Steep hill, low gas engine dies

[danyro]

I had a scary incident earlier this afternoon. I was pulling out of a very steep driveway with the intent of merging onto HW101 (oregon) in pouring rain. Engine died right in the middle of the turn!

I looked like Fred Flintstone pushing "the pig" to the side of the road as traffic was approaching at 55 mph+. Once I made it, I was able to fire it again after a few coughs and sputters.

I had about 1tick left on the gas gauge. I am thinking that I ran out of gas for a short moment...

Any of you experienced this one?

 

[Brodie]

With 1 tick left on the fuel gage you should have more than 2 gallons in there. I doubt it was out of gas. The fuel inlet lives at the base of the fuel pump on the bottom of the tank.

Brodie

 

[danyro]

With 1 tick left on the fuel gage you should have more than 2 gallons in there. I doubt it was out of gas. The fuel inlet lives at the base of the fuel pump on the bottom of the tank.

Brodie

ran it for 2 hours after a quick pit stop to fill her up. no issues. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[03HiYoSilver]

Dan,

You may want to look into the Harness,Ignition Switch, and possibly the early onset of a Spider condition. Especially since it was wet.

Good Luck finding the cause of this.

 

[danyro]

Dan,

You may want to look into the Harness,Ignition Switch, and possibly the early onset of a Spider condition. Especially since it was wet.

Good Luck finding the cause of this.

Thanks for the info... This helps me a lot.

Bike was just coming out of the garage that was bone dry.

 

[Donal]

What was your engine temperature at the time? Ideally it should be two bars or more & the revs should have settled down.

What is your idle speed set at? ideally it should be ~1100 RPM when warmed up.

Don

 

[charismaticmegafauna]

... Engine died right in the middle of the turn! Any of you experienced this one?

One of the exact symptoms when I had a bad TPS.

Easily checked with DIAG screen.

Good luck.

 

[ionbeam]

...One of the exact symptoms when I had a bad TPS...Easily checked with DIAG screen...

danyro's Gen II '07 shouldn't have a TPS failure like the Gen I did, though stuff happens. It would be interesting to see if there are any codes set in diAG memory. danyro can check this himself if he has a FSM, plus I have a procedure for diAG checks posted in this Forum.

 

[Burnspot]

What was your engine temperature at the time? Ideally it should be two bars or more & the revs should have settled down.

What is your idle speed set at? ideally it should be ~1100 RPM when warmed up.

Don

+1 I'd check on the idle.

 

[danyro]

What was your engine temperature at the time? Ideally it should be two bars or more & the revs should have settled down.

What is your idle speed set at? ideally it should be ~1100 RPM when warmed up.

Don

Engine temp at the time was cold. Engine was running for maybe 90 sec. Idle speed when cold is typically in the 1400 range and settles around 1000-1100 when warm. I am a new owner with about 1200 miles on the beast and so far and I have not experienced any sputtering at low rpm until then. I will do the diAG checks suggested above and advise. Again thanks for all of the info!

 

[03HiYoSilver]

Dan,

Some added suggestions for you:

1- Keep at least a 1/4 Tank of Fuel in the Tank...this will keep your Fuel Pump Cool and Keep the Moisture from developing from the Ethanol Fuel.

2- Periodically use some SeaFoam Treatment to help cleans out your Fuel System.

3- Use Tier 1 Fuels for quality and consistancy.

Enjoy the FJR !

 

[garyahouse]

You said pouring rain.

Sounds like what just happened to my Gen 1. I washed the bike, it began to rain, so I left it out for a few minutes and let the rain rinse the hard water from our well off the bike. Pulled it in the garage and dried it off. Two rainy days later, it wouldn't start. Spit and almost started a couple times, but wouldn't start. Pulled the plugs: wet, but nice tan color on all four. Put in new ones, still nothing. So I took the bike over to Gable's in Cobleskill, NY. Great bunch of guys. They said, "six days till we can even look at it." I told them I was 1000 miles from home and was due to leave that same morning. They squeezed me in the next morning because of my "emergency." Jim, the mechanic there, found that the ignition coils were wet and the contacts were a little corroded. Pulled them out, blew em off with compressed air, cleaned and coated the contacts with di-electric grease, and she's been running just fine since. It seems that since the contacts (where the 12v wires hook in to the coils) were corroded already, it just took a little more water to do them in. Seems like pulling those leads off and checking them is cheap insurance.

I would highly recommend this small town dealer to anyone in the area. I sure do appreciate the service manager, Jim the mechanic and the fine service there.

Gary

darksider #44

 

[iliveforcurves]

I have noticed when I park facing uphill on a steep incline with low gas the bike won't start. It starts right up when I get it on level ground.

 

[cruppelt]

I am going up a very steep hill every night to go home, and sometimes with barely a couple of wiffs of fuel vapor in there, since I always have some full cans around the garage that I can use to refill with. I NEVER had it sputter like you are describing, sounds like a different issue (like ground spider)to me. Good luck!

 

[danyro]

Update: Well folks everything is still working just fine and no reoccurrence since my initial post. Quite a few miles since in diverse weather.