Check Engine light in few miles

[sharur]

I am brand new to Buell and a owner of a 2008 XB12scg. The bike was delivered with discharged battery, and after an overnight charge the bike fired up. It idles kind of hard, but I am new to the bike and I am not sure.
Took the bike to get some gas, and it seemed to work fine, but was underpowered. I was wondering what are all the Buell fans raving about the torque, this thing needs a lot of throttle to make it go. It did cough and sputter on decelaration. Turn signals were working.
Now, the yellow check engine comes on in a few minutes of riding, no turn signals, no rear light, but I have head light (both low and high).
I did a TPS reset per the manual (08 model), the exhaust valve actuator works (cycles), battery is freshly charged. What could be the problem? Did I foul one plug? I did give some gas during the first start after transport. The trouble light seems to reset once I turn off the engine, but comes back after a few minutes of riding. The bike seems to struggle to gain revs and has very little bottom end power, I have to slip the clutch going uphill from stop.
Any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. I have another bike (BMW), and am somewhat mechanically inclined. Nowhere close to some folks on this forum.

 

[ADAMLEE]

Sounds like a similar situation that happened to me.

I have an 06 Xb12Ss. I would ride for a few minutes and as soon as I rev'd up the motor while ridding the light would come on. After a few visits to the stealership they kept telling me I had a dead battery signal. Didn't make sense. Finially i went tothe manager and freaked ut on him. They then took the tme to dig dearper into the problem.

The valve on the exhaust was sticking. It only occured after I was riding and got above 4000 rpm (best guess, it was a while ago). Test it out, ride it easy, then ride it a bit hard. If the light comes on after riding it hard I'd bet your valve is sticking in the exhaust.

Hope it helps.

 

[sharur]

Adamlee,
I have scheduled the dealer to check this issue tomorrow. The person who sold me the bike (out of state) swears the bike was running fine and I have no reason to suspect that. The value actuator at the airbox seems to open and close O.K. But, I did not check if the valve at the muffler is actually working. I will keep the rpms below 3500 and see what happens. Thanks for the info.

 

[Stevenc150]

Try and get some new plugs in it or have the dealership swap them out. Don't want to be trying to troubleshoot a running bike with fouled plugs. NGK Iridiums (#DCPR9EIX) have been good to me.

On a side note, I thought the "low fuel" light was yellow and the "check engine" light was red?

 

[ADAMLEE]

Sorry for the spelling errors, I'm here at work and make things as fast as possible [cool]

Also, on decel the bike rides a bit uneasy. I guess that's the buell way. torque though is pretty impressive. I love riding around town in third gear, roll on the throttle and away you go. It's not the fastest, but I love it!

 

[sharur]

I double-checked my bike and the check engine does light up yellow and the manual says red (as suggested in the reply above). I spent this morning looking for possible solutions and I have come to the conclusion that it may be the plugs. Can someone tell me where the Diagnostic port is on the 12xbscg? I would like to grab the trouble code to see what it is. Also, the bike coughs up a lot of unburnt fuel at idle, which is making me suspicious towards the spark plugs.

 

[Stevenc150]

Engine Diagnosis w/o ECMSpy

Port should be under your seat towards the rear of that area.

 

[sharur]

Found the diag socket and connected using Direclink cable and using ECMSpy did the complete diagnostic. No trouble codes stored in the ECM. It appears that the original suspect being the spark plug stands alone.

The blinker and tail light issues remain unsolved. All bulbs, fuses, are OK. I tried removing the flasher module and jumpering the socket to see if the lights go on. No solution yet.

 

[sharur]

The bike is at the Buell dealership. Service shop told me they have ordered a replacement valve in the muffler. Could a bad valve in the muffler cause such a drastic reduction in power. I can understand the check engine light coming on, but lack of power seems to me more than the interactive valve in the muffler. Any suggestions?

 

[Macbuell]

I am with you. If the valve was stuck in 1 of the 2 positions, then you would still have the normal power in one of the ranges and it does not sound like you do.

 

[Buellysses]

Goofy question. Is that valve a linear operation? (IE varies from 100% close to 100% open during the whole RPM scale) or is it Binary? (100% closed until a certain RPM then shifts to 100% open)

I think stuck half way would be a bummer on both ends of the RPM scale...

 

[sharur]

Even if the valve is stuck halfway, would it affect the power output so much? It is not like the exhaust gas has only only route out. I had to slip the clutch and give it plenty of gas to get going from a stop light, if not it would stall. It seemed like a 75cc bike. Even on small inclines, I had to down shift to second gear.

 

[Buellysses]

Yeah, I'd say you've got some issues. It's not like you can idle the bike off the line, but even holding at 2500 rpm you could (not saying you should) just dump the clutch without killing the bike.

As far as having to downshift going uphill, it really depends on what RPM range your in. But as long as your a ways above idle the bike should still pull pretty hard in 3rd gear. When you are riding at lower speeds, say 35MPH, what gear are you in? Where do you usually like to keep the rev's while at low speed?