Help! its still dying on idle -What could be the cause of this failure?

[Allan S]

Ive figured out how to replicate the failure! Got the bike back on Friday, rode home and parked for the night. Saturday morning started the bike , and while I was putting on my helmet and gloves it started to surge, idle roughly and died. Tried to start it , same thing turn over once and cut. This happened 3 or 4 times. I shut off the key and tried starting it again. Dead starter button. Tried again, fired up. Once its warm it seems to be OK but as soon as you let it cool down, it stalls out on idle. I took a video of the last time to send to GP bikes. I love my Rocket and it was perfect till they had it for service. Maybe a coincidence that it broke the day I got it back? They couldn't get it to fail in the workshop so I'm hoping that now they can see how to do it they may figure out whats wrong. I have video but its too big to upload here.

Starts to idle rough around 1:49 the time the fast idle tries to settle into regular idle. It dies at around 2:00

I couldnt upload a video of the problem occurring here cause it was too big but I uploaded it to YouTube .
Here is the link:

 

[Frosty Rider]

Starts to idle rough around 1:49 the time the fast idle tries to settle into regular idle. It dies at around 2:00

I couldnt upload a video of the problem occurring here cause it was too big but I uploaded it to YouTube .
Here is the link:

Let me know how you make out at GP bikes, I thought of taking the bike there for service but have been hesitant after seeing some of the work that comes out of there. A friend bought a really nice Vulcan from them but it was running like crap, and they said they went through and checked everything, did a tune up and safety on it. I started taking the bike apart and took out the air cleaner and it was full of seeds, hay, and other crap, pulled the spark plugs and they were in bad shape, replaced everything and the bike ran great after that. a few other people I know of have their bikes service there, only to have to go somewhere else to get what they fixed, including the original issue

 

[Allan S]

Let me know how you make out at GP bikes, I thought of taking the bike there for service but have been hesitant after seeing some of the work that comes out of there. A friend bought a really nice Vulcan from them but it was running like crap, and they said they went through and checked everything, did a tune up and safety on it. I started taking the bike apart and took out the air cleaner and it was full of seeds, hay, and other crap, pulled the spark plugs and they were in bad shape, replaced everything and the bike ran great after that. a few other people I know of have their bikes service there, only to have to go somewhere else to get what they fixed, including the original issue

To be honest I'm not thrilled with GP right now. I took them a bike in perfect condition for a simple service, tires and re-flash. Their price wasn't better than Sturgess where I bought the bike but it was easier to get to and from GP for me. I gave them tires that I bought from Pete's' Super-bike and they broke the bead of the rear installing it so I had to wait for them to get a replacement which they did. Apart from the bike not working properly and stranding me a hundred miles from home the day after I got it back from them as per the above string, the tire was fitted by someone who doesn't know or doesn't care what the colored dot on the side of the tire means (tire factory marks the lightest part of the tire with a colored dot for installing nearest the inflation valve to minimize the weights required) so I ended up with more wheel balancing weights than necessary in a different place (leaving marks where the old weights came off) than the original weights which were placed with the tire oriented correctly. They gave the bike back to me on Friday again and it got stuck again on Saturday doing exactly the same thing. I managed to replicate it ( see the video I posted) in about 30 minutes, but then again I care. They had said that they cant find anything wrong and I need to get stuck again and videotape the proceedings so that they could get Triumph to authorize time to diagnose the problem... one that coincidentally happened the day after they touched the bike or they couldn't spend time on it as they couldn't find a fault. Hmmmmm wonder what they will say now with video showing the fault and what Triumph will say?

Anyway I couldn't get a response from anyone there today as they are closed for inventory, but hopefully they will take responsibility and deal with fixing this quickly. That's why I love social media including forums like this; it gives companies a reason to do the right thing although so far they have appeared to try.

If you can wait for the result and cant conveniently get to Sturgess in Hamilton I'll post it here and elsewhere online when its done. If you cant wait?... Use Sturgess.

 

[sonny]

Sounds like you have the same problem we have here in Oklahoma. Shabby shops.

 

[Allan S]

Sounds like you have the same problem we have here in Oklahoma. Shabby shops.

Sturgess Cycles is a good shop as I have had good service there but its a town away and pain to get to. GP has a good rep among some. Their service guys are friendly and pleasant to deal with but the results so far have been less than stellar, yes

 

[Frosty Rider]

Sturgess Cycles is a good shop as I have had good service there but its a town away and pain to get to. GP has a good rep among some. Their service guys are friendly and pleasant to deal with but the results so far have been less than stellar, yes

I haven't heard of Sturgess in Hamilton, but i'll have to look them up. it is funny with GP, most of the staff are good and know their stuff, I just wonder about the shop sometimes, although cycle world isn't much better, a friend bought a GoldWing from them and the day he picked it up, with the safety and everything done, it wound up in my garage that night, and the two of us spent two weeks tearing it right down to frame and rebuilding it to fix a number of items that should have been dealt with in the safety. this is why do my own work on my bikes, and many others lately as well. if anyone is going to screw up bike, it is going to be me, at least then I know what I did and can get out of it easy enough.

 

[rocketjohn]

I haven't heard of Sturgess in Hamilton, but i'll have to look them up. it is funny with GP, most of the staff are good and know their stuff, I just wonder about the shop sometimes, although cycle world isn't much better, a friend bought a GoldWing from them and the day he picked it up, with the safety and everything done, it wound up in my garage that night, and the two of us spent two weeks tearing it right down to frame and rebuilding it to fix a number of items that should have been dealt with in the safety. this is why do my own work on my bikes, and many others lately as well. if anyone is going to screw up bike, it is going to be me, at least then I know what I did and can get out of it easy enough.

That's my conclusion too....if I break it, it's no one's fault but mine. Plus I might learn something while I am fixing it.

 

[Allan S]

Ive figured out how to replicate the failure! Got the bike back on Friday, rode home and parked for the night. Saturday morning started the bike , and while I was putting on my helmet and gloves it started to surge, idle roughly and died. Tried to start it , same thing turn over once and cut. This happened 3 or 4 times. I shut off the key and tried starting it again. Dead starter button. Tried again, fired up. Once its warm it seems to be OK but as soon as you let it cool down, it stalls out on idle. I took a video of the last time to send to GP bikes. I love my Rocket and it was perfect till they had it for service. Maybe a coincidence that it broke the day I got it back? They couldn't get it to fail in the workshop so I'm hoping that now they can see how to do it they may figure out whats wrong. I have video but its too big to upload here.

My bike went back to GP in a trailer earlier in the week and today they managed to replicate the failure. The mechanic working on the bike removed the CPU and found a slight amount of green corrosion on some of the connectors/pins. He cleaned it up and put some dielectric grease on it and when retested it stumbled a bit but kept going while it reset and didn't stall. He then parked it outside (-8 degrees C Brrrr) and let it cool down. When he started it up again it idled perfectly and he could no longer replicate the problem.
Does that sound feasible to the experts out there? That the weak connection could lose settings and sensors would shut it down? Could that affect the stepper motor function causing the rough idle and failure on switching from fast to slow idle when cold?

Thanks for the help thus far gents.

 

[Allan S]

Starts to idle rough around 1:49 the time the fast idle tries to settle into regular idle. It dies at around 2:00

I couldnt upload a video of the problem occurring here cause it was too big but I uploaded it to YouTube .
Here is the link:

To be fair to GP bikes who I dissed in earlier posts in this thread.... Today they called to deliver my bike back. They found a bit of greenish corrosion on the plugs for the CPU as well as in a couple of spots on the harness under the tank. They cleaned it up and put Dielectric grease in there. They found that the throttle bodies were a little out sync and re balanced those. She now idles perfectly and doesnt stall anymore when dropping from high idle to regular idle when cold. I wont really know if shes back to normal for a few months as we got our first road salting here the other night and once that happens she becomes a garage queen for a few months.
GP may have screwed something up when they serviced it but they did do everything they could to get it right without quibling and it seems eventually did.

 

[rocketjohn]

Might be a good maintenance tip to grease the ECU connector once in a while!