~03~raven

Ok so heres the deal the bike runs great up until it gets about 190, then it starts running like crap and wants to die. Its not like it bogs and starts hopping around or anything, just when I pull the clutch in the idle will drop. I can't adjust the idle it will either be a little over 1K or like 4-4.5K. Before the bike has been running for a bit I can adjust it how ever I want. Whats weird is the bike seems to run cooler when on the road like 159* crusing and lastnight was 149* all the way home(30 min. ride). Just once it gets to about 190 when I'm in the lot it starts acting weird. Could it be the thermostat maybe? Could it be the fact that the coolant is probably 90% water after topping it so many times this year? Any ideas anyone? Just weird how it doesn't want to hold idle.

old man roger

if it's staying at 150 for a long time when you are riding then the thermostat might be stuck open but i dont know if that has any thing to do with how it's running ...

03 had a recall on the coils do you know if that bike has been in for the recall ?

Towlieee

With that much water there could be corrosion in the system, have you checked the coolant to see if it still looks good?

It does sound like your thermostat might be stuck open, or opening at a lower temperature, they can rust out especially if theres mostly water in the system and break, making them stay open
But it should still run fine when its at running temperature, hell it should still run almost perfect at 150f...

My f4i runs great even at 120f after just starting my bike, but I never really push it hard tell 160+

~03~raven

Coils are the newer mitsus. It actually got the recall work done twice for free. I thought the coils were bad and had the dealer check the VIN and they said they had no record so I got new coils even though the others were fine. Plugs were just getting old.

Actually it runs perfect at 150, it's just when I'm in the lot and it's got to 190+ then the problem presents itself. I opened it after it cooled down last night and it was a bluish green color....? Before I went to ride it was a little low so I opened it and addded water and it was only a faint tint of green.

It's weird because it's like the only thing it does is prevent the bike from idling correct. When the bike is first started and up until it reaches about 190 it runs perfect. As soon as it starts to get up there the idle just won't stay up it will go from 2.8-3K to about 1.2K then if I try to adjust it back up it won't want to go. Then when it does raise the idle it takes it up to about 4K. If I get it to level back out around 3K if I rev it up the the bike doesn't drop RPMS like it should. I can rev it a little and it will hang around 4K before dropping slowly. The throttle tube isn't getting stuck either, when that happens I have the throttle closed all the way. I'm lost on this one. Guess instead of practicing today I will have to try and figure out what the hell is going on. Probably go a head and give the radiator a good flush and then refill with some actual coolant and see if that helps. If not then I guess I will switch out the thermostat with my brother in-laws from his 05 to see if that works.

If you guys have any ideas keep them coming please. If I figure it out later I'll be sure to post up what it was.

old man roger

you mentioned you have to keep topping off the radiator , i wonder if you dont have a blown head gasket ?

~03~raven

Nope. it's fine I already checked that if anything I might need a new valve cover gasket sometime in the near future. It's starts to get a glossy look like oil is starting to seep past. The reason I was to top off is because it was getting hot in the lot and a few times when I shut the bike down the overflow bottle was just spewing fluid on the ground. highest temp I've seen was 216 with the engine running and 224 with the engine turned off to cool down. Weird because then when I topped it off the other day it started running much cooler then started doing this weird crap with the idle.

Atleast I think it's fine. There is no oil in the radiator, there is no oil or water coming from the engine. only place water leaks is out the overflow when it's hot.

P L P

i had an r1 with very similar symptoms and it was the tstat

!!A2K!!

yesir!
you have a power commander?? when the r6 is at running temp they run diffrent than when they are warming up. it has to do with the computer and its to much to type which is why the coolant runs into the throttle bodies

!!A2K!!

yamahas are very wierd and complexed bikes......has nothin to do with the thermostat.

~03~raven

Nope. All stock besides a K&N filter but that has been there the whole time and was cleaned not too long ago. Well besides having done the kleen air and all the stunt parts.

Towlieee

the coolant shouldn't be overflowing at anything under 240-250ish at the least

OMR could be right, it could be the head gasket, and pressure could be getting from your cylinder into your coolant

coolant and oil wont always mix when the head gasket goes, sometimes pressure just escapes the cylinder into either your coolant, then that causes your coolant to puke out

old man roger

coolant boils at a higher temp than water so if he doesnt have enough coolant it can boil over at a lower temp and pressure raises the boiling temp of water also so if his cap is bad it can boil over at a low temp too ..

now going in the other direction if the caps bad and doesnt allow pressure to escape the cooling system it can force water into the combustion chamber and we all know water doesnt burn and that could cause it to run bad when it gets hot and builds pressure in the cooling system ..

P L P

check to see if u have coolant coming out ur exhaust

skillz

what kind of exhaust

~03~raven

Nope no coolant in the exhaust. I think I possibly found the culprit though. I was thinking maybe my TPS has finally taken a **** on me. The bike is old and I figured that would affect the idle because it appears the computer still uses TPS to factor in idle. So i put the bike in DIAG mode and check the TPS signal. My TPS is reading 15-85. Spec in the manual says it should be showing 15-17 with the throttle closed and 97-100 with the throttle open. So I'm thinking that's my problem. I tried flushing the coolant and replaced it and swapped thermostats. It was getting late so I didn't swap the TPS sensors out to verify. I will do that tomorrow and if the one off my brother in-laws '05 fixes it I will be ordering a new one.

walker935

It does sound like your thermostat might be stuck open, or opening at a lower temperature, they can rust out especially if theres mostly water in the system and break, making them stay open
But it should still run fine when its at running temperature, hell it should still run almost perfect at 150f.
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~03~raven

Thermostat was changed. It didn't change anything. Pretty sure it's my TPS sensor because the bike didn't act up at all while I was flushing the coolant system. While I was letting ti run and come to temp it ran fine and never acted up. As soon as I took it for a spin and pulled the clutch in the idle dropped and almost died. Checked the TPS and it wasn't within spec so my guess is it's the TPS communicating with the computer that is causing this problem.

P L P

I can ship u a tps for $50

~03~raven

Let me check it today and see if that fixes it. And I will probably hit you up on that offer. You know what year bike it came off of and if it was operating the way it should?

~03~raven

Alright update guys. I think I figured it out. You guys might find it a little amusing. So i swapped out the TPS from the '05 into the '03 and it read poorly too, So I checked my TPS on the '05 and it showed it was good. So I thought hmm, so I played with the TPS on my bike a little longer. I noticed the numbers weren't consistent. If I held the throttle open it would stay 82-86 then sometimes spike up to 96-98. Then it got to were it would go to 98 every time but when I would drop the throttle it would stop at 20 for a second then slowly go back to 15-17. So I was about to try and swap the ECUs just to see if the TPS would then read correctly. I take my seat off and look at the ECU.... Hmmm that connector doesn't look like it's seated all the way. I pushed it in more (barely anything) and went back to DIAG mode and Hell muthafcuking yea 17-97 consistently. No more jumping around. Apparently when my bike was stolen the 1st time someone broke the tab on the plug and so now I'm going to have to zip tie that sucker in place. I guess sitting the stoppies down was jarring it loose more, because now that I really think about it the bike would start to act up after I had been practicing stoppies. I didn't think to put two and two together. I'm glad it was a free fix.:YEA

Oh, and those numbers, encase you are confused and wondering what they are. They are the values displayed on the cluster in diagnostic mode for the throttle position.