Honda Wave with no oil

[SteveK]

Getting seriously bored with being stuck inside, so I put on my mask and decided to take the wife's Honda Wave for a potter about. Ended up driving around 40km through some very rural and mostly deserted villages, whilst also keeping an eye open for a new fishing spot, as someone as put signs up at our local lake threatening a lovely 5k baht fine for anyone fishing there for some reason. All the rivers and lakes seemed dried up almost certainly due to the weather so looks like my intentions to get some quality fishing time in are scuppered for now.

 

On the way back home, I noticed the bike seemed a little noisy so pottered home at about 30km/h, and picked up a litre of castrol 10w40 for 85 baht intending to check and change the oil. When I asked the wife when was the last time she put oil in, she said yesterday, and taking a deep breath I asked her about nam man kreung, to which she didn't know what I was talking about. Never mind.

 

So I put half of a 2l Coke bottle under the sump plug and loosened it waiting for a trickle of oil, then pulled it out entirely and a pathetic flow of oil started. Can't have been more than 25mls in there I was shocked, and what came out was like treacle, even after a long ride. My concern now is that the engine might be buggered, from the sounds of it the bike has never been serviced or had much done to it since it was purchased in 2010.

 

If there are any mechanics reading, should I be concerned about this? Presumably if there was too little oil to reach the big end then it would have failed catastrophically by now I would think, correct me if I'm wrong. Obviously I have put the right amount of decent oil in it now, it seems to be running much better now. But if a main bearing or something goes it's going to be my head hitting the tarmac, so I am not sure what to do about it.

 

[Kwasaki]

Put the Castrol in to the amount required and see what happens and check for leaks.

Oils these days coat impact moving parts so it might be OK.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

You might find this interesting

 

[Lacessit]

Not much you can do. I'd recommend draining the oil again and refilling, to get rid of any metal.

Take comfort from the fact it's pretty hard to kill a Honda Wave, although your wife has given it a pretty good shot. Have you spanked her yet?

[liddelljohn]

in 1978 my mate Neil , girlfriend  borrowed his 400cc  CB400 honda 4 cyl  and went from Brighton to Wales and back  over 4 days  must have been  400miles at least ,, he was not amused as  night before he had drained the sump  of  oil overnight in order to change  for fresh oil next day !!!!!  but the bike was still running 3 years later  albeit a bit noisy and smoky ....

 

put fresh oil in  see what happens ,,

[Dumbastheycome]

About  2  years  back  my wife  ground to a halt  on her 6 year old  Wave!.

Some  young   guy  stopped  to  help her out and checked the oil level after a couple of  other  tings.

It was  dry ! So he  kindly  rode off and came  back  with  some  4 stroke oil. Poured  it in  and then  rocked  the  bike  back and forth a  bit   while in gear until the  engine  cooled turned over having  cooled off a  bit.

It then started no problem  and has done so ever since. Did  not before  and  never since has  blown oil smoke even since. Also  performance  wise  no different.

I  can only  credit Honda  with  some  remarkable tolerances in  engine  design. I also  feel  embarrassed  that I  never thought  to check it  myself which for my own  transport  regularly do !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Denim]

Waves are not like Harleys or modern bikes. They are really tough and can take incredible abuse.

 

I was once riding a C90 on the A413 and came to a long low hill. I had had the throttle full open on the flat and did not slacken off . Half way up the hill the bike had a partial seizure and the piston licked solid. Pushed it to the top of the hill then coasted down. Gave it a kick and off I went as though nothing had happened

[Surelynot]

Stick some fine saw dust in the oil and sell it (only joking).

[VocalNeal]

Honda Wave has roller bearing crank and is splash fed. The oil pump is only for pumping oil to the top end ie the camshaft and rockers.

Bung the correct amount of oil in it and open a beer. Let the wife continue to use it to go to the market. 

Post again in about 5 years to let us know how it is running.

[OneMoreFarang]

12 hours ago, liddelljohn said:

in 1978 my mate Neil , girlfriend  borrowed his 400cc  CB400 honda 4 cyl  and went from Brighton to Wales and back  over 4 days  must have been  400miles at least ,, he was not amused as  night before he had drained the sump  of  oil overnight in order to change  for fresh oil next day !!!!!  but the bike was still running 3 years later  albeit a bit noisy and smoky ....

 

put fresh oil in  see what happens ,,

4 days and no contact. No mobile phone, no facebook, no email or internet. I am happy that I still remember that time...

[SteveK]

So seeing as I had changed the oil, I took a look at the battery and noticed some crusty yellow deposits of what I assume is sulphur around the negative terminal. So I pulled out the battery and was off to get a new one. Then I thought "why does a kick-start bike even need a battery", so I checked to see if the bike ran without it, and sure enough it ran fine. So it seems on a little kick start bike the battery is only needed to put the lights on when you turn on the ignition, so there isn't any point in putting a nice new battery in. 400 baht saved, unless I am missing something?

[VocalNeal]

If bike stalls at traffic lights at night with wifey riding all her lights will go out.  Clean the old battery terminal with baking soda from Tesco Mini/Big C mini and put it back in?

 

But 400 baht isn't going to break the bank?

 

[SteveK]

2 hours ago, VocalNeal said:

 

But 400 baht isn't going to break the bank?

 

Of course not, but with no discernible benefit it handing over 400 baht, I may as well spend it on something more worthwhile. Worst case scenario is the battery goes 100% kaput and the lights don't work for the second or two it takes to kick start the bike.

[canthai55]

Must be a carburetor Wave

[OneMoreFarang]

29 minutes ago, SteveK said:

Of course not, but with no discernible benefit it handing over 400 baht, I may as well spend it on something more worthwhile. Worst case scenario is the battery goes 100% kaput and the lights don't work for the second or two it takes to kick start the bike.

You can be sure Honda would have saved the money for the battery if it was good for nothing.

[VocalNeal]

55 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

You can be sure Honda would have saved the money for the battery if it was good for nothing.

I'm no expert but there is a possibility that the bike needs the battery as a load to help regulate the voltage. 

Without it there maybe a risk that you will blow all the lamps. Which maybe why there are so many bikes up country with no lights? 

[SteveK]

40 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Which maybe why there are so many bikes up country with no lights? 

I think that's because the bulbs expired.

[OneMoreFarang]

4 minutes ago, SteveK said:

45 minutes ago, VocalNeal said:

Which maybe why there are so many bikes up country with no lights? 

I think that's because the bulbs expired.

And the bulbs will expire a lot faster with 16V. And once the headlight is expired then the voltage will even be higher.

[In the jungle]

On 4/1/2020 at 3:57 PM, canthai55 said:

Must be a carburetor Wave

 

The PGM Fi Wave 110i with ECU and fuel injection starts and runs just fine with no battery too.

 

There is an interesting article on Honda's global website explaining how this was a specific objective for their small fuel injected bikes and how they achieved it.

 

I pulled the battery out of curiosity to see if what Honda said on their website was true and, sure enough, it was.  In fact everything worked as normal except for the indicators which flashed erratically.