Had the bike 5 minutes and I have run into problems...
With the bike completely stock, it's almost unrideable, especially if you set off gently whilst the engine is warming up in first gear it hesitates, bogs down all over the place.
If I plug the 02 eliminators in, the bike is very smooth throughout the rev range as expected, but when it warms up to operating temp, the bike will, on occasions without any warning, violently lose power until I give it more revs. It's actually quite dangerous and it's visible how the bike slows and picks up speed suddenly. This can also be accompanied with idling issues and it's near on impossible to get the bike going from a standstill in 1st. As soon as the clutch is let out and you build revs (about 2-2500rpm) the revs drop suddenly and you have to slip the clutch to stop it stalling.
The bike is under warranty so it's going to have to go back but I am gutted as I really really don't need this hassle.
Don't mess with it, just bring it back and demand warranty fix, ASAP!
The moment you fiddle around with it, the dealer will have grounds of refusing to fix it as they will blame the problems on you.
Anyway, you do not want to crash and die with the way the thing's running.
Good luck, let us know what becomes of it.
Sounds like a short to me, and the entire electrical system should be checked but since it's under warranty, bring it right back in or you get your money back. Right??
Thanks guys, yes I will definitely be taking the thing back - the dealer I know very well and he is very good with this kind of thing - my worry is though it may be almost impossible to find as the fault/s only occurs intermittently.
It's like the well known jerky throttle/hesitating times by a 1000!
I take it the bike in question is the 03 in your avatar. I don't know mileage but at a guess I would say the first course of action is the dealer & most don't like advise but I would be prompting for a full service like starter valves sync & new plugs even if they look ok, replace fuel & go for test ride.
Funny enough he did say if you have any ideas let the mechanic know before I leave, I will mention all the things said here - I just hope thy don't think I'm going nuts as it's not a consistant problem.
Thanks for the replies, this place never ceases to amaze me
Similar problem on my 04...turned out to be one side stand bolt was missing after being at the painter. Caused the sidestand to start slowly rotating around remaining bolt, causing the sidestand switch wire to become progressively more under strain until it started tugging on the connector and causing a short...result, episodic, sudden loss of power. Scary as hell when in a turn. Check your sidestand for two bolts torqued to spec., you might get lucky and find your problem.
Thanks I will check that now, how much free play is allowed for the kickstand when you move it with the bike on it's centre stand?
Having ridden the bike again today I can narrow the issue down somewhat by explaining that the issue really shows it's ugly head when I am below 6k and especially when in 1st,2nd or 3rd gear around 40-50mph??
How do you temporary disable the side-stand switch? The two leads I thought would work near the oxygen sensors doesnt work as it makes the bike think the sidestand is permantly down.
On a ride today the bike with the 02 eliminators/pair and flapper valve mod ran absolutely wonderful. About an hour or so later I jumped back on the bike to get home and it started doing the severe stuttering again, I pulled over, restarted the bike and it ran fine again all the way home...
OK perhaps narrowing the issue down a bit further, the bike seems to idle badly before doing the spluttering - maybe it's pointing towards a faulty ground/electrical problem - but then thinking about it when I switch the bike on and off it seems fine again...
[image: View Post]vfr_steve, on 31 October 2011 - 01:15 PM, said:
OK perhaps narrowing the issue down a bit further, the bike seems to idle badly before doing the spluttering - maybe it's pointing towards a faulty ground/electrical problem - but then thinking about it when I switch the bike on and off it seems fine again...
for a while...
Man, you sound like I did when I was pulling my hair out trying to find my problem. I hope you find it soon, or if you can bring yourself to, take it back to where you bought it and make it their problem.
Hey 2thdr, you have me worked out, yep I don't want to take it back for the 2nd time, especially as it's a 150mile round trip, but I really am running out of ideas now! One minute it's running like a dream, then suddenly, idle drops, I can hardly get it to sart rolling from a stop without stalling it and it starts doing all this spluttering business. With the 02 sensors in (stock) the effect is even more pronounced, but strangely I don't get the bad idling. Agghhhh!!!
I have bitten the proverbial bullet and given her back, she is their problem now - in the meantime I am running about on a Bandit 650 (05) and I'm loving it!!
Well as an update, after a week of the mechanic riding the bike on and off, on the very last ride this morning the bike chucked up an error code. I'm not sure what the error code contained but he seems to think it has something to do with the ECU - so... they have nicked one off an 05 they have in the shop and it seems to be running fine again, but as you know, that doesn't tell us a lot at this stage.
But hell I've now got a new ECU on the bike, I'm starting to feel sorry for the dealer! ... well, only slightly
Its really retarded how these shops employ nothing but parts changers to randomly throw parts at a problem.. at least you're getting it covered under warranty and not paying for it. I would have been steamin' if I was paying them and they told me they just replaced a random part because they "thought that was what was causing it".. Good grief, learn how to properly diagnose problems if you're gonna work at a dealer/shop.
Yep! I completely agree with you! Plus they have had the bike now for over 2 weeks - Good points are though, as you say, the bike is under warranty and I am running about on a courtesy bike at the moment.
I've had to explain the concept to customers before when they wonder why I booked 7 hours on their ticket,, but when I find a chaffed wire in the harness its repaired for peanuts, and they only paid for my time. Bigger places will change out 3 and 4 parts without knowing whats going on, then when they get the right part they'll explain to the owner that it was a combination of all the parts working against each other and then they get to pay for time and unnecessary parts.
I guess that's their intended game though, they don't wanna pay their techs, so they naturally get less talented workers, on purpose.. Then they can sell more over priced parts.. Guess they call 'em the Stealership for a reason.
It is quite possible for the ECU to cause those problems, but there's a big difference between possible and probable. I think the most likely answer is something in the wiring, grounding/shorting out, I've found wires on headers quite a few times. Example was this morning on my own viffer when the bike spit out one of my epoxy PAIR valve plugs, found my speed sensor wire on the rear header all burnt.. I don't run a dash though, so it wasn't connected to anything to cause problems with. Good luck with the bike, hope they get it figured out soon, that way you can quit admiring the Zuk and start your love affair with the VFR.
[image: View Post]NakedViffer, on 16 November 2011 - 10:54 AM, said:
Its really retarded how these shops employ nothing but parts changers to randomly throw parts at a problem.. at least you're getting it covered under warranty and not paying for it. I would have been steamin' if I was paying them and they told me they just replaced a random part because they "thought that was what was causing it".. Good grief, learn how to properly diagnose problems if you're gonna work at a dealer/shop.
It's been that way for for quite a while now with cars, so it really sucks if you have a not very reliable car to start with (VW in the recent past, in my case), and now that bikes have EFI and computer fuel/engine management systems, it's becoming the same for motorcycle service departments. I predict that once the all the old school" mechanics are totally purged from the service department systems, after c couple of more decades, the rate of dissatisfaction with customers will surely go up exponentially.
UPDATE for everyone - I rode the 150 mile round trip to collect the bike from the dealer after they gave it the all clear. The bike ran great on the way back until about half way, when the temp reached over 80+ the bike started hesitating very badly to the point of almost cutting out and basically it felt like I was riding a wild Bull - took the thing back and came home (in the fog) on the bandit..
Case NOT closed yet... what a wonderful way to spend my day off! :(
It's an 05 650 Bandit - Good fun machine but certainly not up to the all weather - long distance pannier filled runs that I have use all my previous 7 VFR's for :)
By the way, it's nearly been a month now and I'm still running about on this thing, as I say though, the 650 is great fun and if I could afford to buy this bike as a winter hack I probably would! But it's going for nearly 3 big ones.
End of thread · 30 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 23 Dec 2011