Floods and puddles of water on roads have recently become a scourge for motorbikes. Increasingly frequent rain in Indonesia is a challenge for automatic motorbike drivers at the end of 2023.
Often, due to work demands and needs, motorbike drivers choose to drive through floods or puddles of water. Unfortunately, this decision could damage the motorbike.
Astra Honda Motor, the agent holding the Honda motorbike brand in Indonesia, does not recommend consumers of its automatic motorbikes to ride through floods. The reason is that the motor is at great risk of water hammer conditions when excess water enters the combustion chamber.
Large volumes of water entering the engine can have fatal consequences, starting from bending the piston and breaking the piston. Therefore, it is highly discouraged for automatic motorbike users to brave the flood.
But if you are determined to get through the flood, then be prepared to dig deeper into your pockets to service and replace automatic motorbike components. AHM estimates that it will take around 90,000 to IDR 150,000 to carry out light servicing on a motorbike damaged by going through the flood.
But if water has entered the combustion chamber, the engine must be dismantled and the automatic motorbike owner must prepare funds of around IDR 300,000, not including the cost of spare parts.
Spare parts that need to be replaced include spark plugs, around Rp. 12,000 Rp. 28,000. The spark plug cap also needs to be replaced at a cost of up to IDR 30,000. But the worst thing is if the ECU also has a problem. To replace it requires funds ranging from IDR 450,000 to IDR 1.5 million.
On automatic motorbikes that use a belt drive, this part is included in the Continuously Variable Transmission or CVT component. After being hit by the flood, this component is one of the components that must be ensured that water does not enter.
Water entering the CVT can cause the motorbike to not start even though the engine is running. This is because water interferes with the performance of the drive pulley and driven pulley. Ultimately, this component is unable to transfer engine power to the wheels via the belt.
Therefore, after experiencing a flood, immediately check this component. If you keep forcing it to run, the CVT will quickly become damaged. Estimated costs for replacing components on CVTs vary.
For example on a Honda Beat motorbike, the service price is around IDR 35,000 IDR 45,000. The service in question is cleaning and lubrication.
Meanwhile, the price for a roller set is around IDR 36,000 IDR 58,000, v-belt IDR 90,000 and double canvas IDR 129,000 IDR 138,000. And axle oil is around IDR 15,000 IDR 18 thousand.
The prices above are of course still estimates and could be cheaper or vice versa if this is true. Therefore, AHM advises automatic motorbike owners not to go through flood waters if they don’t want to spend up to IDR 2 million for servicing.
