I could use some help diagnosing an issue with my '07 BMW F800S please...
I really like this bike a lot. Until now it hasn't missed a beat mechanically and just does what I want it to do and does it well. The one area I wanted to swap out the bars from an ST as the S bars are a little low for me. This conversion requires not only ST bars but also the top of the ST triple clamp. There's a little bit of work involved but it's generally pretty straight forward. Once I completed this project a few nights ago I of course wanted to try out the bike and see how it felt. This is when the issue started!
The bike fired up but wouldn't stay running. It also sounded a little rough. These engines sound rough on the best of days but it was different enough that it caught my attention. After re-firing it a few times I was able to hold the engine at about 2000rpm, though it jumped around by a couple 100 rpm. It also wouldn't idle. Today I had some time to look at it again so I confirmed the wiring to the controls on by both grips looked ok as well as the connections to the battery...basically all the stuff I had messed with. All appeared tp be fine. The bike seemed to be running smoother so I decided to attempt to ride over to the gas station...the only other out of the ordinary thing in this scenario is that when I went to start the bike after the bar swap i noticed the fuel light was on and the gauge was showing 1 bar. I typically never run it that low. Maybe it sucked up some crud from the tank? The ride to the gas station was horrible and it would stall if I didn't keep the revs at 1500 or above. No improvement with a full tank of gas and the ride just got jerkier on the way home.
So basically my mechanically solid, smooth running motorcycle was run low'ish on gas, got new handlebars and is now unridable. Anyone have thoughts on what this could be???
Thanks!
Was it actually low on gas? (Did the amount of gas you put in correspond to the level the gas gauge was reading?)
I am normally in the camp of "what's the last thing you touched?" with issues like this, but aside from a potential wiring issue, I'm not sure how swapping bars would cause this.
It may or may not be a coincidence but something to look into - the F800 series of bikes have a few modules that like to fail. There's a fuel pump controller above the tank that can cause some odd stuff, and these bikes also have a fairly common ECM failure that will cause things to run oddly or not at all. I don't know a ton of the details on diagnosis, but this might help guide your google searching.
Not trying to scare you away from the bike, but it's common enough that my dad's adventure riding/camping group that had 5 F800 GSs between them including my dad's, all had one or both of these failures. They now all ride Africa Twins.
In reply to dculberson :
Yup, based on how much went in I would say the gauge was accurate.
In reply to gearheadE30 :
Thanks, that gives me a direction to go in.
The potential for odd electrical issues and other quirks almost convinced me not to buy the bike. In the 2 years i've had it though, this has been the only issue. Really hoping it's nothing serious as the bike does other things really well.
Did you figure this out? If you have ruled out the modules I would unattach each thing from the handlebar one at a time and see if anything changes. I'm thinking maybe somethings pinched or stretched.
In reply to gunner (Forum Supporter) :
Yes...I think so. I came across a few examples of the idle air actuator valve acting up due to being dirty. After taking it apart, giving it a good cleaning and reassembling it...voila! It runs, idles and drives. I say I think it's fixed because there did still seem to be a bit of surging when holding a constant speed. I'll given it a better test this week and see how it goes. At least it's totally ridable now.
Thanks for the suggestions!
