MASSIVE RECALL: All 2018+ GL1800 Goldwings Recalled by Honda

Honda has issued a full recall for all 2018-2024 GL1800 Goldwings. On top of this, we have some new information on the mystery transmission failures we've been seeing in the 6th generation GL1800's, and the potential for yet another recall.

0:00 Intro
0:24 UBS Bolt Issue
3:36 Gen 6 GL1800 Recall

#Goldwing #GL1800 #Recall

[bcuzicancuellar]

This is good to know. I’ve logged 145, 000 miles on my 2018 DCT, non tour and so far, no issues described. It’s a fantastic motorcycle. Subscribed.

[Ruleofplus]

Just a minor correction Scott - the fuel pump is not a centrifugal pump it is a rubber vane positive pressure pump where the shaft is off center in the housing so the vanes compress fuel on one side and pull in fuel on the opposing side. These pumps create approx 60 psi

[Jodyrides]

it’s an old story, suzuki had problems, 15 years ago with ethanol fuel blend. Here in the United States it is legal to put 10% ethanol in the fuel. Every gallon that is produced by the oil companies get that oil company a $.45 tax break. Every gallons of non-ethanol fuel they create, they only get a $.10 tax break. So they are not in any hurry to stop making ethanol blended fuel…
what about the transmission failures on the gold wings. That’s what I thought. This video was about. Transmission lock ups on the gold wings… I sold my GL 1800 Goldwing in 2021. I have seen some reports that the GL 1800 gold wings all the way back to 2001 are having transmission lockup problems. Some part comes loose or comes out of its place in the transmission and gets caught in the gears. this, as you can imagine, causes catastrophic damage and a solid lock up of the rear wheel because the transmission is locked. Pulling the clutch and does not free up the locked back wheel… pulling the clutch and simply disconnects the driveline between the engine and the transmission. Once the transmission explodes internally, that rear wheel stays locked. You won’t even be able to push the bike off the road if you don’t crash because the rear wheel will not rotate at all. I had that happen one time on a transmission. One of the gears seized on the main shaft, it broke seven gears in the transmission. I was doing about 60 miles an hour, I got into a horrible fishtail, I pulled the clutch, and it did nothing. When I finally came to a stop, I had dragged my fairly new rear tire down to the cords.. passing motorists helped me get my machine off the road because it would not move. Luckily that was a light bike, it was a Yamaha RZ 350. It was totally my fault because I did not have enough oil in the transmission. I thought the gearbox and the engine cases were the same as on an RD 350 which held 1.1 quarts of oil. So that’s all I put in, I found out later that the transmission on an RZ 350 holds almost 2 quarts of oil.. That’s why it seized..
I can’t imagine what that would be like on an 800 pound motorcycle, especially if I had a passenger on the back..

[johnanderson]

Thanks for this information. It is good to know what might happen instead of just being in the dark.

[Jodyrides]

I had a transmission lock up. It is terrifying. The back wheel locks solid. Pulling the clutch and does not let the rear wheel rotate because the clutch is between the engine and the transmission, it is not between the transmission and the rear wheel, so you have more than a 50-50 chance of going down hard if you were going faster than 20 miles an hour..
This is the most life-threatening thing that could happen while you are riding a motorcycle. I have had a front tire go flat at speed on a roadrace track, I could still maintain control. I have had 4 road race track engine seizures, pulling the clutch in frees the back wheel to keep rolling.to a stop..
I hit 2 deer, one in the ribs on my BMW K 1200 LT at 70 miles an hour. The headlight area hit the deer in the ribs. I saw that deer for a split second before impact. I just coasted to a stop with no lights in the dark.
The second deer collision I had at 7 AM on my way to work on my Honda pacific coast at 35 miles an hour. I did not go down either time. I just pulled the clutch in, stayed off the brakes, and coasted to a stop on the side of the road…
but that Transmission seizure I had locked the transmission solid. One of the gears seized on a shaft, causing seven other gears in the transmission to lose their teeth, Hopelessly locking the transmission. My bike began to fishtail going slightly uphill. On my way to work. I thought for sure I was going to go down.. I pulled the clutch in which did absolutely nothing. The rear wheel stayed locked..
because it was the rear wheel, the skid mark was about 150 feet long. It dragged a Perelli phantom tire down to the cords, that tire had less than 1000 miles on it… I was doing about 60 miles an hour on concrete that was pretty Abrasive/ .. I had all my gear on as usual, that black, uphill, fishtail skidmark was on the road all that summer. I passed it twice a day, and it reminded me how close I came.
When the bike finally stopped. I was grateful I did not go down. Since the transmission was locked., I could not roll the bike off the road. Some people passing by stopped to help me drag the bike to the side of the road…
when I got that engine out of the frame and split the cases, I saw just how bad it was in there. I had to buy seven gears and the main shaft…
The reason the transmission seized was entirely my fault. I was running it on just 1 quart of oil in the transmission. I thought that’s what it took, actually it was supposed to have a little more than 2 quarts of oil. It makes me cringe when I think about where that transmission could have locked up on me, on some twisty back road, which definitely would have been worse for me, I commuted on back roads to, and from work that are lined with metal guard rails that have those beams holding up the main guardrail..You certainly don’t want to slide into one of those beams holding up the rail. in Europe, they are adding a Row of metal or plastic below that top rail to prevent motorcyclists and bicycles from being decapitated, possibly by sliding under those rails that are only designed to keep cars on the road not motorcycles..
I had a GL 1800 Goldwing for two years, smoothest bike I ever owned, great brakes, comfortable, but not as roomy, as I would like, but the thought of having a transmission locked up on that thing is terrifying.. I sold the motorcycle in 2021, that was before I heard of these transmission explosions on gold wings just this year/2024.. it was a perfect motorcycle, I have a video on my YouTube channel giving my comparison. Thoughts on what it was like to own a Goldwing compared to my current motorcycle at the moment, a 2008 Yamaha royal star venture. My third Venture since 1986. I keep trying other big bikes, but I keep going back to the Venture’s… I have owned and worked on both, and it’s just easier to work on a venture, even if the Goldwing is more refined..
if I still had my Honda, GL 1800 Goldwing that is the subject of these failures, I wouldn’t ride that bike again until it was inspected under warranty or not, at Hondas expense.
This is a life-threatening issue. The owners must be made aware of what could happen when the transmission locks.. I can’t believe the national highway safety administration is not demanding a universal recall. I guess they’re going to wait till there are multiple fatalities before they do something…
if you want to test what your bike will do with a locked transmission, on most bikes, just stand on the back brake and dont let go.. since the late 1970s, some machines have the integrated brake system invented by moto guzzi.. my 1979 Guzzi SP1000 had integrated brakes. The pedal gave 70% pressure to the left front caliper, 30% brake pressure to the rear caliper. The second front disc was controlled by the Front brake lever.. That system was adopted by Yamaha and Honda in the early 1980s. Honda Goldwing’s had it, Yamaha ventures, Venture royale had it from the start beginning in 1983. My 86 Yamaha Venture royale had it, my current royal star venture has it, my current Honda, NT 700, 2010 non-ABS motor cycle has it. So you can’t test that theory on motorcycles that have integrated brakes, of locking the back wheel with your rear brake pedal at speed and seeing what will happen. But you will find out what happens when your transmission locks up…
you won’t be able to test that way with a machine that has ABS brakes. But just go along and slam the rear brake on your machine if it doesn’t have ABS, and see what happens… If you are lucky, you will skid in a straight line, but you will probably start to go sideways and possibly high side. At any rate, you will be completely out of control on a 900 LB hunk of metal and plastic.
this is an issue for the national highway, safety council to step in and ground all of these motorcycles until they are fixed. This is life-threatening. I can’t emphasize that enough.
once word gets around after some of the fatalities that are going to happen, due to transmission lock ups, the value of these gold wings will go right down the toilet. just like what happened to the Chevrolet Corvair when Ralph Nader declared them to be “unsafe at any speed”.. that was not a fact, that was his opinion, but it killed the car..
when you are riding a machine that something like this is possible to happen, you can’t think of nothing else, except what might happen, and it takes all of the entertainment and the joy and the fun out of riding.. and you will certainly not want to risk taking one of your kids or grandkids, or your wife, or your girlfriend on the back of your Goldwing, and risk their life also.. Because a motorcycle can tolerate a second person on the machine as a passenger, but how many of us have experience trying to control an out of control motorcycle that is even more top-heavy with a passenger?
The national highway safety council needs to step in on this emergency, and ground all of the possible problem machines until they are fixed. No matter how long it takes…
The Internet has lots of stories and examples of these transmission failures. What is the acceptable number? What is the acceptable percentage, one of 1000? 20 out of 1000?
what is the acceptable fatality rate?
how much risk is Honda willing to take while letting this get swept under the rug? Can the dealers be held liable? If there are records of service bulletins from Honda to the dealer’s, the dealer’s will be held responsible also for knowingly, allow this catastrophe to happen.
search YouTube for any number of transmission failures with these machines. You probably don’t have enough time in the day to watch them all…
I am sad for Honda for something like this happening to them. They created what I would consider the most perfect motorcycle ever. The Honda Goldwing. I have ridden the 1975 model when it was new. It was also just as smooth as glass… but, like humans, over the years, the weight increased little by little, but unlike humans, the power rates went up and up little by little. Also, that’s a lot of stress on a transmission, trying to move more weight with more power, and using the same lubricant to lubricate the engine as well as the transmission. You don’t see that in cars or trucks or buses.. only motorcycles. Maybe it’s time that companies like Honda reconsider having separate lubrication for the transmission using 90 weight oil. My last moto guzzi still had 90 weight gear lube in the transmission. I have had four Moto guzzi motorcycles, I’ve owned one or the other of those for over 40 years. I bought my first one in 1980, I sold my last one in 2021. They all used 90 weight gear lube in the transmission. The pressure on motorcycle gears exceeded 100, 000 psi in the late 1980s using one lubrication for the engine and the transmission on some of them are very high power motorcycles available starting in the late 1980s.. The advancement in engine, technology outpaced the advances in oil technology it seems..

[bothrechisschlegelli]

You can monitor such situations everywhere in the automotive industry. It is all about profit maximization. It is called VAVE measures on cost of the quality and customer satisfaction. This is by the way my daily business.

[garyedwards]

Wow, some serious faults there… good update…. Be safe people 🇬🇧👍

[alfoerster]

I have a 2022 6 speed manual.🙏🙏
Thanks for the info.

[knoticalone]

They are not replacing ALL fuel pumps only those that fall into a certain date range. Pumps manufactured in 2017, 2018 and most of 2019 will be replaced. The rest of the pumps will just be inspected to see if pump is within range.

[spkuse]

I had my 2018 DCT for 5 years and sold it for my BMW 1250GSA. No issues with my GW after 30k miles on it. Two best bikes I’ve owned so far- the GW and GSA.

[ograyenm]

I have a 2023 Goldwing DCT Tour with 3, 600 miles. I have noticed an irregularity in the shifting that seems to be getting worse. In Econ mode at operating temperature the bike will shift normally with a smooth "click" from 1st through 5fth gears. When shifting to 6th and 7th gear under moderate acceleration maybe at around 2, 000 RPMs the bike will shift differently. Instead of a smooth "click", the shift sounds and feels more like a "squeal" or a more pronounced clash. It sounds much like what I would imagine would precede the UBS transmission issue discussed on this video. I discussed this issue with my local dealership where I bought the motorcycle a year ago. They initially suggested it was an engine lugging issue in Econ mode, which I know is not the case since the shift occurs at higher RPMs. I finally took it into the shop and the shop that would only diagnose this issue if I agreed to pay a one-hour diagnostic fee which I agreed to pay to possibly prevent a catastrophic failure or safety issue of the nature discussed on this video. I also had my sales person personally ride the bike who verified he heard the same sound. The dealer initially said they could not find anything wrong, but would continue to look, and the issue has not been resolved as of this date. My question to other riders is, "have any of you experienced this issue? If so, do you consider it to be normal? I would appreciate hearing from other Goldwing riders in the meantime and will keep you all posted on what Honda has to say about my complaint. I also do not think they should have refused to diagnose the problem unless I agreed to a diagnostic fee for a complaint regarding a new $30K motorcycle.

[nelsonwilliams]

Been riding Goldwings for many years and am not going to allow some cases to damping the realizability of a dependable brand. Stay safe out there

[bsjacks]

All fuel pumps do not need replacing in all 6th generation models. If you have a MKC-A02 version fuel pump, you're fine. If you have MKC-A01 version, check with your dealer as it may need replacing. You can see the fuel pump by removing the seat.

[budlistar]

I’ll just stick with my 2010 thank you.🏍

[RONHOCHHAUSER]

WOW, too Bad!! I had 4 GW's including 2 trikes, no problems, great Machines!

[drumdog]

Reminds me of when the gen 5 wings were recalled for frame welds cracking. My 2003 was on the recall and Honda took care of it and I rode it for 14 years all over the country no issues. I just bought a 2023 Tour DCT on 3-7-24. I went to the Honda website put in the VIN and not under the recall. I called my dealer they confirmed they inspected it and I'm good. So far this gen 6 is amazing!

[MM_in_Havasu]

My 2004 GL1800 still runs like a watch to this day at 90K miles. I no longer ride it due to a stroke last fall, hoping I can sell it to someone who can use it another 20 years and enjoy it as much as I have!
The '18 and later Wings do have some serious issues that need addressing.

[MVW]

Don't worry ??? If you want to experience an example here is an example: think of a blocked rear wheel with a 70 ton truck driver behind you. You are now playing with your life and are aware. Honda must provide open communication about what went wrong ASAP! For the time being, my GL 1800/6 manual 2018 will definitely remain in the garage! That's for sure!

[marccafarella]

Hi, I have a question .If the bolt fails and destroys the DCT transmission, will the bike go into a false neutral and coast to a stop or will it seize up and lock the driveline causing a catastrophic event which could cause death .

[aholecop]

Thanks for putting this in the minds of current owners .
The used market is going to take a big hit.
I’ll be sure to keep this video handy when I go shopping.
Hey Goldwingsocs I’ll give you $2k for your 2018+ Goldwing right now and save you all these problems.
😆😆