2008 buell lightening cityx xbsx with jardine gp1 exhaust is backfiring on idle

[CRSole]

There is a very convenient 1/8 male pipe plug in the base of the fuel pump assembly for that:up:
left side of bike, bottom of frame, just in front of swingarm. You'll see the 4 bolt flange and fuel pump wires. The plug is the off-set one.
But I imagine you put fresh fuel in during the 200 mile ride? Seafoam and such is nonsense (IMO).

Nope, I have not ridden this bike at all yet. Just started it up at the dealer and then started it once after trailering it 200 miles in the covered snowmobile trailer (shutoff after a few seconds of running rough), rolled into 55F garage, put on battery tender overnight and started it the next day.

I do know where that fuel pump is because I actually watched a youtube video on fuel pump replacement on this bike during my youtube search for similar setups with these problems. Didn't know about the fuel drain...nice thanks! These bikes really do have some pretty unique design features!

 

[CRSole]

Here's what I hauled it in, just before I started the trek back.

 

[user_deleted]

happens frequently and pretty simple cure:
1-remove seat....carefully and closely check battery terminal connections....remove/clean/reinstall if suspect. buy or borrow a real battery charger and give it 6 amps for at least 15 minutes. tell you right up front if the battery now installed is some weirdo goof-ball chinese POS ditch it and buy a quality one. why? inevitably it will either leave you sit or dump multiple fault codes into your ecm and put a tremendous strain on the charging system.
2-plugs of choice are NGK DCPR9EIX. not all "9's" are iridium. if suffix is IX they are. can virtually guarantee yours are fouled and in need of replacement.
3-you have a faulty ground. either download a service manual from this site.....click on my name then recent posts...or google "buellXB ground wires-2008" and you'll see all of them listed.

start there. you have either a low voltage situation...fouled plugs...low fuel delivery. frame/tank has sufficient fuel i presume? is it fresh??

 

[lowkey]

Seafoam and such is nonsense (IMO). Proper injector cleaning requires removal, sonic cleaning, and testing. I don't believe you are to that point yet.

Remember what I posted about wasted time, effort, and money?:black_eyed:

I'm just trying to avoid this being a larger issue than you actually have. I'd like to see your Buell experience be the best, trouble free one you can have:applause:

Agreed, we know what it's like getting your new toy and not being able to play with it or being overly worried about something small and turning it into something bigger than it really is. Save your money, go out and turn some wrenches on it... even if just for piece of mind. Grounds, exhaust studs/collector clamp, oil condition/level in primary and swing arm, ECM harness plugs, inspect plugs/boots/coil connection, inspect wheel bearings etc...

Cooter, good call on the fuel pump housing drain, I totally forgot and I've used it multiple times! Also long time no talk to.

 

[CRSole]

happens frequently and pretty simple cure:
1-remove seat....carefully and closely check battery terminal connections....remove/clean/reinstall if suspect. buy or borrow a real battery charger and give it 6 amps for at least 15 minutes. tell you right up front if the battery now installed is some weirdo goof-ball chinese POS ditch it and buy a quality one. why? inevitably it will either leave you sit or dump multiple fault codes into your ecm and put a tremendous strain on the charging system.
2-plugs of choice are NGK DCPR9EIX. not all "9's" are iridium. if suffix is IX they are. can virtually guarantee yours are fouled and in need of replacement.
3-you have a faulty ground. either download a service manual from this site.....click on my name then recent posts...or google "buellXB ground wires-2008" and you'll see all of them listed.

start there. you have either a low voltage situation...fouled plugs...low fuel delivery. frame/tank has sufficient fuel i presume? is it fresh??

Thanks a lot man! I will check those things for sure but bike turns over just fine or at least the same as all youtube startups of xb9sx that I've watched. The battery was not dead even at temp. of 12F but I thought perhaps it was low and wanted to be certain so I connected it to my "OptiMATE 4 Dual Program, TM-241, 9-step 12V 0.8A Battery Saving charger-tester-maintainer" which I've been using on my other vtwins for a year and has worked great. It did do some charging on it but the next day (like 12 hours later) the bike started pretty much with the same cranking ease that it had when I first got home in the cold weather. The bike started just fine but again it was popping into the exhaust very loud as I described.

I have not yet drained the existing fuel in the bike and I plan to do so. Dealer only admitted to adding something called "starttron" to the fuel but didn't say anything about draining or topping off with fresh fuel. I have some 93 octane fresh fuel I plan to try once I drain it. I will also add seafoam to that.

I bought some NGK DCPR8E plugs (I think), which are what were specified from a cross reference from 10R12X. They are definitely cheaper copper ones for now since that is all the local stores had and I figure I may foul more plugs in trying to figure this out and the iridium IX ones are more expensive. I have the 9's on order.

I have the 2009 xb service manual downloaded. Just posted on here to learn from other owners and experts. I plan to connect to ECM and read any codes and collect more once I receive the USB dongle I ordered.

I'm hoping to get a video of this very soon to upload and show you all what is going on as well.

Thanks again. I do appreciate all of the insight.

 

[Outlaw]

Wow. Lots of good help,info and ideas. Good job fellas. I'm with Lunatic on this one. Plugs are fouled from starting and shutting off too many times without a proper complete warm up. Plugs and battery first. Then diag from there.

 

[CRSole]

I did a cold start in my garage again (3rd startup) and the bike only backfired (popped in exhaust) once this time. It's barely noticeable in the video. I guess that's good? Except now it makes my concern seem unwarranted. Trust me this thing was exploding every few seconds last week like I've never seen an engine do before. Perhaps it was just environmental adjustment but if this thing does that every once in a while something's not right.

Here's around 8:16pm cold:
https://youtu.be/m5vj-4TxcBw

Here's a bit later restart after being off a few minutes:
https://youtu.be/raedAPHIIMo

Here's about an hour and a half later:
https://youtu.be/Ynlh0lDr5zY

Perhaps the engine was just not back to 55F from the 12F 2 hour trip even after 8-12 hours in the garage but has since warmed up? It is on tge opposite corner of the building as the modine heater, in front of the door.

I'll try again this morning.

 

[Silverrider]

I understand you have snow, but starting and starting ...... is not the best on a engine, it needs to be brought up to temp and taken out and driven at a higher rpm range. It might run fine after that.

 

[CRSole]

Okey here is your problem "After purchasing I drove it home 200 miles", I was assuming you "drove" the motorcycle but in fact you have not. Picture this, a primitive computer controlled motorcycle is in one type of climate then awakens in a completely different one, it will run like **** until it can work itself out in its new environment... could turn out to be an actual problem i.e. leaking header BUT from your description so far I'm standing by it is simply environmental change at this point. Everything is speculation until you can talk with the ECM and report back with actual numbers.

As for that exhaust - not a fan of the looks personally

Well so far I would say lowkey was correct about the bike adjusting to environmental conditions. Started it cold this morning and no popping or backfires, just rough warm up idle.

I am thinking that it just took the 2nd startup and run for 15-20 minutes to actually warm the engine to above the 55F temperature of the building. Like possibly it was still quite cold from the 3 hour trailer ride home in 12F temperature and the start this 2nd start next day is where it ran like crap but figured out the new conditions.

I'll post one or more videos to this thread demonstrating the improved start and I'll update with status in next few weeks.

Thanks!

 

[CRSole]

I understand you have snow, but starting and starting ...... is not the best on a engine, it needs to be brought up to temp and taken out and driven at a higher rpm range. It might run fine after that.

Thanks but respectfully, I do know that. I'm
only new to motorcycles. I've got 3 sleds and
I've been around snowmobiles most of my
life. Before I got a battery tender, on years
that I didn't remove battery and put a storage
charge on them, l would start them every few weeks but always let them warm up to running temperature. My mistake here was in thinking this thing could rapidly compensate for super cold conditions after previously only started and run in a room temperature dealership.

Apparently these Buells have a performance motor that is a bit more cold blooded and
temperamental. I'm learning

 

[Cooter]

Really sounds like you have it handled and the bike is in good hands as well:up:

I wish for lots of melty, melty, sun for you so you can get out there and really enjoy her:angel: Wheelies are just a right hand twist away.

 

[CRSole]

Really sounds like you have it handled and the bike is in good hands as well:up:

I wish for lots of melty, melty, sun for you so you can get out there and really enjoy her:angel: Wheelies are just a right hand twist away.

Thanks man and thanks to everyone on here! Wheelies with just a twist? Oh crap! I thought this was a really tame sport bike?

I feel a bit stupid for not just giving this backfire / pop issue time before posting on here but I'd never had a machine I purchase run and sound so horrible just after getting it home, so I kinda panicked. I was going to go back on the dealer and insist on crediting me some of that dealer prep fee because of all the troubleshooting I thought I was going to be doing.

I am still planning the ECM analysis to see if anything comes up and to see if it should be remapped for the muffler.

Also I am really leaning towards getting a stock muffler back on this thing with maybe a hawk performance repack--that guy seems to know how to improve the stock muffler. I'll definitely ride it with the current setup just to see how it behaves. I'll have to read through these forums and see what I can learn.

Do you think I should attempt removing the carbon fiber to look for surprises?

I'm definitely proud to be a part of the Buell community! I've been watching tons of videos about Erik Buell. Wish he could find his way back to building bikes!

 

[Cooter]

They aren't on par with new sport bikes for HP... or RPM... but you'll smile like a Cheshire cat and won't give a damn when all them torques try to pull the bars out of your hands. These are a different animal from anything else I know:love_heart:

No worries. It's never "stupid" to ask for help from an experienced crew. In fact, it's the smartest thing you could do. You are obviously not an idiot, and thank you for being humble, its rare these days. Today, people think they need to know everything about everything, all the time. (Thanks Google, haha)

Good plan:eagerness:

Both are good options. Check out Drummer too for a stock looking mellow tone from a guy who really G.A.S. and supports the cause. I had one on the STT and loved the sound, not loud but throaty. Youtube is also full of comparo vids (but all with crappy iPhone mics:upset:. Dean at Keda makes some sick exhaust, cool vids, and I think the most power, but LOUD. Jardine are known to blow up.

Careful what you look for... you may find it.

I'm a big fan of Erik as well, I think we all are:angel:. He really put his heart and literally everything he had into these bikes and the EBR's.

 

[CRSole]

They aren't on par with new sport bikes for HP... or RPM... but you'll smile like a Cheshire cat and won't give a damn when all them torques try to pull the bars out of your hands. These are a different animal from anything else I know:love_heart:

No worries. It's never "stupid" to ask for help from an experienced crew. In fact, it's the smartest thing you could do. You are obviously not an idiot, and thank you for being humble, its rare these days. Today, people think they need to know everything about everything, all the time. (Thanks Google, haha)

Good plan:eagerness:

Both are good options. Check out Drummer too for a stock looking mellow tone from a guy who really G.A.S. and supports the cause. I had one on the STT and loved the sound, not loud but throaty. Youtube is also full of comparo vids (but all with crappy iPhone mics:upset:. Dean at Keda makes some sick exhaust, cool vids, and I think the most power, but LOUD. Jardine are known to blow up.

Careful what you look for... you may find it.

I'm a big fan of Erik as well, I think we all are:angel:. He really put his heart and literally everything he had into these bikes and the EBR's.

Thanks again! What a great bunch of people! I always try to share my experience and sometimes my opinion too but I'm always respectful and try keep an open mind; I never know when I might learn something.

I'm looking forward to some fun adventures this season on the Buell and I share many adventures when I can (I'm kind of a social media junkie bc a lot of my family and friends are out of state).

Hopefully more fun techie conversation on here again sometime soon!

 

[lowkey]

James, I just watched all 3 of your posted videos. Aside from the first one taking overly long to start, the motorcycle sounds to be running perfectly, unless I'm just not hearing the "backfires" you are describing. All in all it sounds to be in perfect health from what I can tell over the vid my friend.:up:

 

[sinikl]

TI think this bike was originally "kick ash", but it'll be really costly to replace the plastic to original

I bought a flat-black painted city-x and discovered (when i had the airbox cover off to change plugs because they were fouled by PO... sound familiar?) that a scratched bit of the plastics glowed "cherry bomb" red.

I used lacquer thinner to strip the paint, which DID produce some crazing. BUT i was able to sand down thru the crazing and get it to this point (where i discovered i was not diligent enough sanding thru steps of fine-grit paper.... it's on my list to re-do to get it clear as glass). But it's "good enough" to match my helmet, which i bought with the idea of buying NOS cherry bomb parts. I may still buy some NOS parts but not put them on the bike, because hey, they don't make them anymore, and it's pretty simple to swap out "show" parts for "show" days and ride with "good enough" parts most days....

 

[XB9-Vtwin]

New member and damn glad to be here!

They aren't on par with new sport bikes for HP... or RPM... but you'll smile like a Cheshire cat and won't give a damn when all them torques try to pull the bars out of your hands. These are a different animal from anything else I know:love_heart:

No worries. It's never "stupid" to ask for help from an experienced crew. In fact, it's the smartest thing you could do. You are obviously not an idiot, and thank you for being humble, its rare these days. Today, people think they need to know everything about everything, all the time. (Thanks Google, haha)

Good plan:eagerness:

Both are good options. Check out Drummer too for a stock looking mellow tone from a guy who really G.A.S. and supports the cause. I had one on the STT and loved the sound, not loud but throaty. Youtube is also full of comparo vids (but all with crappy iPhone mics:upset:. Dean at Keda makes some sick exhaust, cool vids, and I think the most power, but LOUD. Jardine are known to blow up.

Careful what you look for... you may find it.

I'm a big fan of Erik as well, I think we all are:angel:. He really put his heart and literally everything he had into these bikes and the EBR's.

^ This post instantly struck a chord w/ me and is why I joined. Buell motorcycles are totally different than ANYTHING else on the road, including cars and < thats the reason why I'm buying one.

 

[njloco]

Now we know who to blame for being stuck with you..


Just kidding, welcome to the forum, enjoy your Buell !