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My Bimsey Has a Cold...


Rubdiver2

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So here we go again!

 

Having just fitted a new grip with all the bells and whistles onto the left handlebar, just to have it replaced as the heater was not working, I drove off to work. The bike finally working 100 percent. Or so I thought. Arriving at the airport in order to go offshore for a couple of weeks, I noticed while parking the bike that it was running very unevenly in idle. Going up and down in revolutions about every second. The bike had during the 100 mile drive not shown any signs of any misbehaviour, no lights showing in the display. While on the platform, I researched a bit and hoped that a reset of the Motronic unit could solve the problem.

 

Arriving back at the airport on a late, cold winters night (as it turned out to have become in the meantime) I fired up the bike and as expected, it was running poorly, just managed to get it going when adding some throttle to it, I was forced to drive home as it was. It ran, it was very responsive although adding throttle felt jagged but not an issue to keep going on the freeway at 80. I quickly noticed, that gasconsumption was way up and had to refuel very quickly. I got back to safe harbour but with at least double the gas used. The exhaust was not unexpectedly burning hot and glowing on the inside and layered with black soot at the end of it. So I just pray there has been no further damage.

 

I did a reset of the Motronic yesterday but to no avail, it runs just as unevenly (but runs). I changed spark plugs last year and has had no issue with it. I am now stuck at my moms house in Denmark (always stopping here on my way home to Sweden or to the airport for work)  without proper tools. The always helpful, local mechanic (former BMW biker) unfortunately has no time, so might have to drive the 190 miles to my normal mechanic over in Sweden in the state that it is in (think going from San José via the Golden Gate and Richmond Bridge in order to get to Berkeley but double the distance and five times the price to go over each bridge).

 

So my questions are:

 

Is there something I can do here in order to track down the main issue? My hunch is that it has to due with evap/throttle body issue but of course it can be something else. The bike was parked with half a tank for two weeks but before that has been parked for longer with full tank.

 

Could I drive it to my mechanic without causing more damage?

 

Best wishes to all,

 

Felix

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1 hour ago, Rubdiver2 said:

So here we go again!

 

Having just fitted a new grip with all the bells and whistles onto the left handlebar, just to have it replaced as the heater was not working, I drove off to work. The bike finally working 100 percent. Or so I thought. Arriving at the airport in order to go offshore for a couple of weeks, I noticed while parking the bike that it was running very unevenly in idle. Going up and down in revolutions about every second. The bike had during the 100 mile drive not shown any signs of any misbehaviour, no lights showing in the display. While on the platform, I researched a bit and hoped that a reset of the Motronic unit could solve the problem.

 

Arriving back at the airport on a late, cold winters night (as it turned out to have become in the meantime) I fired up the bike and as expected, it was running poorly, just managed to get it going when adding some throttle to it, I was forced to drive home as it was. It ran, it was very responsive although adding throttle felt jagged but not an issue to keep going on the freeway at 80. I quickly noticed, that gasconsumption was way up and had to refuel very quickly. I got back to safe harbour but with at least double the gas used. The exhaust was not unexpectedly burning hot and glowing on the inside and layered with black soot at the end of it. So I just pray there has been no further damage.

 

I did a reset of the Motronic yesterday but to no avail, it runs just as unevenly (but runs). I changed spark plugs last year and has had no issue with it. I am now stuck at my moms house in Denmark (always stopping here on my way home to Sweden or to the airport for work)  without proper tools. The always helpful, local mechanic (former BMW biker) unfortunately has no time, so might have to drive the 190 miles to my normal mechanic over in Sweden in the state that it is in (think going from San José via the Golden Gate and Richmond Bridge in order to get to Berkeley but double the distance and five times the price to go over each bridge).

 

So my questions are:

 

Is there something I can do here in order to track down the main issue? My hunch is that it has to due with evap/throttle body issue but of course it can be something else. The bike was parked with half a tank for two weeks but before that has been parked for longer with full tank.

 

Could I drive it to my mechanic without causing more damage?

 

Best wishes to all,

 

Felix

Morning  Felix

 

First off to give you specific advice we need to know exactly what BMW you are working with.

 

Once we know for sure what motorcycle (year & model)  then we can make more informed suggestions.  

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32 minutes ago, Rubdiver2 said:

My bad, my bike is a 1200 RT 2010 camhead model authority version (RT-P)

Afternoon Felix

 

It could be as easy as a stick coil that is not working correctly, or possibly water in the gasoline, or possibly a cracked plastic throttle body cam, or a valve issue, or???

 

Not enough information to tell you much without some more information, testing, and/or guessing.  

 

As far as riding to a mechanic?-- That depends of IF the exhaust system is not overheating, it will stay running, & it is ridable without a big problem. 

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So I have pretty much given up doing any work on the RT now.

 

I am standing outside in freezing temperatures and rain on gravel, managed to get right and left upper stick coil out and measure them with dad's very old multimeter from sometime in the 70´s. The coils both read 3 Ohm, a couple of Ohms too much, I believe, but at least they do it in unison! I will go and buy a new multimeter and see if it is still the same.

 

On the right side their is quite a bit of grey "fluff" sitting around the edges of the valve cover, perhaps from all the extra burnt gasoline? Hm.

 

I cannot measure the bottom sticks without having to take off bars and panels it seems, which is just not realistic in the mud as well as taking too much time as I need to be going home by tomorrow, with or without the bike. Looks like without.

 

Spoke to another, local motorcycle mechanic, who would not recommend riding the bike home as all the extra gasoline would "wash" the engine (his word) and perhaps cause irreparable damage to the engine.

 

So am thinking I will cover up the bike and leave the it here for the winter or until I can find a place to repair it. I will travel directly to the workshop in Sweden tomorrow morning and get their advice but also testride and perhaps buy that ´09 LT with only 28.500 miles on it that has been tickling my fancy for some months, so this might just be a good excuse! Ha! I know, I know, a boring K-model but the lower geared RT-P is less suitable for the longer trips around Europe. And I love and miss the old, logical, quality buttons and the cockpit of the LT is just beautiful and organic.

 

So problem solved for now.

 

Felix

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50 minutes ago, Rubdiver2 said:

So I have pretty much given up doing any work on the RT now.

 

I am standing outside in freezing temperatures and rain on gravel, managed to get right and left upper stick coil out and measure them with dad's very old multimeter from sometime in the 70´s. The coils both read 3 Ohm, a couple of Ohms too much, I believe, but at least they do it in unison! I will go and buy a new multimeter and see if it is still the same.

 

On the right side their is quite a bit of grey "fluff" sitting around the edges of the valve cover, perhaps from all the extra burnt gasoline? Hm.

 

I cannot measure the bottom sticks without having to take off bars and panels it seems, which is just not realistic in the mud as well as taking too much time as I need to be going home by tomorrow, with or without the bike. Looks like without.

 

Spoke to another, local motorcycle mechanic, who would not recommend riding the bike home as all the extra gasoline would "wash" the engine (his word) and perhaps cause irreparable damage to the engine.

 

So am thinking I will cover up the bike and leave the it here for the winter or until I can find a place to repair it. I will travel directly to the workshop in Sweden tomorrow morning and get their advice but also testride and perhaps buy that ´09 LT with only 28.500 miles on it that has been tickling my fancy for some months, so this might just be a good excuse! Ha! I know, I know, a boring K-model but the lower geared RT-P is less suitable for the longer trips around Europe. And I love and miss the old, logical, quality buttons and the cockpit of the LT is just beautiful and organic.

 

So problem solved for now.

 

Felix

Morning   Felix

 

Trying to measure those stick coils for resistance is about impossible. All you can really measure is the primary side & that side almost never in the cause of the issue. 

 

The secondary is isolated so really no good way to measure resistance on that side but even if you could the the usual problem is internal arcing to the RFI shield & THAT can't be measured with an ohmmeter. 

 

Swapping in KNOW GOOD stick coils is the best way but you can try running it on JUST the upper coils, then on JUST  the lower coils, as a somewhat test. 

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  • 3 months later...

Hi all,

 

managed to get the bike out on a sunny and mild day and do some work on it. Exchanged all four spark plugs, they looked very sooted but otherwise fine. The new ones did not do any difference, unfortunately, it still sounds like and old Ha...fishing cutter! It runs but sputters like crazy and dies in the low range.

 

So at least narrowing in on the issue. Might very well be a coil that died and going to test it later like you mentioned, Dirtrider, take out a coil or two (with rubbergloves!) while it runs and see how it goes. 

 

Does each stick coil have its own controller or is it just one unit that controls all the coils?

 

Bike fairing assembled and wrapped up again as a snowstorm rolled in. Since I was stranded back in November I went home and bought a beautiful 2008 1200 LT I had been eyeing for awhile and drove it straight to Hamburg, my original plan to do with the RT. Man, what a blast! So I hope I am not being labeled a traitor to go from boxer to inline...but we felt like best buddies after 30 seconds on this enormous bike, completely contrary to the 1600 GT I have also tested. So that was a rather expensive way to deal with a transportation issue. No regrets! Yet.

 

Felix

 

 

 

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11 hours ago, Rubdiver2 said:

Hi all,

 

managed to get the bike out on a sunny and mild day and do some work on it. Exchanged all four spark plugs, they looked very sooted but otherwise fine. The new ones did not do any difference, unfortunately, it still sounds like and old Ha...fishing cutter! It runs but sputters like crazy and dies in the low range.

 

So at least narrowing in on the issue. Might very well be a coil that died and going to test it later like you mentioned, Dirtrider, take out a coil or two (with rubbergloves!) while it runs and see how it goes. 

 

Does each stick coil have its own controller or is it just one unit that controls all the coils?

 

Bike fairing assembled and wrapped up again as a snowstorm rolled in. Since I was stranded back in November I went home and bought a beautiful 2008 1200 LT I had been eyeing for awhile and drove it straight to Hamburg, my original plan to do with the RT. Man, what a blast! So I hope I am not being labeled a traitor to go from boxer to inline...but we felt like best buddies after 30 seconds on this enormous bike, completely contrary to the 1600 GT I have also tested. So that was a rather expensive way to deal with a transportation issue. No regrets! Yet.

 

Morning Felix

 

All 4 coils are operated by the same fueling computer but each coil has it's own separate driver inside that computer. So in effect they are each separately controlled. 

 

Have you checked that you don't have a cracked or broken plastic cam on each of your throttle bodies. Those plastic cams can crack or break causing very poor running & erratic engine operation. You need a good strong light & a small mirror to check the cams. You will also have to slide the plastic cover up the throttle cable to see the cams even with a small mirror & light. 

 

Or, at the very least just make sure that both side throttle cams start opening together & closely track together through the entire throttle opening & closing sequence using the twist grip.  

 

When testing the coils you are better off unplugging them than just pulling the coil off the spark plug as simply pulling the coil off the spark plug with engine running can cause internal coil arcing & therefore coil damage. 

 

All that extra fuel being used bothers me as that points to something very wrong with your engine control system. 

 

 

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  • 5 weeks later...

Hello and Happy Easter everyone!

 

A perfect time to continue working on the bike. It’s a beautiful sunny spring day in Denmark, the bikes are cruising up on and down the road and the Beemz and I aren’t!

 

Thank you, Dirtrider, for your advice. I pulled the coils on the top two and disconnected them. The bike started and ran very unevenly as it has the whole time, I noticed no difference from before. Very distinct smell of petrol after it stopped.

Plopped the coils back in, pulled the bottom ones and started the bike up on the top two, where it ran somewhat more smoothly but still unevenly in revolutions.

 

I have looked for cracks around the cams but could not see any and will clean the fuel injectors now I am at it anyway.

 

I have had a hunch for awhile that the whole issue perhaps could simply stem from a bad O2-sensor? In descriptions of a bad sensor it is pretty much spot on in terms of behavior. I will try to disconnect the sensors and see how the bike behaves running on an open loop instead.

 

The search continues.

 

Felix

 

 

 

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So ran the bike without O2 sensors, even without the airfilter, and it runs less rough but still very unevenly in revolutions. It does not sputter as much as it did before but still dies in idle.

 

I checked the TPS, it gets its five volt reference volts it should, could not check the sensor itself since I do not have any banana clips here (and a lot of other, handy tools)

 

I took the injectors out, could not see anything wrong but how to unclip them without too much gas spillage? So put them back in as they were.

 

Took the bike for a spin. Not sure why but it is incredibly responsive, perhaps because I massaged the wire. It does not smell of petrol anymore but is still rough but not anything like before. It is very jerky when administering speed but goes off like a rocket! 80 mph does not seem like much of a problem. Okay I did put 100 Octane in there, not sure if that is the reason.

 

I noticed the exhaust being very noisy, not sure if it sustained damage after the first, long ride home, where it consumed thrice the amount of petrol it should. 

 

It could perhaps still be a weak coil after all..

 

I will see if I can drive to the mechanic over in Sweden now, my brother following behind in his car if I run into trouble. I am sort of out of options here without proper tools and scanning device.

 

Hope you are all having a great Easter Sunday,

 

Felix

 

 

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