AtWhatMileage
Engine · 2 owner reports

Other engine problem on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14

Only 2 reports for this mode came with an odometer reading, which is too few for percentiles to mean anything. The page is here because someone linked to it; treat the figures as anecdotes, and see the full report for this year instead.

Reports of this failure 2
With an odometer reading 2
Reports per 1,000 built 0.8 per 1,000
Filed below 36,000 miles 100%
Mention a crash, fire or injury 0
Typical repair $300–$4,000
What it means when it happens High
Rank among this year's problems 7th

When other engine problem gets reported

There are 2 reports of other engine problem on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14, 2 with a mileage attached. That is too few to place the failure on the odometer with any confidence.

A part like this is normally expected to survive 95,000 miles. It is the 7th most-reported problem on this model year.

The whole distribution

Percentiles of the 2 odometer readings owners gave.
10th25thMedian 75th90th
— — 3,905 miles — —

Read the 10th percentile as “one report in ten arrived this early”. Exact figures are shown in this table because it is the table of record; everywhere else on the site they are rounded to the precision the sample can carry.

What a percentile can and cannot tell you here

These five numbers describe the readings owners gave, in order. The median is the middle one: half the reports arrived below it. The 10th and 90th are the edges of the bulk of the distribution, and the distance between them is the part worth reading. A tight spread — say 70,000 to 95,000 miles — points at something that wears out on a schedule, and the schedule is knowable. A wide one, 20,000 to 190,000, points at a fault that hits some cars and never troubles others, which means the mileage on the listing in front of you tells you very little about your odds.

What these figures are not is a survival curve. Every reading here comes from a car whose owner filed a complaint, so the sample contains only failures: it cannot say what share of the fleet made it past 150,000 miles untouched, because those owners had nothing to report. Nor is the mileage the moment of failure — it is the odometer reading as recalled at the time of filing, which may be weeks later and is sometimes rounded to the nearest ten thousand by the person typing it.

Percentiles are shown at all only once 8 readings exist for the vehicle and mode. Below that the middle of a handful of numbers is noise wearing a decimal point, so the figures are withheld rather than dressed up.

What happens, and what it costs

Putting it right typically runs $300–$4,000 at an independent US shop. That range is an editorial estimate held in this site's failure-mode catalogue, not a figure from NHTSA, and it is a repair cost rather than a diagnosis cost.

The same failure, every year of the Kawasaki Concours 14

If one year stands out to the left, that is the year to avoid; if the whole line sits at a similar mileage, this is wear rather than a defect in one production run.

Median
  1. 2008 (this one) 4k
  2. 2009 Kawasaki Concours 14 other engine problem 28k
  3. 2013 Kawasaki Concours 14 other engine problem 13k

Tick median reported mileage Solid middle half of reports Faint 10th to 90th percentile Colour how bad the failure is when it happens

What owners wrote

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint narratives, trimmed for length. The mileage is the one the owner gave.

2008 kawasaki concours motorcycle. This vehicle produces an unbearable amount of engine heat which by manufacturer design in directed onto the operator. This excessive heat is capable of producing blisters and burns- especially in the ship and knee area of the right leg. I'm also concerned that the heat will cause the operator to pass out or become extremely heat fatigued during hot weather. *tr

10 miles NHTSA complaint 694123 filed 2008-10-27

Oil leaking from the cam position sensor o-ring(s). Fluid leaks onto hot cylinder block and exhaust. I have not had a fire yet, but the potential is there if enough fluid escapes onto the exhaust. The motorcycle is currently in for the same repair for a third time (as of 22 september 2014). The second time was the 14th of may 2014. Conversations with shop personnel indicate this is a known problem at kawasaki and the leak problem is current and ongoing among owners of this particular model motorcycle. *tr

7,800 miles NHTSA complaint 1112593 filed 2014-09-23

Also reported on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14

Other body or interior problem

12 reports median 10k

Other brake problem

6 reports median 12k

Fuel pump failure

3 reports median 1k

Loss of braking

2 reports median 24k

Premature brake pad or rotor wear

2 reports median 7k

Headlight failure or clouding

2 reports median 5

How far this goes

This page is kept out of search results because 2 reports is not enough to publish percentiles from. It stays reachable because somebody looking at this exact car would rather see the reports than be told there are none.

Complaints are voluntary, so 2 is a floor and not a count of affected cars. Mileages are typed in by owners and cluster on round numbers. And the mode itself is assigned by software reading the complaint text, which is reliable in bulk and fallible one report at a time.

Questions this page answers

At what mileage does other engine problem happen on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14?

Across 2 owner reports that included an odometer reading, half were filed by 5,000 miles. A quarter were filed before — and a quarter after —. These are the mileages owners reported when they complained, not a prediction for any individual car.

How common is other engine problem on the 2008 Kawasaki Concours 14?

2 reports have been filed with NHTSA, about 0.8 per 1,000 vehicles. Complaints are voluntary, so this is a floor rather than a count of affected cars.

What this is and is not. These are the mileages at which owners chose to complain to a federal agency, which is not the same as the mileage at which the part fails on every car. It skews toward failures that happened outside warranty, cost real money, or frightened someone. It is still the only public dataset that carries failure mileage at all, and the shape of a few hundred readings is informative even when a single one is not. Methodology · JSON · this failure on other cars

Source Owner complaints and recall records published by the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, model years 1996–2027 Figures rebuilt Published by AtWhatMileage How every figure is computed