2019 Talon 18,000 Mile Report

[hondabob]

Just did another oil change. The Talon is easy to inspect and maintain. No more problems with the idle speed. My rear axles are still popping on low speed turns until it warms up and liquifies the axle joint grease. I still plan on selling it at 25,000 miles. My 2020 Talon will be next to get 25,000 miles and I hope by then Honda will improve the air intake and the suspension.

I did a 20,000 oil change and inspection on my 2016 Yamaha YXZ and its a PITA. Yamaha made everything as difficult as they could. It takes 5 hours or more to do it right. I can only stand to work on it for about 2 hours so it usually takes a few days to get it done. I had to suck it up this time so I could get it out of the way so I could change the oil in my Talon.

 

[Admin]

 

[1HasBeen]

Another one of my friends at North Ranch is going shopping for an 'R' today. Talons are multiplying like rabbits at NR.

 

[FOOTS]

Just did another oil change. The Talon is easy to inspect and maintain. No more problems with the idle speed. My rear axles are still popping on low speed turns until it warms up and liquifies the axle joint grease. I still plan on selling it at 25,000 miles. My 2020 Talon will be next to get 25,000 miles and I hope by then Honda will improve the air intake and the suspension.

I did a 20,000 oil change and inspection on my 2016 Yamaha YXZ and its a PITA. Yamaha made everything as difficult as they could. It takes 5 hours or more to do it right. I can only stand to work on it for about 2 hours so it usually takes a few days to get it done. I had to suck it up this time so I could get it out of the way so I could change the oil in my Talon.

Just did another oil change. The Talon is easy to inspect and maintain. No more problems with the idle speed. My rear axles are still popping on low speed turns until it warms up and liquifies the axle joint grease. I still plan on selling it at 25,000 miles. My 2020 Talon will be next to get 25,000 miles and I hope by then Honda will improve the air intake and the suspension.

I did a 20,000 oil change and inspection on my 2016 Yamaha YXZ and its a PITA. Yamaha made everything as difficult as they could. It takes 5 hours or more to do it right. I can only stand to work on it for about 2 hours so it usually takes a few days to get it done. I had to suck it up this time so I could get it out of the way so I could change the oil in my Talon.

So what kind of issues and/or repairs have you had in those 18,000 miles?

What kind of riding do you do?

I’m only at 1400 miles and knock on wood, zero issues.


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[CID]

Just did another oil change. The Talon is easy to inspect and maintain. No more problems with the idle speed. My rear axles are still popping on low speed turns until it warms up and liquifies the axle joint grease. I still plan on selling it at 25,000 miles. My 2020 Talon will be next to get 25,000 miles and I hope by then Honda will improve the air intake and the suspension.

I did a 20,000 oil change and inspection on my 2016 Yamaha YXZ and its a PITA. Yamaha made everything as difficult as they could. It takes 5 hours or more to do it right. I can only stand to work on it for about 2 hours so it usually takes a few days to get it done. I had to suck it up this time so I could get it out of the way so I could change the oil in my Talon.

Dang, 5 hour oil changes. I've had Yamaha motorcycles (dirt and dual sport) and snowmobiles all my life and never had those issues. But I was a Yamaha fan boy so would have ignored them.

Suspension - will you go with the Live Valve next time? I'm concerned about the petty little reliability issues I've been reading about causing big downtime at the dealerships because they're so complex. I'm headed for Arizona in a few weeks and will be dropping mine off at Weller if they can fit me in (can't call for an appointment until I know when I'm leaving).

I got a chuckle reading about you and HUCK swapping leads in the sand washes, hooligans. ROFL

 

[hondabob]

The YXZ service requires removing 3 skid plates, the passenger seat, center console, etc. The grease job needs special fittings with the drive shaft clocked in a different position for the U-joints. The rear suspension is worse. The wheels have to be removed and the suspension jacked up several inches to get to the lower grease fitting. The rear dif oil filler hole is a 6mm threaded hole. Checking the air filters is difficult if you have hands larger then a 6 year old. I bought 4 Yamaha side by sides and this one is the worst. Also bought 3 Yamaha motorcycles and 4 Yamaha quads in the last 25 years.

Most of my riding is fast desert. At 15,000 miles I replaced a rear wheel bearing and the front drive shaft. The U-joint ruined the drive shaft and Honda doesn't offer the U-joint. I'm on my 3rd front dif oil seal and its still leaking. I added 3 years to my Honda warranty so I will have at least 1 year of warranty left when I sell it. If I had to buy another Talon today I would get the Talon X LV. We have a lot of fast tight trail so the X is easier to go fast.

 

[Brazula4life]

Just did another oil change. The Talon is easy to inspect and maintain. No more problems with the idle speed. My rear axles are still popping on low speed turns until it warms up and liquifies the axle joint grease. I still plan on selling it at 25,000 miles. My 2020 Talon will be next to get 25,000 miles and I hope by then Honda will improve the air intake and the suspension.

I did a 20,000 oil change and inspection on my 2016 Yamaha YXZ and its a PITA. Yamaha made everything as difficult as they could. It takes 5 hours or more to do it right. I can only stand to work on it for about 2 hours so it usually takes a few days to get it done. I had to suck it up this time so I could get it out of the way so I could change the oil in my Talon.

At how many hours did you check your valves, I been hearing yo ignore the 100hrs check. Unless it's knocking

 

[hondabob]

Honda is not very clear on checking the valves. My buddy at the Honda shop said he may find one valve out by .001" every 20 machines. My buddy at the Yamaha shop said the same thing about the YXZ. Since I run super clean air with the pre filter I check the valves before I sell one or at 20,000 miles. My RZR 900 got the under roof pre filter and the valves were spot on at 5,000 miles and again at 10,000 miles. My RZR 570 was hard starting so I checked the valves near new and 3 had no clearance. Its not too hard to removes the cams and install the proper shims on the early 570. Checking the spark plugs on the Talon and Pioneer 1000 should be at 20,000 miles. They both have the $30.00 high end iridium plugs that last over 100,000 miles in cars. I checked my Pioneer 1000 at 19,000 miles and the plugs were still ok but I had a new set so I put them and gave my buddy the original plugs. The YXZ had the $3.00 plugs and they were ok at 10,000 miles and also at 20,000 miles but I changed them at 20,000. Honda needs to upgrade the maintenance on the spark plugs. For hard racing its a bit difference.

 

[hondabob]

My new drive shaft U-joint failed at a bit over 18,000 miles. It was replaced at 15,000 miles. It looks like the C clips were not installed and this has be a known problem on a few new Talons. I drove it at 15 mph for 6 miles to get back to camp. My rear U-joint on the front drive shaft was worn out at 15,000 miles. Its easy to check it by looking forward of the Sub trans. I posted a video of the 15,000 mile failure where it was just worn out.

 

[hondatalonr]

Have not had one apart. Are the problem c-clips not there or they just not seated in the grove? Is it possible to check them before installing new drive shaft?

 

[hondabob]

I will check the new drive shaft next week before the install.

 

[PaulF]

Have not had one apart. Are the problem c-clips not there or they just not seated in the grove? Is it possible to check them before installing new drive shaft?

I will check the new drive shaft next week before the install.

I just pulled a driveline out on a machine with 16,000 miles to replace the joints (front one was rusted and stiff causing a vibration) and here is my take on the cups coming/falling out...

The removal of the joints was uneventful, all the caps came out with a "normal" amount of resistance. However, the installation of the joints was suspicious to me. While 6 of the caps pressed in normally, 2 of the caps went in with minimal pressure. Upon further inspection, 2 caps were basically rusted into the yokes, giving a false impression that they were tight upon removal. The yokes did not show any signs of cap spin, only that the holes were about .001 larger than the others. Not enough to let them spin or move but close.

It appears that the clearance tolerance on the yokes is not very good. IF a cap is not tight and begins to move in its bore, it will stress the clip and cause undo wear on the clip and may cause it to break or stretch and come out on its own. This may be why it appears that the clips were missing when in fact they may have been damaged by a loose cap and broke or fell out.

The caps on this particular yoke are borderline too loose for me to be comfortable. I believe that some might be looser than others and that is why they either last a long time or fall apart pretty quickly.

I am with @Hometeam and will be tack welding the caps onto the yoke to avoid any possible movement. Although he had a different failure, his crosses broke and the clips and caps were still in the yokes. The pictures appear to show this was weakened crosses due to rust...

Talon - Hometeam's Blue X

First off, you are talking about an X and they sit a little lower. You are going to get answers all over the place. My R sits at 14" with 30's as set by Weller Racing. ST says 13 Front, 12.5 Rear with stock tires so with ~31.4" tires that would be 14.7 and 14.2 respectively. I would call...

hondasxs.com

 

[hondabob]

I checked the new drive shaft today. It looks ok with the C clips installed properly. I will be removing the skid plate on both of my Talons at each oil change to inspect the front drive shaft U-joints. When the U-joint failed at 15,000 miles it appears the cup was a loose fit causing the C-clip to wear into the yoke. You can see it in the video.

 

[PaulF]

I checked the new drive shaft today. It looks ok with the C clips installed properly. I will be removing the skid plate on both of my Talons at each oil change to inspect the front drive shaft U-joints. When the U-joint failed at 15,000 miles it appears the cup was a loose fit causing the C-clip to wear into the yoke. You can see it in the video.

That video just solidifies my suspicion a little more that the cups are not properly press fit when new. Unless the cross wears through the cup or the cup completely freezes on the cross, the cups should never move like that if installed properly. I believe that they are barely press fit and the heat/vibration loosens them up enough to move/rotate and do what your video shows. If left unchecked, that clip in the video would have eventually failed/fallen out and the same failure that you had on your second driveline (and others have experienced many times) would have happened.

Your new C clips may be installed properly but if any of the cups are not a good/tight press fit, you will most likely have the same failure. You may consider tack welding the cups to make sure but that is going to void any warranty.

 

[hondabob]

I will remove the skid plate at every oil change and check the U-joints on both of my Talons. Now you guys know why I have 2, anything can break and I just hate to miss a ride. I had to drive 6 miles to get back to camp so the U-joint is pretty beat up. Both caps were missing before I drove it back but I did a few miles with some vibration before it got real noisy. The new drive shaft was installed a bit over 15,000 miles. I had 18,300 on it now so the C-clips were missing or the caps were a real loose fit.