Collective wisdom required...

[ShakeyGS]

Long rambling post follows but your opinions are sought.

I was headed for a weekend away with my club yesterday and ended up with the bike on a recovery vehicle to be dropped at BMW Dundee

A mile or two after refuelling (half a tank added) at a rural filling station I noticed the yellow warning triangle lit up together with the engine icon. Shortly after the bike began to stutter and hesitate. At this point we pulled over for an ice cream break so I did some basis visual checks but I couldn’t find anything untoward. Ice cream finished, I turned on the ignition to see if the light was still there - it was.

Feck! Have I put diesel in the bike? I don’t think so (later confirmed by the AA bloke). Somebody suggested dumping a whole bottle of redex into the tank to see if that helped so I determined to find the next filling station and do just that. When I started the engine, the light went out so happy days

After a hoon down country roads we joined the A9 dual carriageway for a short distance. In my case very short
Same thing again except that this time the bike felt as though it was running on only one cylinder. Shit! There’s a Shell station up ahead; I’m sure I can limp to there and get some redex.

Alas dear reader, we didn’t make it that far.

The bike would do about 35mph in third gear but if I tried fourth I couldn’t maintain the speed. So back into third to get me to the garage. A few seconds later, the second cylinder gave up the ghost and i had to let the clutch in and cruise to a stop.

Once my bike had been pushed to a safer location my seven biker mate buggered off leaving me to use my bank’s breakdown service.

AA bloke took some fuel samples and confirmed that I hadn’t put diesel in the bike but he did think that there was some contamination in the bottom of his sample pot. So I’m thinking that I picked up something from the rural filling station that has buggered my injectors but the odd thing is that at least three of the other took fuel from the same pump without incident (so far ).

This all happened about 2.30pm and I finally got home by train and Lorraine (Mrs S) at 8.30pm. Hey. Ho.

So; Is it the injectors or might it be something more sinister (read expensive)?

 

[autogs]

If other people filled up at the same pump?
All the guessing with modern bikes/cars is a waste of time, plug it in to diagostics and go from there, too many people try to fix something before they know whats even wrong ( not having a pop at you btw),frustrating yes annoying yes but if the fault is not an obvious fault like electrical plug fallen off etc start properly and you will end quicker

Sent from my SM-A202F using Tapatalk

 

[leadfarmer]

Does it turn over well on the starter?

If your alternator goes it can run off the battery for a short while but will quickly drain it completely then konk out

 

[ShakeyGS]

It turns over really well on the starter yes.

I absolutely agree about diagnostics. Shame I didn’t have my Wifi 911 with me

Two bikes filled up after me but only one of them was in our group and that was a Honda VFR FI-W so prolly a bit less sensitive than our bikes?? The other was a nice old square faced Yamaha Fazer. Good luck mate whoever you are.

 

[BobT]

Cannot believe that you dumped a whole bottle of redex into a bike because someone told you. Redex has no octane rating and will do very little to improve anything on a finely tuned engine designed to run on pure petrol with no additives.

 

[ShakeyGS]

Cannot believe that you dumped a whole bottle of redex into a bike because someone told you. Redex has no octane rating and will do very little to improve anything on a finely tuned engine designed to run on pure petrol with no additives.

I didn’t. Have another read.

 

[BobT]

I didn’t. Have another read.

But you were going to.

 

[Davey B]

Cannot believe that you dumped a whole bottle of redex into a bike because someone told you. Redex has no octane rating and will do very little to improve anything on a finely tuned engine designed to run on pure petrol with no additives.

But you were going to.

Helpful posts......

 

[BobT]

Helpful posts......

Yes especially if there is anyone else who thinks that doing that might be a good idea.
Your post is also very helpful.

 

[ShakeyGS]

I have a strong feeling that the fuel was contaminated with water. Water is more dense than petrol and so may have over-pressured and damaged the injectors.
Any other bets?

 

[ShakeyGS]

Yes especially if there is anyone else who thinks that doing that might be a good idea.
Your post is also very helpful.

It would have been an act of desperation to save my weekend and whilst it might not have been of benefit, I doubt it would have done any harm.

A bit of research on water in fuel suggests that rubbing alcohol might be a good way to adsorb the water and help it pass through the injectors.

Anyway, I should know for wure on Monday but a bit of speculation is always entertaining.

 

[leadfarmer]

I have a strong feeling that the fuel was contaminated with water. Water is more dense than petrol and so may have over-pressured and damaged the injectors.
Any other bets?

It’s well known for fucking up Diesel engines, never fill up if you see the tanker filling the underground tanks, it stirs all the water and shite up from the bottom of the tank

Not heard of the same problem with petrol engines but I guess it’s a possibility

 

[autogs]

water in the fuel wont over pressure the injectors! pressure is pressure which is why theres a pressure regulator,your doing the diagnosis before you know the fault again or understand how modern fuel systems work!

 

[meintjiesj]

Had a similar experience about 15 years back in Broadford on Skey. Pulled into the garage to fill up for the road back down south. All the bikes except 2 filled up with normal octane and two bikes filled up with high octane. One of them didn't even leave the fore court and the other one manage about 100m. Both had to be recovered. Recovery driver said no one fill up with high octane on the islands so the fuel are in the tanks a lot longer and can have higher water content.

 

[Shinyface408]

Just saw this, was it at the fuel station at Laide Post Office ? we filled up there ten days ago, my XR 2020 was a fine after filling with £18 ish but a mates GS and a Ktm 1290 GT ran like nails for about 20 miles......could be coincidence or just phycological.....they both mentioned it at the next brew stop.

Shinyface

 

[knutk]

It would have been an act of desperation to save my weekend and whilst it might not have been of benefit, I doubt it would have done any harm.

A bit of research on water in fuel suggests that rubbing alcohol might be a good way to adsorb the water and help it pass through the injectors.

Anyway, I should know for wure on Monday but a bit of speculation is always entertaining.

This was a very common additive to fuel back in the days of carburettors. However, for fuel injection, it is not a good idea. The manufacturer makes great efforts into adding fuel filters that catch any moisture as the moisture will corrode the injectors. By using the additive, the additive makes it possible for the moisture to penetrate the fuel filter, and is a sure way to damage the injectors by corrosion...

 

[Bem]

Long rambling post follows but your opinions are sought.

I was headed for a weekend away with my club yesterday ..........

Maybe "your" club are trying to tell you something?

Seriously, without your 911 you are just guessing. Apart from the inconvenience and time wasted surely there were some good things to come out of your travels?

 

[Winjar]

all do that sir, serious look like fuel bad

 

[ShakeyGS]

You are all right; I am just guessing. Luckily they had a vacant workshop slot at 0900 tomorrow so hopefully I won’t have to wait long to find out.
Naturally, they are going to do a full health check on the bike to see what else they can tempt me to part with money for but I let that go seeing as they were gracious enough to hang on at the dealers until I arrived.
Nice thing was that the guy who booked me in was the same guy who sold me the bike in 2016

 

[ShakeyGS]

This was a very common additive to fuel back in the days of carburettors. However, for fuel injection, it is not a good idea. The manufacturer makes great efforts into adding fuel filters that catch any moisture as the moisture will corrode the injectors. By using the additive, the additive makes it possible for the moisture to penetrate the fuel filter, and is a sure way to damage the injectors by corrosion...

That’s good to know, thanks.