Flooded 1200?

[Russ]

Wheeled the beastie out the garage this morning, and thumbed the starter, she caught for a second then refused to continue.

Cranked the starter again and there was a lot of whirring and no starting. Starter motor is making a healthly sound, and the display is reporting no problems, but lots of whirring and no firing, so i'm guessing maybe the starter clutch has gone, so there i am cursing this supposed kraut reliability

Then i remembered i'd started it up briefly on saturday to move it, so perhaps it was flooded?

So opened the throttle, cranked, she caught, stammered then died, a bit more throttle (open/shut) held it open, she fired, i opened the throttle some more, and she popped into life, and idled happily. Thought to myself better check there isn't a problem as i don't want to be stuck in the smog with a non-functioning bike, so stopped the engine, and she restarted first time? Gave her a good thrash into town, and she runs perfectly now.

I thought you couldn't flood Fuel injected bikes? How weird?

 

[TerryM]

Clearly Russ you have the know how lacking in so many of us!

But seriously, when the motor is shut off the injection system is pressurised, and if one or more injectors stays open due to a spurious signal or perhaps fuel contamination or build up of dirt on the injector pintle then the motor will flood.

Take it to dealer and invoke warranty.

Terry

 

[Russ]

Clearly Russ you have the know how lacking in so many of us!

But seriously, when the motor is shut off the injection system is pressurised, and if one or more injectors stays open due to a spurious signal or perhaps fuel contamination or build up of dirt on the injector pintle then the motor will flood.

Take it to dealer and invoke warranty.

Terry

sarky git

She'll be due up for a 6K service soon, i'll mention it then...just was surprised it could happen

 

[B Murr]

While at the dealer get the cat checked out too. The flooded engine will have soaked the cat in fuel which will then overhead and fry the cat when engine starts up.

 

[GSmonkey]

Had a similar thing with my last fuel injected sportsbike. It'd been unused for a week whilst on holiday, so when I got back I started it to make sure it would go for work in the morning. Only ran it for 5 seconds. Next morning it took me about 90sec of cranking to get it away. Never did it again........there again I never ran the bike for only 5sec again!!!

 

[TerryM]

Had a similar thing with my last fuel injected sportsbike. It'd been unused for a week whilst on holiday, so when I got back I started it to make sure it would go for work in the morning. Only ran it for 5 seconds. Next morning it took me about 90sec of cranking to get it away. Never did it again........there again I never ran the bike for only 5sec again!!!

Monkey,

Which bike and did you ever find a cause?

If not could it be that the software on some FI bikes commonly has a routine to run at start up to do with the rich idle needs of a cold motor and that interrupting the procedure leaves the injectors hung up?

So far I have not had it happen on BM, Honda or Ducati.

Terry

 

[GSmonkey]

Monkey,

Which bike and did you ever find a cause?

If not could it be that the software on some FI bikes commonly has a routine to run at start up to do with the rich idle needs of a cold motor and that interrupting the procedure leaves the injectors hung up?

So far I have not had it happen on BM, Honda or Ducati.

Terry

Honda CBR600.....only did it the once though.

 

[JayGee]

Had a similar thing with my last fuel injected sportsbike. It'd been unused for a week whilst on holiday, so when I got back I started it to make sure it would go for work in the morning. Only ran it for 5 seconds. Next morning it took me about 90sec of cranking to get it away. Never did it again........there again I never ran the bike for only 5sec again!!!

I've had the same on my Fi blackbird, it happened twice before I realised it seemed to be linked to just running it for a few secs. Only did it to make sure the battery had enough to start the next morning. Stupid really cos it just took a bit more out of the battery and doesn't do the engine much good either.
Sounds a similar effect but I've not had it happen on the GS12 but then I don't run it for just a few secs.
I think the brain must think it's still half way through a startup and not be reset properly when switching off, either that or fuel can stay there overnight (you'd think it would evaporate).

 

[schnauzer]

similar on a t595 triumph, on the RSV mille when i took delivery the sales chap said to always warm it to 55 degrees before either switching it off or riding due to the cold start thing..... tried riding it once when i forgot and it was awfull and eventually stalled and was a b'stard to get going again.....

 

[Emoto]

Then i remembered i'd started it up briefly on saturday to move it, so perhaps it was flooded?

I've seen this behavior in fuel injected vehicles before. Start one up when it is stone cold, only let the engine run for a few seconds, then shut it off. Later, come back and start it again and it will be reluctant to start and once it fires may idle very roughly until the extra fuel is gone. My theory is that they change to an extremely rich mixture when starting from stone cold and ordinarily, when allowed to run for a minute or three, will re-adjust back to a more normal mixture. If one does not allow that to happen, there will be excess fuel in the intake and chamber. That's just a theory...