Why I had to get my Honda Hornet's engine fixed thrice in 1.5 years

We've been hearing about Honda and Yamaha's reliability & how their bikes outlive the owners. Where is that mythical reliability from Honda now?

BHPian Starkiller recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

My story with HMSI started way back in Jan, 2022. I wanted to buy my first bike and somehow, the X-shaped tail lamp of the original Hornet 160 was still in my head which eventually made me buy the Hornet 2.0. Many told me that there is more to the bike than just the spec sheet and this bike proved that. It is very quick, light, nimble, flickable, and looks very chunky. And honestly, the X-shaped tail lamp and the golden USD front forks add a lot of character to the bike.

But alas! Good times don't last forever and soon, I ran into the first problem only 2 months into my ownership. The engine oil provided by HMSI is horrendous and it lost all its viscosity at just 2.3k kms. Had to switch to Amsoil 10W-30, fully synthetic engine oil. But honestly, the engine was already damaged due to the bad oil. The engine wasn't as smooth anymore and going at 70 felt like 90 because of the vibrations.

Jump to November 2022 and the next big problem cropped up - a blown head gasket and a blown block gasket. Not sure how both were blown at the same time but well, you see something new almost every day. Took it to a couple of Honda ASCs including my go-to one (not naming them because they've tried to do good by me but failed due to the pathetic spare parts that Honda has been dishing out for their low-end bikes). Except for my go-to ASC, everyone told me that getting the leak fixed would take at least a week and the parts themselves weren't available. Somehow, I convinced the manager of my go-to ASC to get the fix done in a couple of days and hand the bike over. They did a good job and handed the bike over within 36 hours.

Jump to April 2023, the head O-ring was gone and both the left and right crankcase gaskets also went kaput. "Enough" I said to myself and took the bike to Nikhil Fakatkar of Niktuned Customs. He named the parts and I got them and he repaired the engine. He did a really sweet job and the engine was back to being as smooth as new. But alas! Good times don't last.

June 2023 and I'm looking at a busted left crankcase O-ring. Went to Nikhil bhai again, and he noticed the leak and told me that HMSI spare parts have been facing severe quality issues and this has been going on for quite some time now. And it wasn't just him telling me this. Auto journalists, service centre mechanics, showroom managers, I've heard the same take from everyone. Brake pads getting completely eroded away at just 5k kms, gaskets blowing left, right, and centre, O-rings dying, the list isn't exhaustive. And to add to that, Honda recently recalled a bunch of CB300R models to fix a right crankcase issue which would've resulted in oil leakages.

From a very young age, we've been hearing about Honda's and Yamaha's reliability and how their bikes will outlive the owners. Where is that mythical reliability from Honda now? Their ASCs are open 7 days a week and their mechanics are, honestly, paid in peanuts. Their spare parts quality has also deteriorated to a great extent to the point where I'll have to get my engine fixed again for the 3rd time in just 1 year and 5 months of ownership with the bike having just 19k kms on the odometer.

Reliability comes from having a good after-sales service network, good quality spare parts, and from making vehicles with good quality parts to begin with. The quality of parts provided by the factory itself was of questionable quality for my bike. And the head gasket issue has been persistent with even the older models of the Hornet 160. It makes sense that the issue would be carried over to the current iteration as well given that the Hornet 2.0 is just a CB160R Hornet with a big bore kit slapped onto the engine and the front forks and wheels changed.

And if one might think that I'm the only one complaining, one need only take a look at the Honda 2 Wheelers India Instagram page or any other auto-review page like PD, Zig, or Autocar where people are lambasting Honda whenever any of their products are being showcased. Add to that, industry insiders have been speculating that the 2.0 and the X-blade are going to get the axe because the bikes aren't available at any of the dealers and HMSI hasn't updated these 2 models with OBD2 norms.

All I can say is HMSI is trying to dig an early grave for itself in the performance commuter section and unless they think they can survive with just Activa 6G sales, they might as well stop producing any performance commuter.

I'm sorry if I am being incoherent but it is extremely frustrating to me because Honda stood for reliability but from my experience, their bikes are far from being so. It's time for me to jump ship, especially because the Triumph 400 brothers as well as the HHD X440 are already about to upend the market in many ways. Below is the picture of the left crankcase leak.

Here's what BHPian harikrishnansp had to say about the matter:

Maintaining a Honda two-wheeler has been a pain for a long time. In our Aviator, from the speedo console to the fuel level indicator, many spares have gone bad quickly multiple times. Thankfully the engine is running well at 50k without any issues. Honda should do something about it otherwise they are going to lose their grip in the market.

Here's what BHPian Gansan had to say about the matter:

QC is not great in Honda India. I see a lot of 125 cc Shine bikes smoking on the roads. In comparison, very few other brand bikes show visible exhaust smoke.

TVS, Hero and Bajaj provide much better quality spares than Honda.

Here's what BHPian windrider had to say about the matter:

I have owned a Unicorn for 12 years and bought an Activa 125 in 2021. Yes, I have felt a slight decrease in the quality of spares but the major headache is due to inexperienced mechanics at service centres. Most of the guys working there are recently passed out technical institute students who come there to get some work experience before going abroad. No one sticks around for more than a year or two. No one with experience sticks around in this job because the pay is pathetic, the work is gruelling and most of their salary is dependent on unnecessary add-ons and services that these kids push on to gullible customers coming in for service.

I myself have fallen into such traps when I purchased my Unicorn back in 2011 mostly due to my lack of mechanical knowledge in those days. Another reason is Honda is unable to handle the number of vehicles coming in for service. My local svc has around 8 or 9 mechanics with 2 senior service heads who supervise the work. How are these guys going to service around 60 to 70 vehicles in under 8 hours?

I see that these guys are happy to do easy works such as oil change, filter change etc but the moment you tell them to do any time-consuming work, such as tappet adjustment, which Honda recommends be done every 15k km, they frown upon it and say it is better to get the work done when changing the clutch plates.

My bike is at 62k km and has never had the engine opened and I am still on my stock clutch. God knows how much work will be there once I do go in for a clutch plate change. Due to this pathetic service and attitude, I stopped going to the svc once the warranty period expired and when I purchased my Activa, didn't go for an extended warranty. I prefer going to my FNG where I get original spares and can see the work being done in front of me.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.