Got a weird one,

Riding along in 5th in a 360kmh \ 35 mph zone, engine just fads away. FI light is on. Pump the throttle and it catches right away.

Happen 4 times yesterday,
After the first time I stopped and opened the cap in case the vent was blocked, There was no vacuum.

I have a service manual and checked the last error code in the ECU. No error codes stored?

The road was dry and there was no rain. The bike is stored in a garage and was fully warmed up.

Only happen as I was crusing at low speeds in say 4th or 5th (~ 3000 rpm).

Right now I'm thinking bad gas but would other opinions, I'm a bit worried it's the regulator (we are leaving soon on an 8 week trip)
The bike is a 2007 with 25,000 km which I picked up about a month ago.

Chris

Not trying to be critical of your riding style but I think you might be lugging the engine too much. 5th gear at 60kph is pretty tall. The engine is designed to spin to 10k rpm; I think you'll find it much happier spooled up a bit.

But it shouldn't stall, even at those low rpm's. Must be something else.

I know it was slow but it wasn't lugging, I had just entered a residential area and was slowly changing down through the box on minimal throttle, it just quit and then came right back.

What I don't understand is the no stored error code, the FI light comes on hard.

Chris

Have you tried diagnostic mode 2 to recover codes set in memory?
Key on, touch the self-diagnosis terminal rapidly to ground more than 5 times within 2 seconds. The lead must remain grounded (after 5 groundings) for the remainder of the diagnostic session. The codes will readout exactly as in mode 1.

Tried that no codes. I'm going to try again tonight.
I checked the UK forum, I think I'm suffering from "Stuttering" it's been reported a few times. Their current working theory is that the ECU under these conditions can go ultra lean causing fuel starvation, that's exactly what it feels like.

The bike also feels very buzzy so I'm going to resycn the throttle bodies and see if that helps

Chris

Mine sputtered a bit today. Idle was fine, but when i went to roll on to throttle it spit and sputtered like it was running out of gas. 1st time its ever done it. And yes It had 3/4 of a tank. It came out of it pretty quick maybe 20-30 seconds at most. It was curiously -5 min after reading this post the 1st time!!

Sorry Bug, I hope my post didn't sound condescending, it wasn't meant to be. You obviously know about things mechanical. Good luck sorting out the problem.

I've had a car and a pickup that did this, it was caused by moisture in the distributor cap. Once the car was warm it stopped. To fix I saturated inside the cap and spark plug wire connections with WD40 and it never re-occurred.

Maybe your spark plug connection has allowed a little moisture in? Have you ridden much in rain or live in a high humidity zone?

Do you have the maintenance manual PDF? In the trouble shooting appendix it lists checking plugs, and the stick coil as well as low battery voltage.

Problem has disappeared by itself, I've put another 200 km on the same tank of gas and no problems.

Split, condensation could have been the problem because at the time we were still getting over night lows below freezing.

I havn't had time to take the tank off yet, probably do that this weekend

Chris

My V did something like that where it acted as if it got gas, then didn't, then did...sputter....go....sputter...

It only did it a few miles from home and I barely made it home. Had it towed to the shop the next day, they had it for a week and couldn't find any problem and about 3000 miles since then, it never did it again.

Here's a remote idea that may have happened to me. I have a power commander and their site says if you add LEDs to your back light, that could mess up the commander signal. I did find that my rear brake light often got stuck on because my foot brake pedal at the brake wiring harness sensor would stick. After cleaning that area and lubing it, it would no longer stick. Was that it? Who knows.

If it does happen again, I'm going to pull over, turn off the bike for a few seconds and start it up again to see if the ECU just needed a reboot.

Had similar with my '08 V, yesterday for the first time it died while riding. It was just after I left home, so it was still cold, two stopstreets from my house as I'm cruising into the stop the V just died.

I have felt stuttering before, and even asked the guys to check it out on my recent service, they couldn't find anything wrong. Normally happens when the bike is still cold, lean into the first few corners and the bike feels like it gulps, which is bit uncomfortable cause the sudden power loss makes the bike want to lean down further and slow down.

Because it happens when the bike is still cold I am not too concerned, suspect it is just the flow control for the automatic choke (I'm not technical ok ;-), so I'll call it the auto choke) that is misbehaving.

The idle stop cam on the secondary throttle plate shaft controlled by secondary TPS, keeps the main throttle plates partly open until warmed up for a faster idle. I've had no such problems in the cold, and my secondary throttle plates have always been removed. Adjusting the main TPS up to spec resulting in more fuel and timing advance at low throttle openings, improved driveability in all conditions, and cured the lean backfire. I then had to back off secondary TPS to minimun setting (it was already close) to reduce cold fast idle rpm...

My 09 V is still at the dealer with a fuel problem. They figure its the fuel pump for my scenario. The first time the problem occured she just would not start after sitting for around 45min after a half hr drive. So off to the dealer it went. They couldn't find anything in particular but after checking the plugs it started???. Anyways half way home on a tight twisty downhill grade I started to loose power gradually until it stalled all together. Picking it up tomorrow so hopefully thats all it was as touring season is upon us and I only have 700km on her.

The problem is back, it's an intermittant connection to the fuel pump.
It's either wiring or the relay box.
The pump quits and the engine dies of fuel starvation, no FI fault is recorded.
I'm pulling the tank and will let you know what I find.

Chris

intermittent problems

Good luck with the fix... fingers crossed

Well I pulled the tank, pulled the relay box, checked all the connectors.
Connected everything with the tank lifted and the bugger started first time.

When I have the problem I do not hear either the FI initializing or the fuel pump priming.
The gauges do sweep but the FI LED never lights.

The power connector (white) to the pump came apart rather easily, I thought I had the problem then however the FI initializes with this connector apart.

While the bike was running I tugged on every wire and connector but nothing caused it to die.

I am still suspecting the relay box to be the problem. I cleaned all the contacts and applied dielectric grease to them.

I had hoped to find it this time, we are leaving on an 8 week trip to Alaska in three weeks and having a nagging worry about the bike is the last thing we need. I have ordered a spare relay box, I am at the point where I can get the tank off in 10 mins so replacing it in the field will not be a problem.

Thoughts? Both me and the shop manual are running out of ideas
Chris

Maybe it was a bad connection at the fuel pump. Ride it as much as you can until the trip to test it out. Hopefully the fuel pump is good.

That white power connector to the pump you mentioned, when it's plugged together correctly, is pretty difficult to get apart. The fact that it came apart so easily for you may mean you found the cause of the problem. Had you had the tank off prior to the onset of this problem?

Don't put your pump aside as the computer does not monitor your pump so the FI light will not come on with pump issues. My fuel issue was random also but after the pump change and 500km since, I have not had anymore problems. The white connector does worry me also. Maybe just clean the connection and use some dielectric grease and black tape over the connector and see if that helps.