Honda Unicorn 160: Frustrating gearbox issue on my brand new bike

During my last couple of visits, a couple of other customers were also frustrated with the service and they were shouting at the technicians and service advisors.

BHPian mohanprasath recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Introduction

I bought a new Honda Unicorn 160 BS-6 E20 compliant (OBD-2) on 12th July 2023 from Pressanna Honda, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. Till now, I have completed about 2100 Kilometers in it.

Issues

The issue I’m facing is that while shifting from 4th gear to 5th gear, sometimes, it gets stuck between 4th & 5th and the bike does not move even on using the accelerator – as if it is in neutral. I’ve been facing this issue from the day of taking delivery. It occurs more frequently if I shift faster and less frequently if I shift slower.

Sometimes, while riding in 5th gear, it goes into the stuck state by itself and the bike will not accelerate

A workaround for this is to again apply the clutch and shift to either 4th or 5th.

Now, on the fifth day of the ownership, a drunk biker hit my bike while moving at slow speeds. Due to this, the rear brake pedal was damaged. The brake pedal was changed at Pressanna Honda Service Center. While changing the brake pedal, looks like they removed the swingarm nuts/bolts and they didn’t fix them properly. Due to this, even moving the bike from a standstill position causes a ‘tik tik’ noise.

Experience with Service Center

Here comes the interesting part, while changing the brake pedal (within one week of delivery), I raised a complaint about the gear shifting, but the service advisor said that this is common in geared vehicles and even in his vehicle this happens . I just left without arguing with him at that point thinking that we could resolve the issue during the first service.

Now, the first service has also been completed. I had reported both the gear shift issue and swingarm noise as complaints. But the problems weren’t rectified. From then, until now, each and every week, I’ve been going to their service center and stating the problem. While taking delivery, it will not be resolved. The service center is about 6 or 7 Kilometers from my office and even before returning to office, the gear issue reoccurs. Each and every time, they will ask me to ride for a few days and see the result. I have visited the service center more than 6 – 7 times within 2 months. It is like, even the security guard has become good friends with me, but not the service guys .

Last week, I spoke to the AGM (Assistant General Manager) of service and he assured me that special preference will be given and the issue will be resolved. The bike was with them for 2 days. But still, the issue persisted. I decided to ask them to refund my money. So, this Monday I went to the showroom and spoke to the AGM (Sales). He has a bit of an attitude. He assured me that he was responsible for resolving the issue. I left the bike there and I was asked to come by evening. I went to the service center and asked the technician what the issue was. He said that oil was not entering into the plates of the clutch and that was the reason. He said that the issue was resolved and asked me to take a test ride.

I just came out of the service center and shifted to 5th gear for the first time. It shifted and while moving, suddenly it went into the stuck state and the bike didn’t move. I went to the service center again and this time the technician rode the bike and I went pillion. He rarely shifted to 5th – only a couple of times and slowly and said that the issue was not appearing. Then I started riding and both the issues appeared during the rest of the ride and he acknowledged the same.

This morning, I went to the showroom and asked the AGM to refund the money. Now he said that experts from Honda have come and this time the issue will be resolved (note that previously, they said that one of their senior technicians is an expert, and when I explained this gear issue, he said to me that he would check if there are any wiring problems).

During my last couple of visits, a couple of other customers were also frustrated with the service and they were shouting at the technicians and service advisors. Also, I had a look at Google reviews and it was pathetic to read them. In one of the reviews, they even mentioned the service advisor’s name and asked others not to go to him. Initially, I was giving full ratings during the feedback, but day-to-day, my experience has not been good. In the beginning, service advisors used to reach out to me to open the job card, but after a couple of repeated visits, they stopped approaching me and I used to keep on waiting until the technician/security opened the job card.

Considering all these things, I finally decided to ask for a refund (even if it is not 100%) or at least escalate this to the General Manager of the showroom and no more repeated visits to them. But these AGMs prevented me from speaking to him stating that he went somewhere and asked me to give the bike to the Honda motorcycle expert and they would fix it and give it back to me in 2 days. I rejected it and said, I could only speak to GM. They said they would make it happen (after trying to convince me for almost 1 hour), but till now I haven’t got any response from them.

I’m highly disappointed with their service and it looks like there is some issue with the gearbox or teeth of the 5th gear. So, considering the defects and their service quality, wasting my time by making me visit the service center for 6 to 7 times, I decided to ask for a 100% refund. In case the Honda vehicle expert fixes the issue, the gearbox will be opened and it will retain its originality (the clutch overhaul in the service center resulted in a not-so-smooth movement in it), so I’ve decided not to accept it.

Here’s what BHPian aargee had to say on the matter:

Hello Sir, first of all, please forget the refund as it will be extremely difficult & even if you obtain, it will be at the cost of double the efforts of your time & losing your peace of mind. To me this looks like more of a real trouble perhaps fixing the motorcycle under warranty.

CBE has more than 1 HMSI ASC isn’t it? I would say, simply move on to another ASC to get the issue fixed. There’s Aadhi Honda, Chandra Honda, Kammalam Honda, Suryabala Honda & not to mention 2 independent workshops: Pooja Motors & Sanjay Motors.

I’m positive one of them should certainly fix the issue to your satisfaction. Whichever ASC you take it to, tell them clearly why you’re there & the background of the issue & ask their competency to fix the problem. Tell them upfront it’s a challenging case & you’ll take the delivery only if you’re satisfied that the issue no longe persists, in a very polite & friendly manner.

If cost & warranty does matter to you & then, you’ll have to make some noise, perhaps write your ordeal to [email protected]. Downside being, you may have to visit Pressana few more times.

Here’s what BHPian shancz had to say on the matter:

Considering that this has been confirmed by the ASC to be an issue with clutch/transmission lubrication so not sure what’s stopping them from fixing it.
Since your bike is under warranty you can push them to replace the problematic components completely rather than repairs and do not move the bike put of the service center until you’ve taken a long test ride and are confident of the resolution.

Just for the sake of investigation and if safely possible please try to shift around 3000-4000rpm mark and see how the bike behaves. It might help the ASC diagnose the issue further. Asking this because I have ridden some bikes(can’t remember which) where the transmission did resist shifting up at low speeds which lead to false neutrals.

Here’s what BHPian VijayAnand1 had to say on the matter:

The Unicorn 160 has become a damp squib for Honda off-late, diluting the legacy left behind by the Unicorn 150. Surprisingly you’re not the only one. I’ve heard brand new bikes having loose fork, braking issues, thud sound while going over speed breakers and what not. Though the above mentioned issues doesn’t raise a red-flag which can be sorted at the service center.

Your issue is inherently not correctable at least by means of quick fix at the service center. The dealer, I presume doesn’t have a clue as to what’s inherently wrong though he’d mentioned that your clutch is suffering from poor lubrication. From what I observed from the video, it seems your transmission and the related parts are defective and this would be termed as a “manufacturing defect”

I would request you to raise a complain so that your engine is replaced as a whole or your transmission and its parts completely replaced with an additional year of extended warranty for the repair job carried over.

Honda’s Unicorn is no longer the Unicorn it used to be. Sad to see powerhouse like Honda slow-poison a brand that had etched a name for itself.

Good luck. Keep us updated.

Read BHPian comments for more insights and information.

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