F650GS cutting out in Morocco, advice would be appreciated

[Tim Cullis]

Alfie, my son-in-law, picked up a hire F650GS twin today from Marrakech. Everything was fine for the first few hours then suddenly cutting out problems started.

Whenever revs died substantially or the bike was on a closed throttle the engine would cut out. It wouldn't start immediately, either, he had to wait a minute or two. It happened about 25 times in the last 60km. We limped into Bikershome which was our intended halt anyway.

This is not the same as the fueling cut out, as you cannot restart the engine immediately.

The temperature this morning when we left Marrakech was about 30C, this afternoon it's been between 33 and 37C, but the engine is showing no signs of distress, the fan hasn't needed to come on (we've been on tarmac so far). No misfiring, no loss of power, just cuts out.

Any advice welcome.

 

[Timpo]

Try a Throttle Position Sensor reset:-

Turn on the ignition, open and close the throttle (twist grip) slowly from stop to stop (to a count of say 3, three times, then turn off again.

T.

 

[Timpo]

I've had a quick ganders in advrider..... no other real answer to the TPS reset, though there is mention of blocked air filter (collapsed element), blocked fuel filter, and even a firmware update that has been missed that addressed the stalling issue. They say if you still have the miles remaining function on the dash, the firmware update has not been installed.

 

[MikeMike]

I don't think that is symptomatic of the collapsed air filter. I had a collapsed air filter and my bike didn't do that.
I wonder if it is a venting issue of some sort.

 

[Tim Cullis]

We checked yesterday that the tank didn't have negative pressure. Alfie later said he was running at 6,000 revs much of the time to help prevent cutouts.

Many thanks for the responses. The TPS suggestion is helpful but today we decided to start the day without doing that or anything else. The only thing we did was to refuel and the tank took 9.8 litres, so must have had about 7 litres left in it. The temperature was 32C by the time we set out, and rose to 39C by the time we called it a day. We probably only covered about 100km, but the bike performed flawlessly.

If it starts exhibiting the same cutting out problems the first thing we will do is to try the TPS procedure.

Many thanks
Tim

 

[John Armstrong]

Not vapour locking is it?

 

[curiousexplorer]

cutting out

Hallo, Tim,
In addition to the TPS procedure: check out if the bike is not started with the throttle slightly opened. I observe quite a lot of bikers who open the throttle slightly at the starting of the bike. This would change the position the ECU thinks is "zero" throttle. So closing the throttle would go beyond that point, making the bike stall. Do not touch the throttle and wait until the diagnostic procedure is fully completed before you push the starter button.
Hope you crack it, have a good journey!!