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ECU fueling or ignition problems...

Gen 3: 2008-10 
5K views 18 replies 7 participants last post by  Victors 
#1 · (Edited)
I have an issue with an 09' zx10r with approximately 1190 miles on it. I took it for a ride yesterday and it will not rev or accelerate past 9500 RPM's in any gear. I can put it in neutral and it will rev past 9500 all the way to the rev limiter near 13000.
I took it on the road and did numerous pulls in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and it hits a brick wall at 9500 and will not go past it no matter how many times I tried it.
Bike has no Power Commander but has a 2 bros slip on.
So, to ensure it wasn't the fuel pump I swapped over my 05' zx10r fuel tank in place of the 09' fuel tank. It doesn't mount up the best but it works for some troubleshooting. I took it back out last nite and it did the exact same thing, it won't pull past 9500 in gear but will rev to the limiter in neutral.
I am concerned it maybe the ECU now, since I seen someone post up something close to the same problems as I have now but the member posted up what fixed it or if it got fixed.
It idles perfectly fine, starts up on the first hit of the starter and sounds great. So that rules out spark plugs and a few other things.
Any ideas?
 
#3 ·
Damn forgot to put the mods in.. I'll edit the first post but no power commander
 
#4 ·
fuel cut off?? or im thinkin the same about ecu...maybe a mess up on the flash from kawi..
Weird though.....I know yami had an issue with the r1 back in 07 or 08...@ 4000 or 4500 it flat spotted...Yami reflashed it and all was good....call kawi to see what the prob or if there is a recall issue...
Somethin else too,a local shop told me that the wire harness is a smidge short and sometimes a cpl of the pins from the wire harness just barely loose connection to ecu...Chk that before you do anythin..
 
#7 ·
It's supposed to rain over the next few days and that will give me time to check out the connectors and wiring.
 
#6 ·
Thanks for the thought. I haven't had a chance to take the top of the airbox off yet to ensure they are sprayn correctly yet. That does sound like a reasonable explanation and much cheaper than a new or used ECU.
 
#9 ·
I'm having the same issue

Reviving a crazy old post lol...

So I'm having the exact same issue, does anyone know what ended up being wrong? I've got quite a few more miles, 74,000, but my 08 runs like a champ except for not revving above 9500 or so on the road.

I'll start by checking the connections mentioned above, but I definitely haven't noticed any wiring issues offhand while doing maintenance around it over the years... of course I probably wouldn't have noticed a very slightly loose pin in a connector though. Speedohealer and XTRE are all I currently have as far as electronic mods.
 
#12 ·
How did you check them? If you didn't do a proper flow test, you cannot rule it out in the diagnostic process. Alternately, a fuel pressure reading/log at the point of failure would give you the same answer.

That said, common culprits are kickstand interlock switches, and less commonly tip-over switches. It would be worth checking to see if your upper injectors are firing properly, but that could be difficult without specialized equipment. Knowing what your AFR's look like leading up to the problem would also be helpful.
 
#15 ·
So as an update, the lower mileage used complete pump actually made things worse, limiting me to around 8-8500k.

Next I noticed the stock fuel line finally developed a kink due to time and heat... Replacing it with a generic FI fuel line did some great things in terms of smoothing out my throttle response and increasing acceleration. The bike started losing flow even earlier though, around 7k but would accelerate with some surging back over 9500 with the same replacement pump (possibly higher but I didn't push it). Still a huge improvement, and even with another stock fuel line I'm keeping a standard line on it, since the bend is much more gradual the way I installed it.

I also tried a cheap replacement pump, which is where I am now. With that pump it'll go over 10k. Over the next few days of riding I'll get a better feel for how it's working, but given that PatrickG's issue ended up being dirty secondary injectors, as well as another member having the same issue, Spaz in the previous comment, and the fact that it's cheaper for me to clean them than to buy a decent pressure tester, I'm going for that first. If they end up being dirty I'll clean the primary injectors too, if not now in the near future.

I'll update when I have time to clean the injectors!
 
#16 ·
For the most recent update, I tried cleaning the secondary injectors and didn't see anything other than clean carb cleaner coming out. I didn't pulse it through each one for long though, as a dust storm was coming through so I had to get everything sealed back up. I'll probably repeat the cleaning with the secondary and primary injectors since I'm going to take the airbox off soon as well. At that point I'll inspect all the vacuum lines and inspect and replace the spark plugs with new ones.

I bought a fuel pressure test kit, and with the new cheap stock pump replacement it was reading 42 psi with a primed pump and at idle. I realize that's below the 43 psi, but I'll also have to check the error percentage of the gauge. Is there any possibility that at high rpm's the pressure changes or the pump can't keep up?

I didn't mention it earlier, but I have no fault codes.
 
#17 ·
So I ended up finding a used but perfect condition complete throttle body, upper and lower injectors, and all sensors for an excellent price and started out by swapping out the whole upper injectors and mount. No change.

Over the long weekend I finally got impatient enough to swap my stock exhaust for the Beet I picked up.... annnd.... the issue is gone!!!

So the welds on my original stock headers failed recently and I replaced them with used stock headers in great condition, with the rest of the exhaust original. I'm trying to figure out what caused this issue, and of course after all this trial and error it's the simple answer.

I removed the exhaust valve motor from the stock muffler, but left the valve and spring on... Well I ride daily in all weather conditions, and the exhaust is the one area Kawi chose not to coat in any way... The spring on the valve rusted and the end snapped, allowing the valve to rotate against only the weight of the spring and the force of the air through the muffler rather than the tension it should have holding it open. That's why it was sometimes a little better, or able to rev a little higher or lower before eventually hitting a wall as the pressure closed the valve.

Luckily I only spent about $150 on parts, and I don't plan on selling this bike so I'm good with having backups. I'm going to swap the original fuel pump, injectors, and all parts back as well. This was definitely a reminder to check all aspects of the simple things before moving on to more complicated tests. It also shows that, provided you maintain the bike decently, use distilled water, clean gas, good oil, etc, that you can have a bike with extended maintenance and no issues (that I didn't cause lol).
 
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