some were known to call 3x everyday for 365 days for every year. Multipy that out and it $661 per month in lost revenue trying to resolve one customers issues (of coarse some issues were valid). It would be cheaper to give him service for free and tell him to never call in. In 2002 Sprint handled their customers who did the same with disconnection notices. I cannot remember how many Sprint disconnected but it seams it was something like 20,000 lines and doing so saved them millions.
 
#36 ·
Part of the problem was getting past the service manager because they did not believe the volt meter readings (even from two of them) because they were not "Honda" certified measuring equipment. The come and go part did not help matters either. I did not buy the extended, but that did not matter being within the original 3 years. When it decided to stop charging when hot was at the 2 year and six month mark and finally got a new alternator under warranty. I never got the extended for that bike due to warranty hassles encountered thinking it was equivalent to tossing a bunch of money in my fireplace insert (before Bay Area air quality board banned its use). Strangely enough, the same bike was also the reason I got the extended warranty for later bikes (two 2010's).

Enjoy,
Douglas
The dealer should have taken the bike in and put their meter on it and checked it with a couple of rides. Yes, it would have cost them a little time, but with most shop's labor rates they would have made it up on some other repair. Large corporations have a lot of overhead, but smaller motorcycle shops are a different animal. Yes, they have some overhead, but it would have been the right thing to do and it would have likely gained them a little customer loyalty and satisfaction. It takes 1 second to lose a customer and a lifetime to get them back... Some shops just don't get it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top