My Silverwing has finally bit the dust...

After 5 months of fixing my poor girl up, it has finally died on me..

I noticed brown liquid pouring from the left side of my Swing. Also noticed the overheating light bulb on as well. I thought I could manage by riding it slowly to my regular workshop 20km away. Unfortunately, by the time I reached the workshop, all I could hear was knocking, harsh engine vibrations, and a plume of white, sweet-smelling smoke engulfing my Swing.


My Silverwing at the workshop. By then it has stopped spewing white smoke from the engine area.

Figured maybe a coolant rubber hose broke somewhere suddenly as well. I am sure I messed up my engine gaskets and will probably have to do a full top overhaul. Here's to hoping my pistons didn't overheat...


An old, but reasonably reliable CB400 SF from the 90s. Not used to its somewhat aggressive seating posture. But am fortunate that the workshop rented it to me a discounted price.

While it lays in the workshop for spare parts, a Honda CB400 will do for now. Am very much missing the comfort of a Swing and gah, the immense storage spaces...

Gulp… this is not good. Happy to hear that you were able to limp to the shop. Hopefully the issues won’t be too budget-shattering to resolve.

Please keep us informed.

Sorry to hear that you should have parked it and not kept riding. Overheating an engine does a lot of damage to internals knocking not a good thing bearing damage. Have them check the compression first if very low don't put money in it better off with a used engine.

That sucks big time!! I really enjoy riding my SWing and don't know what I'd do if that happened to me.
Good Luck on it not being too costly and too far gone to repair.

Unfortunately, internal engine parts for the Silver Wing engines are no longer available from Honda. So if it has internal engine damage it is unlikely it can be repaired and will need a donor engine.

Ebay might be the only way it fix tour scooter.
More often than not, just swapping out the motor is much less expensive than paying labor to teardown and inspect and repair. Good luck.

This is my first post, I've been watching a long time, but felt I should answer this post. I know of a $500 parts bike complete minus the front plastics. Near Seattle, WA for shipping concerns. I know nothing more about it but am trying to make contact.

Sorry to heR of you scooter troubles.

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone. I hope to get an update on my Swing repairs by the end of this week.

Just dropping a photo of my Swing stripped down to its engine. The mechanic working on it is the same mechanic who helped me to rebuild my starter motor back in mid-May.

Mech 1 twa wrote:

Sorry to hear that you should have parked it and not kept riding.  Overheating an engine does a lot of damage to internals knocking not a good thing bearing damage. Have them check the compression first if very low don't put money in it better off with a used engine.

Chris Olson wrote:

Unfortunately, internal engine parts for the Silver Wing engines are no longer available from Honda. So if it has internal engine damage it is unlikely it can be repaired and will need a donor engine.

johnd wrote:

Ebay might be the only way it fix tour scooter.
More often than not, just swapping out the motor is much less expensive than paying labor to teardown and inspect and repair.  Good luck.

delivryboy wrote:

This is my first post, I've been watching a long time, but felt I should answer this post. I know of a $500 parts bike complete minus the front plastics. Near Seattle, WA for shipping concerns. I know nothing more about it but am trying to make contact.

Unfortunately, I am not able to do this in my country, Singapore.

Vehicle ownership here is rather tedious; you can't simply swap out engines as and when you like. Every engine's chassis number is tied to the number plate assigned to the vehicle. When my Certificate of Entitlement (COE; a rather expensive piece of paper to allow me to ride on Singapore roads) expires, I will have the option to either extend and continue riding... or scrap the Swing.

Of course, if I ever have to go down the latter, I will salvage the parts that can be salvaged i.e. pillion foot pegs, body parts, air filter, tires, head lamp cowl etc..

dovahkiin wrote:

Vehicle ownership here is rather tedious; you can't simply swap out engines as and when you like. Every engine's chassis number is tied to the number plate assigned to the vehicle. When my Certificate of Entitlement (COE; a rather expensive piece of paper to allow me to ride on Singapore roads) expires, I will have the option to either extend and continue riding... or scrap the Swing

Ridiculous. Do the people that run this system live in the dark ages? The vehicle VIN or serial number should be tied to the registration and title, not the engine. The engine is a replaceable service item. Manufacturers (thru their authorized dealers) replace entire engine assemblies under warranty all the time when they experience a warrantable failure or defect. In most cases it's cheaper for the manufacturer to replace an engine assembly under warranty than it is to pay warranty labor to repair it, plus engineering wants the failed engine back under warranty return so they can analyze the failure.

Chris Olson wrote:

dovahkiin wrote:

Vehicle ownership here is rather tedious; you can't simply swap out engines as and when you like. Every engine's chassis number is tied to the number plate assigned to the vehicle. When my Certificate of Entitlement (COE; a rather expensive piece of paper to allow me to ride on Singapore roads) expires, I will have the option to either extend and continue riding... or scrap the Swing

Ridiculous. Do the people that run this system live in the dark ages? The vehicle VIN or serial number should be tied to the registration and title, not the engine. The engine is a replaceable service item. Manufacturers (thru their authorized dealers) replace entire engine assemblies under warranty all the time when they experience a warrantable failure or defect. In most cases it's cheaper for the manufacturer to replace an engine assembly under warranty than it is to pay warranty labor to repair it, plus engineering wants the failed engine back under warranty return so they can analyze the failure.

Apologies for the misinformation; I technically can, but there's so much red tape surrounding engine swapping with the transport authorities and there isn't much information locally on it as well.

Would like to share this link on Certificates of Entitlement in case anyone is interested in learning how vehicle ownership works in Singapore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_Entitlement

dovahkiin wrote:

(Snip) I technically can, but there's so much red tape surrounding engine swapping with the transport authorities and there isn't much information locally on it as well.

Would like to share this link on Certificates of Entitlement in case anyone is interested in learning how vehicle ownership works in Singapore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_of_Entitlement

Holy cow! With Singapore’s population density at ~22,000 people per square mile, slightly less than that of NYC, it is understandable that they’d have some stringent vehicle registration requirements.

And not that metro Los Angeles is anywhere near that population density but given California’s environmental challenges it seems as if they might be on the way toward similar motor vehicle constraints.

Yes, that Certificate of Entitlement is worth a read.

It doesn't make sense that a government that would set up such a licensing scheme would not realize that the engine of the vehicle (no matter what it is) is a service replacement item if it fails. Typical with all kinds of governments, they can dream up elaborate and complicated schemes that ignore the basics of practicality.

Wow, those regulations made my head spin! I'd have to seriously consider taking the bus!

Aah... But that's exactly what they would expect me to do...

It's always interesting to see how different places and cultures deal with different problems.
I'm still amazed how most of the world manages driving on the wrong side of the road

I suppose someone is charging a tax or something like that and the money going to fix the roads?
To me red tape means exactly that.

Loosemarbles wrote:

Wow, those regulations made my head spin! I'd have to seriously consider taking the bus!

Aah... But that's exactly what they would expect me to do...

The government here highly encourages taking public transportation. Fortunately, it's considered "world-class" and it's quite reliable.

johnd wrote:

I suppose someone is charging a tax or something like that and the money going to fix the roads?
To me red tape means exactly that.

Yes, you can assume the COE to be a sort of tax that's renewable every 10 years. I'd say it's a lucrative revenue stream for the government. Thankfully, the roads here aren't dotted with potholes, so at least we know where part of that tax money went to.

Regardless, great news! I've finally got my Swing back from the workshop. Spent a total of SGD600 (That's USD422).

Not exactly sure what was done (the workshop's boss was not in, and the mechanic who magically got my Swing back in tip-top shape left already) but I'd imagine the following was done:

- replacement of head gasket
- replacement of coolant hose
- coolant change (expected)
- full synthetic engine oil (expected and definitely overdue)
- labour (I dropped my Swing off at the workshop on Thursday; the mechanic worked on it through the weekend)

I've also noticed that the mechanic who worked on my Swing also helped to tighten my brakes. That is something I did not tell him about but it was an issue I had grown used to. If anything, I thought that was pretty solid "value-added service".

I'm dropping by later to get the receipt from the boss of the workshop. I'm just very thankful that the same mechanic who troubleshooted and repaired my starter motor within 2 1/2 hours in front of my eyes managed to work his magic and get my dear Swing up and running again. Definitely owe that man a drink!

Time for a long overdue bike wash now...

That is great news. I've overheated my SW twice. Both times in summer and both times threading through standing traffic, hence, didn't notice the temp gauge or warning light until coolant started pouring out from the pressure cap.

The first time was due to an air lock and the second time was a fan motor relay failure. I didn't have any strange noises from the engine though.

Anyhow, the old girl doesn't seem to have any lasting damage from my negligence.

I hope yours hasn't either.

Congratulations on the repair. I don't know the exchange rate but that sounds like a bargain price, BMW would charge that just for writing the invoice

Loosemarbles wrote:

That is great news. I've overheated my SW twice. Both times in summer and both times threading through standing traffic, hence, didn't notice the temp gauge or warning light until coolant started pouring out from the pressure cap.

The first time was due to an air lock and the second time was a fan motor relay failure. I didn't have any strange noises from the engine though.

Anyhow, the old girl doesn't seem to have any lasting damage from my negligence.

I hope yours hasn't either.

I didn't notice that I was overheating either because I was so used to the sound of the radiator fan spinning. I hope so too! The downtime my Swing spent in the workshop made me realize that I have some sort of attachment issue to it. Perhaps it's a first-time bike ownership thing.

steve_h80 wrote:

Congratulations on the repair. I don't know the exchange rate but that sounds like a bargain price, BMW would charge that just for writing the invoice

Thank you! I thought it could have been slightly lower, but given the fact the mechanic painstakingly worked through his weekend to have my Swing up and running, I'd gladly pay up. And yes, I'd imagine the actual repair cost for BMW would cost an arm and a leg! To think my end goal was a R1250GS...

I alway thought BMW stood for BRING ME YOUR WALLET.  Years ago I was surprised when my R80 carb rebuild kit (all 6 rubber O rings) cost me my first born.  Later found out its was a normal drip caused by not turning of the peacock on the carbs.