2005 FJR with intermittent faults

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kevinw

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I haven't posted on here much or for a while so I hope I'll be forgiven for posting something now I have an issue I'm trying to resolve, especially as this is likely to be long and rambling.

I have a 2005 FJR that is driving me up the wall (not literally!). I can ride for miles and miles on motorways with no issue at all. Pull off the motorway into a town or anywhere that involves starting and stopping and it starts to play up very quickly - it won't pull well and refuses to idle which is a PITA in traffic. I can continue riding as long as I like and the problem will not go away once it has manifested itself. Pull over, turn off the ignition, immediately turn it back on again and the fault has gone every time bar one. It's not enough to turn off the kill switch, it has to be the ignition.

Go straight to town without a period of riding first and the problem does not appear.

While I can usually tell as soon as the fault occurs because it doesn't pull well it occurs often enough that I've got into the habit of pulling in the clutch and letting the rev's fall as I approach a town to see if it will idle, just in case, as it affects how I ride - can I ride normally? do I need to keep the rev's up? should I just pull over and apply the 'turn-ignition-off-and-turn-it-on-again' remedy?

On Saturday we'd been out on nice twisty Welsh roads for about 20 minutes, approached a village, dipped the clutch, shut throttle - everything fine. A few seconds later I needed to slow down to pass an obstruction, shut the throttle, open it up - fault appeared. Later after another period of nice roads I shut the throttle as we approached a roundabout and the fault was there as soon as I opened it again. The following day we'd ridden miles on the motorway with no issues, approached a traffic jam, shut the throttle, opened it again to filter (lane split) and there it was again which was singularly unpleasant as I was manoeuvring through the slow-moving cars. Whatever it is it appears to be triggered randomly by the throttle being closed.

There are some other issues that, I'm guessing, are related. Sometimes they occur, sometimes they do not also at random. When the ignition is turned off the screen will park or not, the alarm will arm itself, or not. After using the hazards neither indicator will work. Sometimes the only way I can persuade it to start is in neutral with the side stand up - the clutch interlock doesn't seem to be operating. All these are 'cured' for a while by turning the ignition off and on.

This is an ex-Police bike and I note from the service record that at 7000 miles it had 'poor hot idle' and at 27000 miles it was 'cutting out when hot'. The dealer's name was in the record so I called them about the latter fault and they told me was a kinked tank breather hose which they remedied. My suspicion is it wasn't and they didn't which is why the Police sold it on.

Either this is something central and fundamental - similar issues have been reported elsewhere with a faulty ECU - or the bike has multiple faults. I'm at a loss.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Kevin

 
I'm far from being an expert, but some things I remember hearing about on the Gen I FJRs. The check the main plug for any corrosion. This plug is located under the tank on the RHS at the front, the ignition wires run through this plug. Separately double check if the TPS recall has been done on your bike, as some of the symptoms sound a bit like a TPS issue.

Be patient, some/many of the guys who know everything will surely chip in soon.

 
Just a quick reaction for now, more later, I suspect that there is more than one problem.

The failure to idle is quite likely to be the TPS which had a factory recall. One of the common failure mode of the TPS is to only fail when it is hot, and as soon as the key is turned off it will pass the FJR's diAG test. There is a bit of reading about the TPS and troubleshooting the problem >>here<<

The other problems with the electrics may be related to corrosion or the wiring being altered for police related electrical items.

Edit: I see while I was typing others posted similar content to mine. In a small miracle we all agree :lol:

 
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Good advice so far. Even with the TPS replaced, it's possible (though not likely) that you have a bad one again.

For me, the big one is that fact that cycling the ignition on and off resets everything. I would also be looking hard for a bad sensor of some type, like the atmospheric pressure sensor.

Didn't FredW have a bad sensor on his 05 one day?

 

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