Cold starting?

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Hack'dTiger

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Guys, I've gotta tell you...I thought it would be longer than 3days before posting in the Tech section?! :wtf:

My new to me '06 didn't want to fire up this morning. Got it on Friday, and this is the first problem in the ~250mi that I've put on her. It cranked nice and fast, but didn't want to bust off. Crank, crank, crank, sputter, sputter, crank, crank....repeat. Key off, key on, let the fuel pump prime, repeat. Same story. This continued until the battery got weak.

Stuck some cables on it, fired again, and same deal. Decided to try and help it out with some throttle, while cranking. It sputtered a bit, then finally roared to life. The engine light never came on (abnormally), so I'm not sure what the deal is.

Once it was warm, no issues, just when cold. It was about 40d F this morning, but still. '06, bone stock. Any ideas? :confused0024:


Thanks,
Luke
 
Also could be valves, One early warning symptom is hard cold start and OK in warm temps or after start up. I have seen this in my Yamaha FZR 400. Since you have an 06 with fuel injection assuming your fuel is good you may want to rule this out.
 
johnnyontherocks said:
Possible bad batch of fuel.
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RI_Grinch said:
you might want to check your plugs...It may not be firing.
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Thought about that, but once warm it runs fine. And it runs great, no stumbling, pulls hard all the way to redline. It's got ~8,500 miles on it, and I'd planned to to a full maintenance check on it at 10k. I'm probably going to run some seafoam through this tank, and see if it gets better.


Utah06FZ1 said:
Also could be valves, One early warning symptom is hard cold start and OK in warm temps or after start up. I have seen this in my Yamaha FZR 400. Since you have an 06 with fuel injection assuming your fuel is good you may want to rule this out.
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Hope it doesn't need a valve adjustment this early...long valve intervals is one of the main reasons that I went with the FZ. :)

Hopefully it's just bad gas, but I wanted to see if there was some other common quirk that you guys were familiar with. I'll keep you posted in a couple of days, when this tank is gone....:cheers:
 
I have an 06 and have started it right up in the 20's hopefully just some bad gas, Maybe water? A little heat in the yellow bottle might rule that out.
 
When it is warm, what is the idle speed? Should be set for around 1250 RPMs. When it starts cold, it should be running at over 1500 RPMs until it warms. If the idle is too low and the bike is cold, it can start hard but typically not this hard.

How long have you had the bike? Bought used? Service records?

The Sea Foam is a good start. Keep us posted about the performance afterward and what the idle is set for.
 
FZ1inNH said:
When it is warm, what is the idle speed? Should be set for around 1250 RPMs. When it starts cold, it should be running at over 1500 RPMs until it warms.
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I want to say that it runs about that when warm, but I'll check it tomorrow. Not that familiar with it yet to say for certain.

FZ1inNH said:
How long have you had the bike?
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Since Friday afternoon. :)

FZ1inNH said:
Bought used?
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Yep.

FZ1inNH said:
Service records?
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Just verbal.

FZ1inNH said:
Keep us posted about the performance afterward and what the idle is set for.
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Thanks for the help, will do!
 
Update...

FZ1inNH said:
When it is warm, what is the idle speed? Should be set for around 1250 RPMs. When it starts cold, it should be running at over 1500 RPMs until it warms....
Click to expand...

Checked the idle, and it's around 1200 when warm. However, when it fires up cold it's at 1000. Is the extra idle speed built-in to the ECM, otherwise it will be too high when warm if I move it?
 
My 06 is around 1500 cold and drops to 1200 when warmed up (or whatever I adjust it to) Could it be a Temp sensor? O2 sensor? The ECU uses those inputs to determine Air Fuel Ratio. There may be something else I am unaware of. I think I would look at the temp sensor first, It sounds like it doesn't know it is cold that might explain the low idle on start up.
 
Hack'dTiger said:
Checked the idle, and it's around 1200 when warm. However, when it fires up cold it's at 1000. Is the extra idle speed built-in to the ECM, otherwise it will be too high when warm if I move it?
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Utah06FZ1 said:
My 06 is around 1500 cold and drops to 1200 when warmed up (or whatever I adjust it to) Could it be a Temp sensor? O2 sensor? The ECU uses those inputs to determine Air Fuel Ratio. There may be something else I am unaware of. I think I would look at the temp sensor first, It sounds like it doesn't know it is cold that might explain the low idle on start up.
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It could very well be a bad temp sensor. O2 sensor is only used for closed-loop operation and that doesn't come into play until the bike has warmed up.
 
I have a theory: There is a system that speeds up the idle RPM when the engine is cold. I believe it is called a THERMO WAX. If it is not increasing the cold idle speed, then the engine just may not have enough speed to get started when cold. The device does not add to the idle speed when the engine is warmed up, which might explain why it idles and starts OK when warm.
Unfortunately, I do not know how to test the device for proper functionality. Perhaps someone else has dealt with it and can chime in. Good luck.
 
WABBMW said:
I have a theory: There is a system that speeds up the idle RPM when the engine is cold. I believe it is called a THERMO WAX. If it is not increasing the cold idle speed, then the engine just may not have enough speed to get started when cold. The device does not add to the idle speed when the engine is warmed up, which might explain why it idles and starts OK when warm.
Unfortunately, I do not know how to test the device for proper functionality. Perhaps someone else has dealt with it and can chime in. Good luck.
Click to expand...

Hmm it could be, Here is a link to a discussion on the valve.
Taking the Chill Off The Motor - Page 2 - FZ1OA Message Board
 
Another update...

Thanks to all for the ideas!

Since I filled up on Tuesday, it hasn't had the same problem and fires right up. So I guess there was a batch of bad gas. However, the idle is still sitting at 1k until warm, so sounds like something is still a little outta whack.
 
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