$2000 spent at BMW dealer, bike still not running

Okay, so here is the background. I have a 00 1150 GS with just over 63k. I was in Nova Scotia having a great vacation until my bike died on the side of the road on a rainy day. The bike lurched (correct term?) then would shut off. I restarted it and it did the same thing as before, died when given throttle. I pulled over on the side of the road, it would not start. The RPM gauage did bounce around (from 0 to 3) I had to tow it to nearest BMW dealer in Canada ($640 tow job :eek1)

They have spent 2 weeks lookng at the bike and i will be spending $2000 dollars and it still is not working. One of the coils was going bad (mechanic showed me the graph and it was bad) so that was replaced.

The bike would not start up fine but only when giving it throttle. If you continue to give it throttle it will run fine. As soon as you let the bike idle, it sputters and dies. The mechanic has spent a lot of time and is lost. Checked multiple sensors, fuel pump, throttle cable, throttle bodies, and i assume (hope) a lot more stuff. They are stumped.

The bike is still in Dieppe NB and I will not be able to go get it until the last week in September, but I am trying to gain some knowledge of any other possible reasons why this is happening.

Does anyone have any new ideas? different ideas?

Thanks,
Eric


UPDATE
Okay, so I contacted BMW North America and their response was a hearty "That is terrible, but we can not help you. Your bike is out of warranty so we can not help you."

What do I do now? Can I do something? Anyone have ideas for me? Keep e-mailing them? Face it that BMW has terrible customer service?

Any advice would be helpful.

Created webpage to try and get BMW attention. Not sure if its worth but might as well try it. Please join:

Tps
Plug wires

I think they checked the TPS.

I am currently trying to get them to send me a list of everything they have checked/done so I will post that as soon as i get it.

Hall Effect Sensor?

I had a similar issue, and it was the FI inyector filters.


Yes fuel inyector has a filter, that it can get clogged.

Replaced filters and now bike runs smoother than ever.

You shouldn't pay for parts changed that aren't fixing the bike! Coils etc.

Here is the email i got back from the dealer.

HE IS STILL BAFFLED ABOUT IT THE FIRST WAS THE INCONSISTENT HALL SENSOR READINGS (REPLACED THE PART). DOUBLE CHECKED THE IGNITION TIMING A FEW TIMES
REPLACED THE INJECTORS, CHECKED THE FUEL PUMP AND LINES. PERFORMED ALL THE DIAGNOSTIC TESTS FROM THE MOSS COMPUTER FOR A (TURNS OVER BUT DOES NOT START)
CHECKED WIRING HARNESS CONNECTIONS AND WIRES FOR BREAKS (FINAL TEST WAS REPLACE THE ECM) DID SO WITH A DONOR BIKE. BIKE FIRED UP AND RAN GOOD. RE-INSTALLED OLD ECM AND BIKE RAN FINE AS WELL. NEXT DAY ROUTED THE WIRING HARNESS AND ZIP TIED. RE-INSTALLED THE FUEL TANK WOULD NOT START. REMOVED THE TANK AND STARTED TO OPEN THE WIRING HARNESS TO FIND A BROKEN OR CHAFED WIRE (NOTHING) TO COMPLETELY CHECK THE HARNESS THE BIKE WOULD NEED TO BE DISMANTLED TO REACH THE WIRES INDER THE BATTERY BOX


WHILE THESE TESTS WERE PERFORMED THE BIKE WOULD SOMETIMES START WHEN THE THROTTLE WAS APPLIED (ENGINE WAS RESPONSIVE AND SOUNDED GOOD)

WOULD NOT IDLE OR START AT IDLE

I would guess that your broken wire is near the steering head,
get a wire tester and twist the bars back and forth,

Look particularly at the flexing areas that were secured by a zip tie,
this is a known issue where Franz didnt make the wire loop long enough then super cranked the wire bundle and the wires quickly broke where they were flexing

Tagesk had a dead 1150-click here His turned out to be a wire damaged by battery acid I think.

yikes..not good but do keep us posted on the result, good data for all down the road perhaps...hopefully not!

Sounds like the HES. Was a thread a few years back where a 1150 owner went nuts trying to hunt down a problem. Turned out the replacement HES was defective.

I'm concerned about your $2000.00 and counting bill that the dealer has racked up.

not counting. They have been told they can not work on it for money anymore. Anything they do now is free of charge.

When they say it won't start, is it turning over but not starting or press the start button and nothing.

I read somewhere if you have strange electrical problems it is a bad ground.

My dad had a VW Scirocco that was practically rebuilt under warranty trying to fix a problem. They finally found the negative battery cable was bad.

Friend's Goldwing tail lights acted up in the middle of a trip. Did some research and found the problem to be a bad ground on a wire connection.

What if your vacuum tube between the injectors was cracked/leaking? Would that cause the same problem?

Good luck.

The FI filters are small screens that fit into the inlet of the FI trapping anything that comes down the high pressure line. Usually, FI cleaning services replace these little screen filters as a part of the cleaning process.

Hmmmmmm....who told them that the rest is free? I'm always skeptical when someone says Free.....to me that means poor quality, I may get around to it one day next week or, I'm through with it regardless of whether it's fixed or not.

I'll be interested to hear the outcome. I hope it's a good one.

Troubleshooting a problem can be difficult for some mechanics who haven't really learned how to do it properly..

You have to start at one end of the system and work your way to the end...

Simply replacing parts, (Shotgunning) rarely leads to the solution you're looking for...

It might be time to get BMWNA involved and one of their tech specialists on the line...

John

Good luck with this, Eric; hope they can figure out what it is.

Agreed. Today, many young mechanics lack the experience that comes with age, time in the foxholes, etc. Diagnosis is almost an art when it comes to determining a mechanical malady on a car or motorcycle. Today's vehicles have sophisticated OBD capability that will lead to a failed sensor or an adjustment out of specification. But, something like a loose wire? That takes experience and skill to track down. Beginning a troubleshoot by throwing parts at the problem is a sign that the technician really has little or no idea.

I recall several years ago, I had stopped at a local ice house in Texas. One of the H-D fellas came riding in with his newly restored shovel-head or knuckle-head (I don't know my Harleys too well).

It had some home brew up-swept straight pipes, a raspy exhaust note and was dripping oil everywhere. He got off the bike in the middle of the joint (it was an shed-like building with large open doors front and back where riders would merely announce their presence by riding straight through the place and parking their bike after much throttle blipping and other antics....you get the idea) and was surrounded by his fellow H-D guys who were ooooohing and aaaaahing over this...this collection of Harley parts that stopped running with a whimper and a woosh. After chugging a couple of beers, his followers convinced him to fire up the poor little Harley beast again for a possible burn out or some other demonstration of internal combustion.

So, he jumped onto the bike and began romping on the kick starter (this was not an electric start motorcycle) but to no avail.

Others took turns attempting to kick the engine into life without success.

I had little experience with Harleys of that vintage but I have extensive experience with kick start motorcycles. So, I asked if I could give it a go. The H-D boys looked at me like I was some Neanderthal BMW rider (which I am). Finally, the owner nodded, OK.

I slowly stroked the engine through one revolution of the kick lever. Adequate compression and I could smell fuel. The problem was immediately apparent. I reached down to the clutch cable and introduced some cable slack (there was no lock nut on the adjuster ferrule).

I turned on the ignition and gave the kick lever one stab. That little Harley burst into life with a nice flame from the up-swept exhaust pipes that were full of fuel. The owner came over quickly and rudely demanded to know what I had done.

"I spoke German to it", I declared in a loud voice over the engine racket. I turned the key off and handed it to him and dismounted. As I did so, I surreptitiously returned the clutch cable to its original setting.

Sometimes a little experience can be very rewarding. The Harley owner bought me two beers to learn my secret to starting the poor little Harley. Oh, BTW, I was drinking German brand beers that afternoon.

It wasn't long after that that the Harley fellow was injured (not severely but he did require hospitalization) in a motorcycle crash on the Harley in question. The brakes had failed and he ran off into a field full of livestock and hit a steer.

Moral? Don't attempt to start a motorcycle unless you know what you're doing.

What is the RID (Riders Information Display) doing when you turn on the key? Does it look normal or is it completely off?