Cold Start reluctance

[Piggers]

Gent's,

I dragged my bike out of the garage recently and it took quite a few cranks to get it to fire up. I took it for a 2 hour trip which included re-filling the tank, so the fuel should be fine. After I had left it for a few hours and was ready to come home it was a pig to start, just kept cranking. Eventully I tried and old DRZ 400 trick I used to used when my bike had been dropped and stalled, crank it with the throttle fully open until it fires a couple of times, then close the throttle and try again and it fired up. Stopped it and tried a few times on the way home and when hot fires instantly.
I left it in my garage for a few days and tried it again. Same story didn't want to start with or without choke. Tried the open throttle trick and it worked.
I changed the Air Filter and plugs as they were due anyway and I checked all plugs were firing. (whilst checking the main plugs (old plugs on the HT Coils, with the new plugs in place) she fired up and ran on the secondaries alone, so I dont think there is a spark problem.)
I tried firing it up yesterday without any choke and it started, so it almost sounds like it could be flooding it when I have tried to start with the choke, as I always used to !

Once running power appears to fine.

Any ideas ?

Cheers, Piggers

 

[sockpuppet]

Is this a 1100 or 1150? The 1150 isn't a choke but a fast idle ... or so I thought.

 

[motobiker]

Is this a 1100 or 1150? The 1150 isn't a choke but a fast idle ... or so I thought.

For this purpose the Two Bikes are Identical - Neither have a 'choke' BUT the lever has CHOKE printed on it. So its quite acceptable to call it a choke even though it isn't.

Piggers. My 1100 never needs any 'choke' - I simply start it give it a touch of revs and pull away. It's a bad idea to let the thing idle I believe. Could easily be that now the weather has warmed up your bike simply doesn't need any 'choke' And just a few good runs to clear away the 'cobwebs'.

seems to me you answered your own question matey.

 

[Steptoe]

Seeing as you've been pulling things about do the usual throttle cable check and get that cleared up before we start suggesting all sorts of things.

 

[Piggers]

Choke

Sorry Gent's,

should have said that it is a 2005 1150 GSA.

The "Choke" lever has two settings one which latches (Fast idle) and a second that you have to hold, which i thought was a Choke.

I am sure that someone can clarify.

The fact that it doesn't start in the same manner that it used to kind of indicates that something has changed !

Off to the Alps at the end of May, so hoping to get it sorted soon.

Cheers, Piggers

 

[Colban]

Are the plugs the correct colour-not black or wet?.
Does the fuel consumption seem too high?.
Is the air temp sensor plugged in OK?(in airbox lid).

 

[Piggers]

Seeing as you've been pulling things about do the usual throttle cable check and get that cleared up before we start suggesting all sorts of things.

Steptoe,

The Throttle cables nicely seated and correctly adjusted. So that can be ticked off the list.

Cheers

Piggers

 

[Piggers]

Are the plugs the correct colour-not black or wet?.
Does the fuel consumption seem too high?.
Is the air temp sensor plugged in OK?(in airbox lid).

Plugs looked fine, but now you mention it the consumption did appear to be a bit higher than normal, but I did have a strong headwind all the way back, so put it down to that. I have just check the distances on the web and I probably did 270 miles on a tank full, which I calculate as 35 miles per gallon.


I will check the temp sensor when I get home.

Cheers,

Piggers

 

[Piggers]

Temp Sensor

Are the plugs the correct colour-not black or wet?.
Does the fuel consumption seem too high?.
Is the air temp sensor plugged in OK?(in airbox lid).

The Air Temp sensor all looks fines. I measured the resistance as 4.32K ohms with the bike in the garage this morning, so I think te the temp would be about 12Deg.C Does anyone know what it should be ?


Cheers, Piggers.

 

[Piggers]

booked it in for a diagnostic check

As there were no other suggestions I have booked it into the dealer to get a Bosch diagnostics check done on it.
I will let you know what they find in case it is of any use to anyone else in the future.
(Looking at the wiring diagram it it could be the Air Temp, Oil Temp, Throttle position, Lamnda Sensor or MOTRONIC unit !)

Cheers,

Piggers

 

[ianboydsnr]

were the primary plugs firing?

 

[Piggers]

were the primary plugs firing?

Yes, they had a nice healthy looking spark.

Cheers,

 

[Piggers]

No Faults Found !

Had it tested at a dealer on the diagnostics tester and they couldn't find anything wrong !

Sockpuppet was correct - They confirmed that the choke is in fact just a throttle adjustments in both positions and not a Choke

It appears to be firing up okay with no choke at present so I will see what happens in the Alps next week.

Cheers,

Piggers

 

[Stanley Knife]

This maybe a long shot, but I had been experiencing cold starting problems about 3 weeks ago on my 2003 twin spark (22,000 miles), just before a trip to Germany.

I replaced all 4 plugs just before I went which made no difference at all, it seemed really slow to spin over and and usually took at least a couple of trys to get it going.

Twice during the trip the starter failed to crank up straight away, as if the battery was duff, but I had fitted a Hawker over the winter and I knew it was good.

When i got back last week I stripped the starter and found the grease retaining plate had detatched and was jamming the starter.

Cleaned it all up ditched the plate and re-assembled,now it fires up first touch of the button every time, much better than it has done for years (I have owned it from new).

A long shot but until it started sticking I would not have suspected the starter.

 

[Piggers]

Cheers Scooter Boy, i'll bear it in mind.

Piggers