The Honda PCX / Forza / ADV150 / SH Forums

I love my scooter. I bought new, have about 1000 miles. The dealer said as I left the showroom I need to bring it back at 600 miles for service. Is it more than a oil change? cost was about $300. is this necessary???

I would not want to assume you don't tool your vehicles as we have seen quit competent female mechanics in here before. If you are mechanically incline everything you need to keep up the service intervals on your new scoot are found in this forum... less the tools.

I can link you to oil change video's, valve clearance check and complete 5k service step by step walk through procedures with access to service manuals as well. OR there is no shame in here for handing over the 300.00 to the dealer and maintaining your warranty, be it one year or extended.

your call woman and WELCOME to PCX 4Z forum.
Please consider adding your general location in profile so we give you targeted, relevant help.

Long story short, the answer is yes. Aside from the oil Honda calls for a valve check at every service, which means a lot of time removing all the plastic to get to the engine and the cost associated. When I had it done mine was a little tight, but I've heard that 9/10 times the valves tend to stay in spec. They will also check everything else to make sure the bike is in good working order. At the very least you should change the oil asap to prevent excessive wear and skip the valve check. If you can you should do the maintenance yourself and it will save you thousands over the life of your PCX.

I always recommend that the first checkup (600 miles) be done by the dealer unless you are mechanically inclined. This way the valve clearance will be checked properly and the breaking oil will be replaced. After that I wouldn't worry about valve checks every checkup because most of them move very little, if at all after that. Changing the oil, using full synthetic, should take you a whole 10 minutes. Consider learning to do that yourself and save quite a bit of money. The pcx is not that difficult to keep running, and is a very dependable little scooter. Even adding accessories is easy enough.

You and I are in the same boat. My 2017 is due for its 600 mile service already. I'm torn, wrench on it myself or spend $400 I don't have. Ugh!

If you can do it yourself, and that means taking it apart without breaking tabs, then you will save a lot of money now and in the future. Most of the charge for the first service is for labor because it takes so long to take the plastics off and put them back on. As far as I know, most of the new owners of the pcx have not owned one before. Yes, there are members of this forum who have traded up to the newer model, but they don't ask about the first service. If you are new to the pcx but want to do the service yourself it would be best to get a service manual and also look up the how-to on this forum before tearing one down. The plastics can be a bit tricky.
Your bike, your choice.

Mel46 wrote:If you can do it yourself, and that means taking it apart without breaking tabs, then you will save a lot of money now and in the future. Most of the charge for the first service is for labor because it takes so long to take the plastics off and put them back on. As far as I know, most of the new owners of the pcx have not owned one before. Yes, there are members of this forum who have traded up to the newer model, but they don't ask about the first service. If you are new to the pcx but want to do the service yourself it would be best to get a service manual and also look up the how-to on this forum before tearing one down. The plastics can be a bit tricky.
Your bike, your choice.

I've worked on all of my bikes from my first *Honda Ruckus* to the biggest, *Harley RG* I will be honest, the plastics are the thing that scare me the most. Ha!

homie wrote:I would not want to assume you don't tool your vehicles as we have seen quit competent female mechanics in here before. If you are mechanically incline everything you need to keep up the service intervals on your new scoot are found in this forum... less the tools.

I can link you to oil change video's, valve clearance check and complete 5k...

your call woman and WELCOME to PCX 4Z forum.
Please consider adding your general location in profile so we give you targeted, relevant help.

Hi,
Sadly I am not mechanically inclined. I bought my PCX 150 2017 with 2 miles on it. It now has 574 and I bought the extended warranty so I do not want to void it.
Is it really going to cost 300 dollars? Yikes. I have only had the bike a few months. Does the dealer have to do it or can my regular mechanic do it? It's a local small motorcycle shop. He works on Harleys, Yamaha's , and he worked for two years on my Yamaha Vino 125. I like him because he does good work and he lets me buy the parts when I can get them cheaper than he can sell them to me. I am an older female who just started riding this year it was on my bucket list!
My guy said he can do it I just need to bring him a list of everything he needs to do and check at the 600 mile mark
I downloaded a manual , however, I am having a challenge finding everything he needs to do at the 600 mark.
Another question, how much over 600 miles can I go before I void my warranty, can I take it to 650 or it has to be close to 600?
I am 61 and money is tight, however, I want to do this the right way.
Thank you for your assistance.
I am in San Diego, CA. about 15 miles East of downtown. Anyone know the best place if I choose a dealer to get it done?
Thanks in advance for assitance!

The list of things to do is in the user manual. On a new bike it's mostly just "change the oil" and "check this, check that" - with the exception of valve clearances that mean a LOT of panels need to be removed for access.

Extended warranties are a business tactic to get more money out of you by locking you in to qualifying services at full retail prices; so I'd be very surprised if they let you get it serviced at a thoroughly competent but none-the-less un-approved service outlet. I'd also be very surprised if you actually needed to claim anything under any extended warranty agreement as the bikes are very robust and generally very low-cost to maintain & repair.

If it were me I'd write-off the extended warranty and get your local man to do it - it'll probably still save you money in the long run. That's just my opinion though, although my bike is over 33,000km now and still going just fine. All that's been changed in that time apart from tyres is the air cleaner & 2 position bulbs, and the oil (oil every 4,000km by choice - and I do it myself).

You bought the extended warranty so yes at this point only a certified Honda dealer can maintain your warranty investment. If you hadn't bought that I would say change the oil and you're good until 5k. That's probably all Honda's going to do for you anyway but you both pretend they did a BUNCH of other stuff that's in the service manual. It's not going to happen trust me and you really don't want your precious scooter torn down at 600 miles anyway. Just little game we play with extended warranties that adds on a couple hundred to the profit margin. Live and learn I'm sorry.

Was that too cruel people? I don't know what to say.
Good news for you... if it breaks Honda fixes it FREE!... that's what you paid for If the rest of us break one we fix it FREE! ... wait that's not right.

You have to keep it in a bit of perspective. The 600 mile check is standard in the industry , more or less. These bikes are sold all over the world in some countries in which the gasoline they use and is about 45 octane, they never get serviced , and they still run forever. These bikes simply aren't stressed like a high-performance Ducati or Ferrari. If you can't do it yourself, I'm sure you can enlist a gear head friend to read one of the oil change DIY's here, and then you can buy Him/her dinner. Change the oils at 600 and then forget about the bike until many many miles later, probably when you need tires. Change the oil's every year. All my opinion. But I worked for American Honda for eight years, and you wouldn't believe some of the abuse I saw under warranty, and the bike just kept on tickin'.

TheMaverick wrote:The list of things to do is in the user manual. On a new bike it's mostly just "change the oil" and "check this, check that" - with the exception of valve clearances that mean a LOT of panels need to be removed for access.

Extended warranties are a business tactic to get more money out of you by locking you in to qualifying services at full retail prices; so I'd be very surprised if they let you get it serviced at a thoroughly competent but none-the-less un-approved service outlet. I'd also be very surprised if you actually needed to claim anything under any extended warranty agreement as the bikes are very robust and generally very low-cost to maintain & repair.
).

OK, so basically I got ripped off I am single and have been divorced 10 years and so I went alone to get the bike. I thought the extended warranty was a good thing. Duh me I guess. If I just let it go I am out 500 dollars. When I bought the bike and I called Honda, they told me I could go to my mechanic I just had to document what he did and make sure he did everything you are supposed to do when at the different check up times.

Above several people keep talking about breaking the plastic???
So, the little tiny book that came in the bike is the manual so I know what he has to do?
Do I need to get Honda to put it in writing that my having my own mechanic do it will not void the warranty? I bought a 5 year warranty.
I am not really sure what to do would like to get a few more opinions.
Thank you for all of your help.

Jge64 wrote:You have to keep it in a bit of perspective. The 600 mile check is standard in the industry , more or less. These bikes are sold all over the world in some countries in which the gasoline they use and is about 45 octane, they never get serviced , and they still run forever. These bikes simply aren't stressed like a high-performance Ducati or Ferrari. If you can't do it yourself, I'm sure you can enlist a gear head friend to read one of the oil change DIY's here, and then you can buy Him/her dinner. Change the oils at 600 and then forget about the bike until many many miles later, probably when you need tires. Change the oil's every year. All my opinion. But I worked for American Honda for eight years, and you wouldn't believe some of the abuse I saw under warranty, and the bike just kept on tickin'.

Thank you, the dealer told me I had to come in at 300-600 and 2,000 I called Honda and they said that was not true, it was 600 and 2,000.
I don't have any gear head friends I wish I did maybe I need to join a bike club
So, basically , you are all saying to just get it done if not by a friend by my mechanic who worked on the Yamaha Vino? That in the long run this is going to save me money and make up for the 500 I blew being naive buying my first vehicle by myself.
I usually buy extended warranties on vacuum cleaners, Kindles,etc.
Again thank you all for your suggestions. I wish I had come to the site before I bought my bike in Feb.

That's an owners manual that came with the bike, how to ride, where to put the gas.
A service manual is more than an inch thick, how to take it apart and fix it. We buy these 50.00 SM's and do things ourselves, because parts are dirt cheap. Yes a trip to a forum before purchasing a new vehicle is always a good idea. This bike has a GREAT following as we all love the scooter

Don't stress about the warranty, you never know if it will come in handy. Or it could be like the washing machine warranty that expires the day before it breaks, lol. I would suggest you take it to your trusted mechanic and have him document the service. Get it done and have piece of mind. The warranty might not be a bad idea. I bought my scoot with a bad chain tensioner because the engine was over filled with oil by the mechanic.

Take the bike at 600 to your Yamaha friend. Have him change the oil in the rear end and change the crankcase oil. Together they take less than 2 quarts of oil. About 12 bucks max. Then his labor of 50-75 or so.Then go see him every year and have him look over the bike. The warranty is only a year anyway. Forums are great but can have a tendency to overwork you, you can read too much here. Just go have fun, bike is bulletproof.

Jge64 wrote:Take the bike at 600 to your Yamaha friend. Have him change the oil in the rear end and change the crankcase oil. Together they take less than 2 quarts of oil. About 12 bucks max. Then his labor of 50-75 or so.Then go see him every year and have him look over the bike. The warranty is only a year anyway. Forums are great but can have a tendency to overwork you, you can read too much here. Just go have fun, bike is bulletproof.

I'm with you, but she bought the extended warranty.

Gil

So to be clear it's now a 500.00 extended warranty? And to keep from voiding it you must pay 300.00 more at 600 miles on a 3700.00 scooter. Are we expected to add 800.00 to the bike in its first season... Please

Anybody want to give me 800.00 to change the oil on their scoot? I'll come pick it up

One of you gentlemen should go do the service on her scooter because... DAHAM!

mladyraven1 wrote: OK, so basically I got ripped off I am single and have been divorced 10 years and so I went alone to get the bike. I thought the extended warranty was a good thing. Duh me I guess. If I just let it go I am out 500 dollars. When I bought the bike and I called Honda, they told me I could go to my mechanic I just had to document what he did and make sure he did everything you are supposed to do when at the different check up times.

Above several people keep talking about breaking the plastic???
So, the little tiny book that came in the bike is the manual so I know what he has to do?
Do I need to get Honda to put it in writing that my having my own mechanic do it will not void the warranty? I bought a 5 year warranty.
I am not really sure what to do would like to get a few more opinions.
Thank you for all of your help.

I'll stop short of saying "ripped off" - but I'll also go so far as to also "tell it as I see it"; Extended warranties are an exercise in risk management - a "gamble" as such. If Honda knew that that gamble was going to cost them more than it made them then they wouldn't offer it. If they "thought" it would cost them more than they made they wouldn't offer it. Basically there's only one situation where they will offer it - and that's the situation where they KNOW that on average they're going to make money offering it. And lets face it - would they know? Answer "Heck Yes" ... because they have all the warranty and service data that's been sent in over the years. So in many ways it's a bit like "the house always wins" in casinos - and they're the house.

But it doesn't stop there ... they want to tip the odds in their favour even more; if it wasn't a condition that their bikes be serviced in accordance with their published schedule then few would get it done because they'd paid for a 5 year "get out of jail free" card - but the other side of the same coin is that if the bike IS regularly serviced - including the scheduled replacement of consumables like belts, tyres, air filters, brake & clutch pads then it's unlikely to ever break down. Possible, yes. But odds-on it won't (a-la my first paragraph).

So I'm not going to say "ripped off" but I would go so far as to say it's an arrangement designed to benefit them 99 times out of 100 and the customer 1 time out of 100. Honda are a business and despite all the "warm fuzzies" that all businesses try to project, fundamentally they're all about making money LONG TERM. And that means things like managing the quality of their product and protecting/managing their reputation.

In terms of maintaining the bike ...

My opinion (which some here will agree with and some won't) Honda (and most others) are "very generous" to their dealers in terms of the amount of servicing that they give the green light for (at our expense). Or to put that another way, I believe that they exploit a fear that "bad things will happen if the bike isn't maintained in accordance with their schedule" - and again, keep in mind that schedules are set with "what's best for the manufacturer" (long term) not what's best for us.

Let me put that in context of my bike; I worked out that over the expected lifespan of my bike I'd be paying 1/2 as much again for official service. I'm an exceptionally pragmatic guy who's been around long enough to look below the surface to try and see what's really going on - and a lot of what was recommended on the bike just didn't add up;

- They recommended that the spark plug be changed every 8,000km - and yet in my car they last well over 100,000km. I know that there are differences, but I still wasn't convinced - and my bike is now at 33,000km on the original plug and still starts in a split second and runs as well as it always does.

- They recommend changing the air filter every 16,000km - I inspected mine and eventually changed it at 30,000 - and even then it wasn't hindering performance.

- They recommend changing the drive belt at 24,000 - mine is currently at 33,000 (although I will change it shortly even though I think it would last a lot longer) (laws of diminishing returns).

- They recommend changing the oil every 8,000km - but I've not liked the way oil looks after 8,000km so I change it myself every 4,000km because I want to give the engine the max life I realistically can.

- They recommend having the valves checked every service - and a lot of panels have to come off to do that (and that takes time and time is money). I ran that past a chap who runs a non-affiliated dealership and he said "it's not a particularly high-revving engine" and "I'd only do it if something indicated that it needed doing" (like being hard to start of not idling well). Hasn't been checked for 32,000km and it's still running as good as the day I bought it.

When I worked in the military on fighter aircraft they introduced a thing called IMP (Improved Maintenance Program) - the "rub" of it was that they were over-servicing many parts and causing more problems than they solved by doing that - so the "improved" part came down to giving many items a functional check and leaving them "as is" if all appeared well - rather than disturbing connectors, panels, seal, and looms to check something more thoroughly when it was pretty certain to be fine anyway. A lot of that translates to the bike.

What I'm suggesting isn't for everyone; if bikes are serviced by a dealer according to a schedule then you're virtually guaranteed to never have a problem -- but you'll pay and pay and pay for that. If they're not serviced according to a schedule then the chances of having a problem increase BUT by how much "depends" ... I like to do my own maintenance and one of the benefits of that is that I've got to know my bike really well; I know how much meat is left on the front and rear brake pads - I know what condition the drive belt is in ... and the tyres etc. My belief is that if I'm more "in touch" with my bike then I'm also almost as unlikely to ever have a problem -- and I'll save a LOT of money in the process. So far it's working well, with the exception of pushing a tyre too far - getting a puncture - and having to have the dealer come and pick up the bike on a trailer (on that note, my STRONG suggestion is to not run a rear tyre past 10,000km nor a front one past 15,000km and check the pressures weekly) (or use a FOBO tyre pressure monitor to "beam" them to your smartphone).

Sorry this is such a novel - but I thought a bit of an education (according to this teacher anyway - as I say, not everyone here agrees with me) may just help you make better decisions. For what it's worth, the first service that you're at now is probably THE most important one because it's the one where 2 lots of oil get changed which flushes out the little bits of metal that are floating around from manufacturing processes - and it's also a good time to check the valve clearances because this is the time they're most likely to be slightly out of spec.

All in all though, I would encourage you to get more involved in the service of your bike - maybe you'll end up doing something yourself - maybe not. It's generally not as hard as people think. Perhaps even ask your preferred mechanic if you can watch and learn whilst he does things - I've found that the more I know about the bike the better the decisions. There's also a wealth of knowledge here about the bike. Some things I think you can't help but learn to do yourself - like adjusting the rear brake freeplay (sounds hellishly technical but in English it means " twisting a nut at the back of the bike until the left brake moves about the same as the right brake before it starts to bite) (It's so quick to do I've even done it waiting for a set of traffic lights to change).

Hope this helps. And welcome to the forums. Sing out if we can help with anything.