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Help diagnose: Engine stalled, FI light flickering.---Now diagnosed!


superhawk996

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Slowing to a red light splitting cars, about 8-10 MPH, pulled the clutch to down shift and it died as the light changed. It started right back up and off I went. The FI light was flickering dimly, but it's fairly dim anyway. Not a steady flash, random flickering of varying intensity. It stopped a couple blocks afterwards. It ran fine before and after the stall. It was the second short ride of the day, about 85 out, 210 engine temp. Stock motor other than a K&N recently serviced. Plugs were done recently as well as a new fuel pressure regulator. Tank close to full. Anyone know what it could be? I don't want to get blindsided down the road if there's something starting to fail that can be fixed now.

Edited by superhawk996
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The shop manual has a diagnostic section for FI light. Probably 10 pages long. Hope I never need it.

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No power commander. Charging was my first thought and I pushed the start button to turn the headlight off and the FI light went out, but it could have been coincidental cuz I wasn't able to stare at it while dodging traffic, I held the button just in case 'till I was in the open and the FI light was off. I rode another 20 minutes with one stop and after getting home I restarted to lube the chain, no signs of charge trouble. I just checked charging, I've been suspecting a weak battery since I got the bike, after being parked a couple hours it showed 12.1v so it is going. At idle I have 12.6 and the voltage rises as I rev it up. From 1500 RPM up I have a consistent 14.6. Seems high but it's the first time I've checked a bird's voltage.

It seems to me it shouldn't be low voltage since it started right back up and started a few more times without a problem, but I also know that some vehicles have strange quirks.


The shop manual has a diagnostic section for FI light. Probably 10 pages long. Hope I never need it.

I should get one, I have a carb manual, but not FI.

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Thanks guys. Armed with the words 'test plug' I was able to do some useful searching. I always thought that only the 99&00 birds had this harness issue but just read that the 01 isn't immune. I guess I'll start digging.

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It could be something as trivial as bad battery connection.

I would drive around with voltmeter hooked up to the battery and go from there.

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12.1V after a couple of hours is way too low. That`s only about 35% charged, how old is the battery? It might not be holding a charge anymore.

As an aside, I did not have any FI issues with my `00 when I decided to take a look at the harness test port. Corroded like you wouldn`t believe! Took a while to strip back to good wire to solder together. One caution: when you pull the test port plug off, not all wires are grounded together! They are grouped in sections, which will be indicated by the different sized strips in the plug housing. Not sure if it makes a difference but I grouped the wires together in the same way. I didn`t want any issues with wires getting grounds when they`re not supposed to.

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I went through it today and found nothing. I started out with the bike running and watching the light, wiggled all the wiring and connectors from the motor to the computer, nothing. Then opened the connectors and all looked good, sprayed with contact cleaner then contact lubricant/protectant. At this point I'm gonna wait and see if it happens again before I get further into it. I did fix my neutral light so something useful came out of working on it.

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Did you perform the Stator Test ?

As stated about 12.1V is too low... and 14.6V is almost too high...

Those were numbers I had before I found out my Stator and Reg/Rec, both had problems. If the voltage is too low at idle, then it will screw with the voltage coming off the sensors, which in turn throws hairballs into the mix to the ECM, which could cause the Fi light to start trying to hack up said hairball.

Just thinking outloud...

I'm watching this thread... to see what you end up find out is the problem.

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I didn't do any tests other than verify charging voltage at the battery. It could be that the sudden drop to idle and subsequent voltage drop threw something off briefly. I know the battery is going so it may be nothing more than that. A strong battery wouldn't drop in voltage so sharply when the charge voltage drops off. It does maintain it's low 12.1-12.2 standing voltage for days and cranks ok most of the time, but it's going. I'm gonna try getting one today or asap.

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I'm in general agreement that your battery is the most likely culprit. Just to be sure, here's a cautionary note in regard to your new battery - be certain you fully bench charge it (per the charging specs on the label of the new battery) before installation. That's really important because it gives you a new base line from which you can re-run any testing protocols (alt stator, reg/rec, harness, grounds, etc.) and get reliable results. Even a new battery with less than a full charge can impact test results and yield erroneous data.

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ALWAYS assume it is the battery until you can prove differently. I have spent many a night wasting time troubleshooting when all I needed was a new battery.

...except one time when I had loose battery terminals.

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Thanks guys, this gives me more hope that it's just the weak battery. I check the charge level and CCA on all batteries before installing and note the CCA after a few cycles then monitor from there. I have too many batteries in use to ignore them and get stuck with another avoidable expense.

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I'm in general agreement that your battery is the most likely culprit. Just to be sure, here's a cautionary note in regard to your new battery - be certain you fully bench charge it (per the charging specs on the label of the new battery) before installation. That's really important because it gives you a new base line from which you can re-run any testing protocols (alt stator, reg/rec, harness, grounds, etc.) and get reliable results. Even a new battery with less than a full charge can impact test results and yield erroneous data.

+1

Working in a service department, I see most everyone that buys a new battery just installs the new battery without fully charging it first. Just buy it and drop it in and away they go. The memory is now set for the battery at a much lower level than it is capable of and will remain there for the life of the battery which will be considerable shorter. It is always best to trickle charge a brand new battery overnight before applying a load to it for the first time.

I am currently trying my luck with the new lithium iron phosphate battery from BatteryStuff.com (Scorpion brand). After 4 months use it has been flawless and spins the engine over about twice as fast as my previous Yuasa. Much higher cranking amps and no battery tender needed. Only documented downside they have is the fact that they do not work well in cold environments. They say to turn the key and headlight on for a few seconds first to warm the battery up before hitting the starter button! Not a problem for me here in So Florida as we never experience a cold environment! The big difference is in weight or the lack there of. My new lithium weighs less than 2 lbs!!!

Edited by John01XX
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Thanks guys, this gives me more hope that it's just the weak battery. I check the charge level and CCA on all batteries before installing and note the CCA after a few cycles then monitor from there. I have too many batteries in use to ignore them and get stuck with another avoidable expense.

Buy a neverstart at Walmart. Charge overnight. Try it in the morning.

Regardless of outcome, return the neverstart.

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I'm in general agreement that your battery is the most likely culprit. Just to be sure, here's a cautionary note in regard to your new battery - be certain you fully bench charge it (per the charging specs on the label of the new battery) before installation. That's really important because it gives you a new base line from which you can re-run any testing protocols (alt stator, reg/rec, harness, grounds, etc.) and get reliable results. Even a new battery with less than a full charge can impact test results and yield erroneous data.

+1

Working in a service department, I see most everyone that buys a new battery just installs the new battery without fully charging it first. Just buy it and drop it in and away they go. The memory is now set for the battery at a much lower level than it is capable of and will remain there for the life of the battery which will be considerable shorter. It is always best to trickle charge a brand new battery overnight before applying a load to it for the first time.

I am currently trying my luck with the new lithium iron phosphate battery from BatteryStuff.com (Scorpion brand). After 4 months use it has been flawless and spins the engine over about twice as fast as my previous Yuasa. Much higher cranking amps and no battery tender needed. Only documented downside they have is the fact that they do not work well in cold environments. They say to turn the key and headlight on for a few seconds first to warm the battery up before hitting the starter button! Not a problem for me here in So Florida as we never experience a cold environment! The big difference is in weight or the lack there of. My new lithium weighs less than 2 lbs!!!

You bastard! I was perfectly happy with the $35 battery on Amazon then I had to look at the lithiums. I went with a Battery Tender lithium for $119 with two day shipping. It's got a 3 year warrantee and it's a prime item so if it fails, getting warrantee is easy. The reviews on it are good, some of the negatives are dumb people "it's too small to fit my bike!!" "the screws come loose then it won't start and I gotta charge it" and several that complained about the screws being undersized and not covering the ring terminals well, easy fix. There were a few slightly cheaper lith batts. but some had no warrantee info and the others were 2 year through the vendor. The scorpion through batterystuff has a 2 year replacement warrantee and was more money.

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Thanks guys, this gives me more hope that it's just the weak battery. I check the charge level and CCA on all batteries before installing and note the CCA after a few cycles then monitor from there. I have too many batteries in use to ignore them and get stuck with another avoidable expense.

Buy a neverstart at Walmart. Charge overnight. Try it in the morning.

Regardless of outcome, return the neverstart.

I've never had a problem with any of the walmart batteries, cars, boats, pwcs, bikes, tractors. If my battery appeared good and I suspected something intermittent or untestable with it I might do that, but I know it's bad so there's no point regardless if it's what caused the stall. They stock the '97-'00 bird batt, but not the '01-up and I didn't have the dimensions to compare otherwise I'da bought the everstart.

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