Kawasaki VIN number and recall

[Changnoi1]

As I was just reading something about a Kawasaki recall of the Versys & Ninja (March 17, some cases of people loosing their foot-pegs) and as I do not think Kawasaki Thailand would ever inform you about a recall (if they do recalls at all) .... I was wondering and tried to do a search with the VIN of my Versys.

Weird because non of the VIN search engines I found seems to accept the VIN. The VIN starts with JKALE which would indicate that it is a Japanese Motorbike. Well it is but it is made in Thailand, right?

With my old Yamaha I could do a search at the Yamaha (Japan) web-site and find the history of the bike (like engine# and frame# did belong to each other). With Kawasaki I can not find anything.

Somebody knows how the check the Kawasaki VIN?

 

[TonyBKK]

Most VIN #s are country specific. I discovered this when I was trying to figure out the origin of my Suzuki GSXR. The seller told me it was from Canada but the VIN didn't work on the Canadian site, so through trial and error I eventually discovered that it's got an Aussie VIN.

With regards to the Kawasaki recall I read that it affect only about 800 units that were manufactured last year. Here's the recall notice from the NHTSA:

Kawasaki is issuing a recall for certain 2012 Ninja 250R and Ninja 650 sportbikes as well as the Versys 650 due to a risk of the passenger footpegs falling off.

According to documents released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the circlips on the footpegs’ mounting pins may break under engine vibrations, potentially leading the footpegs to detach. This poses a potential danger to the passenger. A fallen footpeg may also become a distraction to the rider and create problems for other vehicles.

Kawasaki attributes the problem to improper preparation during the acid washing process before the plating process to a certain batch of circlips.

The affected circlips may be brittle and may even crack during installation. The problem was first identified by Kawasaki Malaysia which found circlips breaking during assembly of a domestic model in December. In the ensuing months, Kawasaki conducted an investigation and concluded there was a potential defect on circlips used on passenger pegs for other, international models.

Kawasaki dealers will replace passenger footpeg circlips on the affected units. The recall campaign affects 793 units manufactured between Sept. 13, 2011 and Oct. 25, 2011.

[Source: NHTSA Campaign ID# 12V081000]

If I owned a bike that was manufactured around that time I'd take some needle nose pliers to those circlips and see how strong they are. If in doubt, replace.

Ride On!

Tony

 

[Changnoi1]

Always thought that VIN was an international industrial standard .... but it seems it is a national and manufactory industrial standard. And it seems that at least Kawasaki (but probably also others) do explain their own standards to their customers. So what is the bloody use of it?

As I bought my bike in Feb'11 I assume it was already made before that issue with the foot-pegs came up. Never the less I had a closer look at them, this as it was time for an personal over-all check of the bike anyway (and a good time to really clean the bike, sprockets and chain).

Chang Noi