Stalling at Idle; Intermitant

I am looking for any input or suggestions, if anyone else has had my experience;

I had a problem show up with the 2003 FJR today, intermitant stalling at idle, while coming to a stop.

Conditions;

75 degrees F

Bike had run for about 45 minutes

Temperature gauge was at 2 bars

Idle speed set at 1000 RPM

Just intstalled a new air filter (properly seated)

Filled up with fuel at usual spot, wife's GL1800A filled at the same location.

Everything was great, lots of power, no odd noises; bike has been trouble-free.

Occured when I decellerated, went down through the gears, got to 1st, pulled in the clutch at slow speed, breaked to a stop. At this point the engine went back and forth between 1,000 and about 700 RPM a few times, quickly and then stopped.

It started up quite easily and ran after that, did that a couple times.

To add insult to injury, two other riders could not get it to duplicate this, it ran just fine for them.

It then ran fine coming home and behaved well in the garage at home when I checked it out.

If anyone has any useful suggestions, I'd be very interested.

I briefly saw an 03 I hooked up with in Laughlin at the River Run do the same thing. He was showing a code though and it was the O2 Sensor. The Bike had a difficult time idling. I hope this might steer you in the right direction.

blueman

Thanks, that gives me something to ask about at the dealer.

Maybe you got a little water in your tank of gas. Or some bad gas?

Tom

snikr

Thanks, we did think of that.

My wife fills up her 2004 GL1800A at the same place and has not had a problem BUT that may not necessarily rule that possibility out.

It is humid here in the Great Lakes area too, the gas station is a half a mile down the road and I keep a full fuel tank at all times when the bike is in my garage to eliminate the air space.

I have wondered about giving it a small shot of gasline antifreeze but this product is mostly methanol (I believe) and the manual warns about not using "gasohol" (containing methanol). Besides, I am not to keen on using any additives when I am not sure of the full consequences.

The two concerns I have is a stall at the middle of a busy intersection when the light goes green :blink: , or having it quit and refuse to start somewhere

I plan to take it out for a few short local runs to check it out.

As I said, the odd thing is, it behaved just fine for the two guys that took it out for a short run :huh:

Hm....must be the operator then.

Took it out today.

No problems, everything was fine, as it had been up until yesterday.

Not that I'm ready to say it was isolated, yet.

Something I'll keep an eye open for and do some more research on.

Did you sleep in a rat motel with a mexican hooker last night or did you sleep in a best western with a swedish hooker? Either hooker is fine....it's the hotel that will screw you up.

" As I said, the odd thing is, it behaved just fine for the two guys that took it out for a short run "

This can be a difficult problem to duplicate at WOT. :lol:

Make sure the little orange rubber grommet in the fill area is properly seated and properly located. Mine has been dislodged twice, once while cleaning the fill area and a second time when the gas pump nozzle had a huge foreskin.

blueman said:

I briefly saw an 03 I hooked up with in Laughlin at the River Run do the same thing. He was showing a code though and it was the O2 Sensor. The Bike had a difficult time idling. I hope this might steer you in the right direction.

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Blueman, I checked the O2 Sensor today on the diagnostic display, it said it was fine, don't know if that is a definative answer, I assume the diagnostic display does not pick up 100% of the problems.

ionbeam

Thanks, I'll check that. Love your description of the gas pump nozzle, sounds like something I'd say

'03 to '05 info

The O2 sensor only comes into play (closed loop) when the engine is at full operating temp and running at a steady speed. All other times the fuel system is running 'open loop'.

Update

Yesterday I rode for about 7 hours, everything from stop and go in towns, to secondary highway to cruising the four lane at 75 mph steady.

Today I spent 2 hours of "entertainment" on secodary highways and in town.

There were no stalling issues, everything was fine

That's great but it still places me in the WTF stage on what happened the other day.

May have been a momentary blockage in the fuel grommet at the fueling point or one of the hoses running out the bottom.

You have the fuel tank breather, fuel tank overflow, and air filter case breather hose running out the bottom left.

Dirt accumulation or blockage in those can make the engine hiccup.

Check those to make sure the angled slit is facing backwards (so as not to injest road dirt) and ensure they are unclogged.

FJRottie said:

check those to make sure the angled slit is facing backwards (so as not to injest road dirt) and ensure they are unclogged.

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Thanks, I just checked these, as you suggested and they are all OK. So's the bike, so far, its running very well right now.

odot said:

Hm....must be the operator then.

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Actually; I found out at the end of the 2006 season there was a recall due to a faulty TPS.

Got it done at the start of this season.

Runs great, now; life is good.

Sometimes the injectors might get a blockage and a little Chevron cleaner ran through the system at fill up is good. Glad your back on track though. PM. <><

Note that this thread started last June, almost a year ago. Between June and September last year, TPS's started going tits up on '01-'04 FJRs (and other yamaha models) in significant numbers and Yamaha issued a recall. The early failures were generally thought to be fuel delivery which was a logical place to start troubleshooting considering the symptoms. During the July to September time span there was heavy TPS symptom/troubleshooting/repair coverage.

Glad that Shinden got to the root of the problem and got it fixed!

ionbeam said:

Glad that Shinden got to the root of the problem and got it fixed!

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Thanks

ionbeam said:

Note that this thread started last June, almost a year ago.

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It has been a "long road", I posted the final fix story because of being compulsive and liking closure.

When it first happened with my bike, we went over all the possible causes. The 1st incident happened to be at the bike shop where I have service work done, it is a good shop I have delt with for 12 years. The chief mechanic announced "who wants to take the FJR out to check it out"; three of the young mechanics were almost hurt in the stampede Even though it had just stalled on me, they couldn't repeat the performance.

It stalled twice more for the entire 2006 season, not very frequent, for sure. It always re-started and ran. This made diagnosis tough.

It ran "strong" (like an FJR ) at speed but there was a bit of fluctuationat idle that couldn't be tuned out.

Then, last fall I got the recall, if the snow here had waited two days to come, it would have been done in late 2006.

Now w/the new TPS, it runs as well as it did at speed but idles nice and smooth as well.