Lucky to get home today...TPS malfunction.

[wildbill]

Over the past week since fitting the new negative and positive battery "0" ring clamps I've been having trouble with the bike. About 20 minutes into the ride I start loosing power and the bike slows down - jumps and bucks and almost cuts out.
Today i took it on a 40 mile run. For the first 25 miles into the ride it ran like a champion then suddenly the bike lost power and started bucking and jerking about. Almost brought me to a standstill.
Today it was much worse than the previous days.I actually thought I might be walking it.
So I slowed to a steady 40mph and cruised the remaining 15 jerky miles home.
Around about 2 miles from home I swung round a bend and the bike jerked violently, almost cut out and the check engine light came on.........rest of the way home
Back at the house I went straight to the ECU location and plugged in the gator clip then earthed it up.
Followed were 6 short flashes and a quick look back at previous threads on this forum listed it as a T.P.S. malfunction.
I decided i might give the T.P.S. a hit with some M.A.F cleaner.
Imagine my surprise when upon grabbing the connector - the unit parted effortlessly.
For reasons unknown  it wasn't even seated and locked into position. I'd been looking all over the bike for days trying to find the problem. I even thought it may have been the battery - side stand - ignition plus a few others.... Checked them all.
In this case thankfully the ECU trouble code may have steered me in the right direction -or maybe not! Time will tell.
Good news is it's now clicked firmly into a locked position. Unable to clear the code as there is no way to do that- apart from a dealer.
So come tomorrow when I go for another run I will know for sure if I was successful with the fix or not! Either way I think I will take the mobile with me L.O.L.
By the way I'm laughing about it now BUT I wasn't laughing a few hours earlier and 15 miles from home.
 

[mattsz]

So the TPS is a unit that can be removed and replaced (or in this case, fall off) so easily?  Huh.

Interestingly, your description sounds exactly like my bike's symptoms when the battery cable lug broke, including, at the end, the MIL staying on.  It didn't stay on for long, though, as everything finally died for good about a minute later.  When I chucked the broken lead, and screwed the bare twisted copper wire right to the battery terminal, the bike ran fine, and the MIL was back to working normally.  I never tried to read a code off it to see what it said, if anything.

Interesting that RE claims they insisted on the owner-diagnostic feature of being able to check the code, but apparently they didn't provide a way for the owner to reset the light once a problem is solved?  Does this mean that even if you solve your problem, the light stays on until some authorized entity resets it?

As I understand it, if the ECU logs multiple simultaneous faults, the next one will be indicated once you rectify the first one, etc., so maybe if you check the code again you'll find another "problem"... ??

[wildbill]

That's right. After I pushed the plug back in and locked it into position I rechecked my 'check engine light' for the fault code.
Got the 6 short flashes again.
So it's a trip to the dealer and that's an 8 hour total run to clear it completely......providing of coarse he has stocked the reset tools.
Will see what happens on the next run. If it runs OK i will wait it out

[Ragmas]

The system stores codes.  Let us say that our friend Bill here does not get his code cleared,  if for some reason he gets another code "down the road" say, the oil temperature sensor.  When he checks his light to see what it is he will first get the TPS code then a pause then the oil temperature code then a pause and the sequence repeats.  The light does not stay on once the problem is resolved but the codes stay in memory to remind us of the mistakes we have made with our bikes even if the be mistakes of omission  of service or due diligence. 

Glad you got it sorted out, enjoy the ride.

Sam

[Jack Leis]

The same thing happened to one of the Three Bulleteers last year. Bare, Bikesnob and myself were up in the San Gabriel Mtns. on one of our rides when we seemed to have lost Bikesnob on his C5. We pulled over and waited awhile and Steve finally pulled up and said his bike wont idle and the MIL lite was on. He was able to finish the ride though and return home. Upon inspection at his dealer, they found the TPS was unplugged. The guys in India are only human, might have plugged everything in on a Friday after lunch who knows. I learned a lesson, since then I check every plug in connection I come across when working on my G5.

[TWinOKC]

Could someone give a location for this unplugging?

A picture would be even better.

Sorry if I missed it in the previous posts.

[jartist]

Very few dealers have the tool to reset the code. I wish motorcycle manufactures would push the suppliers to use obd2 systems!

[Jack Leis]

Could someone give a location for this unplugging?

A picture would be even better.

Sorry if I missed it in the previous posts.

I remember recently that Sinhg5 had posted a picture of all the sensor locations but haven't been able to find it. Its located on the right side of the EFI if that helps.

[singhg5]

Could someone give a location for this unplugging?

A picture would be even better.

Sorry if I missed it in the previous posts.

There are 2 videos on my youtube account - one for various sensors location in RE and other for testing TPS in detail.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpPQzrMPK1U&list=UUOh4rORdLrqjVZUsorI0hKA&index=2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiX8oFtYZls

[Jack Leis]

My sincere apologies, I made a mistake on my previous remarks. On Steve's C5 it was the MAP sensor that came unplugged, not the TPS. Is it Friday after lunch yet ?

[Kevin Mahoney]

Almost all EFI problems are related to a loose connection. Keihin keeps the DOL tool as a proprietary item which really sucks. This is what you need to clear the code. One unit is $2,500 dollars and is not worth the investment.

As someone pointed out the MIL light clears when the fault is cleared.

[coinzy]

I've just been working on a Daewoo matiz,and there's a way to override using the special tool (oBd2)to read the ECU.I found out through a mechanic,ignition on and remove-insert the fuse 5 times and presto ECU cleared.There was even a trick to make the idle "relearn".Maybe the Japanese Keihin is more sophisticated though and will resist everything except there own tool.

[Ducati Scotty]

Almost all EFI problems are related to a loose connection. Keihin keeps the DOL tool as a proprietary item which really sucks. This is what you need to clear the code. One unit is $2,500 dollars and is not worth the investment.

As someone pointed out the MIL light clears when the fault is cleared.

+1.  That's just too much money for most dealers to invest in one tool.

Scott

[Royalista]

I am confused.

So, if there is a problem, I must go through all the codes, and solve the last one. But as the report loops how would I know when the last one has passed?

I wonder if there is any dealer around here so rich to invest 2500$ in a device, unless it can service other bikes as well.

Sorry if I missed something obvious. Blame it on age.

[Darvin Jahnke]

Isn't all this new technology great? I'll clean my carb,file the points,and keep riding.