16DCT
Member
2016 NC700X DCT ABS, 48,600 miles, engine warmed up
After roughly 40 minutes of city riding, the DCT will begin to struggle and then eventually not shift at all. For instance, I'll be coming to a stop from 25 mph in 3rd gear, slowing to 6 mph, and the bike is still in 3rd gear when it should be in 1st. Then at the last minute at 2 mph, it'll clunk down to 2nd and then 1st, but way too late. Then when I take off, the upshifting is perfectly fine, but again as I'm coming to a stop it'll stay in whatever gear I was traveling in, this time not downshifting at all. So in this case I'll come to a stop in say, 5th gear. At this point is when the bike goes into "limp mode" with a flashing "-" symbol in the gear indicator box. Sometimes the MIL light will come on too. It is able to be ridden, but only in whatever gear it got stuck in. The paddle shifters do nothing and the bike cannot be switched between ride modes, including MT mode.
At this point is when I turn off the bike. When I turn the bike back on, the gear indicator shows 5 (or whatever gear it got stuck in) and of course the bike will not start if it's not in neutral. The only way I have been able to get it back into neutral is to wait for the bike cool down for several minutes, then turn on the key, wait for the noises coming from what I believe to be the shift motor near the front sprocket, and rotate the rear wheel. If the bike is cooled down enough it will start clunking down the gears. If it's too hot then nothing happens. Sometimes it will find neutral, other times it will go down to 1st. As long as it goes down into 1st I'm able to start it by holding down the front brake lever and the starter button, which I believe bypasses the need for the bike to be in neutral to start the engine. At this point, the bike begins to ride 100% normally again. The limp mode flashing "-" symbol is gone and so is the MIL light. The bike shifts up and down flawlessly in automatic modes, and manual mode works fine too.
I'm no mechanic but if I had to guess I'd say the shift control motor is going bad. Something is causing it to not work properly when it gets too hot. Particularly the downshifting aspect of it. I currently have it in the shop and hopefully any codes that are stored will point to the issue at hand.
[*Problem solved*]: Another 91 miles on the clock which puts me at 309 miles total with the new shift motor without a single hiccup. I can now say with confidence that the issue is fixed. As expected, the Shift/Ratio Control Motor (Part: 31300-KVZ-631) was the sole problem in my particular case. The part is roughly $225 dollars on Partzilla, but I paid extra for expedited shipping. I also paid for 6 hours worth of labor costs at the dealer, and my bike was at the shop for over 2 weeks. They were unable to get the old shift motor to fail despite multiple bench tests and test riding the bike, so in theory that was a total waste of time and money. My theory for this is that they never rode it (or tested the shift motor under load) long enough to get it to the failure point.
So if you are facing similar issues as described in this thread, combined with DTC codes 24-1 and 57-1, you may have a problem with the shift motor. It's very easy to replace at home. You will need to remove the left side belly pan, the front sprocket cover, the exhaust guard, and after that it's just 3 bolts to remove the old motor and install the new one.
After roughly 40 minutes of city riding, the DCT will begin to struggle and then eventually not shift at all. For instance, I'll be coming to a stop from 25 mph in 3rd gear, slowing to 6 mph, and the bike is still in 3rd gear when it should be in 1st. Then at the last minute at 2 mph, it'll clunk down to 2nd and then 1st, but way too late. Then when I take off, the upshifting is perfectly fine, but again as I'm coming to a stop it'll stay in whatever gear I was traveling in, this time not downshifting at all. So in this case I'll come to a stop in say, 5th gear. At this point is when the bike goes into "limp mode" with a flashing "-" symbol in the gear indicator box. Sometimes the MIL light will come on too. It is able to be ridden, but only in whatever gear it got stuck in. The paddle shifters do nothing and the bike cannot be switched between ride modes, including MT mode.
At this point is when I turn off the bike. When I turn the bike back on, the gear indicator shows 5 (or whatever gear it got stuck in) and of course the bike will not start if it's not in neutral. The only way I have been able to get it back into neutral is to wait for the bike cool down for several minutes, then turn on the key, wait for the noises coming from what I believe to be the shift motor near the front sprocket, and rotate the rear wheel. If the bike is cooled down enough it will start clunking down the gears. If it's too hot then nothing happens. Sometimes it will find neutral, other times it will go down to 1st. As long as it goes down into 1st I'm able to start it by holding down the front brake lever and the starter button, which I believe bypasses the need for the bike to be in neutral to start the engine. At this point, the bike begins to ride 100% normally again. The limp mode flashing "-" symbol is gone and so is the MIL light. The bike shifts up and down flawlessly in automatic modes, and manual mode works fine too.
I'm no mechanic but if I had to guess I'd say the shift control motor is going bad. Something is causing it to not work properly when it gets too hot. Particularly the downshifting aspect of it. I currently have it in the shop and hopefully any codes that are stored will point to the issue at hand.
- Happens after engine is hot; 40 minutes of riding or so in normal city riding conditions
- Appears to mostly affect downshifting
- Can only be remedied after bike has cooled down a bit
[*Problem solved*]: Another 91 miles on the clock which puts me at 309 miles total with the new shift motor without a single hiccup. I can now say with confidence that the issue is fixed. As expected, the Shift/Ratio Control Motor (Part: 31300-KVZ-631) was the sole problem in my particular case. The part is roughly $225 dollars on Partzilla, but I paid extra for expedited shipping. I also paid for 6 hours worth of labor costs at the dealer, and my bike was at the shop for over 2 weeks. They were unable to get the old shift motor to fail despite multiple bench tests and test riding the bike, so in theory that was a total waste of time and money. My theory for this is that they never rode it (or tested the shift motor under load) long enough to get it to the failure point.
So if you are facing similar issues as described in this thread, combined with DTC codes 24-1 and 57-1, you may have a problem with the shift motor. It's very easy to replace at home. You will need to remove the left side belly pan, the front sprocket cover, the exhaust guard, and after that it's just 3 bolts to remove the old motor and install the new one.
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