T7 Engine Problem (Lost Cylinder)

[Justin]

Hey everybody. First time posting here, I need your opinion guys.  

 

I have some problems with my Tenere 700, I will try to explain shortly.

 

I bought Rapid Bike Evo from  a couple of months ago. I have a brand new 2022 Tenere 700 (currently around 4000km.) I have put HP Corse High Full Exhaust (no DB killer), Decat + Airtwin filter)

I set the Auto Adaptivity settings a little on the rich side and it was all great. ( I live in Andorra at 1600m altitude.) For those who have Rapid Bike evo, see the screenshot below of the auto adaptivity settings while I was in Andorra

 

 

At some point I tried to make it even a little more rich and it was all great, but then last week I started travelling to Spain and once I approached sea level the bike started acting weird. When I am in 3rd,4th or 5th gear around 4000 rpm and put some gas in a quicker way, the bike surges quite strongly before it starts accelerating again, as if it loses power for a moment. 

Next day I tried to make settings a bit leaner but it only maybe helped a little until yesterday I was going faster on the straight road ( full gas starting from 3rd gear, shifting at around 8-9k rpm till I reached around 150 km/h in 5th gear) I only did this for a very short time of about 5 seconds and suddenly the power got cut off (not rev limiter as I was at around 8k rpm) and the engine started making a very weird sound and the engine light came up. I stopped on the side of the road, shut the engine off and tried to turn the engine back on but it did not start, the starter was working but the engine would not fire up. After waiting for around 5 minutes I started the engine but it sounded very very bad, as if it was running only on one cylinder. A lot of white smoke was coming from the exhaust and I saw black greasy liquid dripping from the exhaust joint.

 See the video link of me starting the bike and sounding like a single cylinder.

 

As I was stranded on the road I did not know what to do. I disconnected the Rapid bike module and tried to turn the bike on but the bike would not start at all without the module connected. (is it normal?)

Once I reconnected Rapid bike module under the seat, the bike started and sounded all good again. But the Engine Light is still on. I managed to get home, everything seemed to work ok again but I still have the engine light on and most importantly tomorrow (Saturday) I need to finish my trip and go back to Andorra ( I need to do about 500km)

I ask for your opinions on where do you think things went wrong, and if you think I can safely go back home tomorrow? (Bike works alright, it is just the engine light is on)

I suspect it was because the Rapid Bike Evo module made the mixture way too rich and I have now problems with spark plugs or what not ( I am not a bike mechanic so bear with me please haha)

But at the same time the power cutout happened at high revs of around 8k and I checked that my Rapid Bike Module is at stock settings at that high rpm. I am lost..

I guess once I get back to Andorra I will go to Yamaha center for them to have a look at it.

 

Let me know what you think,

 

Thanks!

 

[Mapbook]

I think you should stop buggering  about with things you know $%&^ all about. 

[DT675]

I don't know what the Rapid Bike Evo does, but it sounds like without a professional tuner you are way off with timing and/ or fuel mixture.  I'm betting you may have fouled your plugs at the minimum.

[Hibobb]

51 minutes ago, Justin said:

I will go to Yamaha center for them to have a look at it

I believe the Yamaha dealer will give you discouraging news...

[Ray Ride4life]

The rapid bike evo is a self learning module with lots of happy users such as myself.
Everything is plug and play except for 1 connection and i suspect that there the problem starts.
But since you suspect a problem with the module the best step to make is to contact the seller because they should know a bit more about this product.

 

@Mapbook You're right but to use your own way of communication, don't be an a-hole and tell it in a more respectful way.
@DT675 You could have know what is is because there are several topics about this useful gadget and it's positive effects to especially the throttle respons.

[Justin]

@Ray Ride4life Thank you for your reply. I suspected in the beginning that it is a module just because by disconnecting and plugging it back in solved the problem, at least for now.. (the engine light is still on) I only played around with the autotune settings (nothing crazy) as I did not do anything with the base map itself, so that is way I am so surprised to have any problems. You mention that 1 connections which requires to splice the wire, do you think that could possibly be the problem? (everything was ok for about 2000 km since I installed it.) I might strip bike apart to have another look at it. I contacted the Rapid Bike Evo Dimsports, they haven´t replied yet.

 

@Mapbook, as said, you are right but what´s the point in this comment unless you participate in the conversation.. ouh well..

 

It is very surprising if it is all because of Rapid Bike Evo, because majority of owners (including people I know) are very happy customers and never had problems.

 

 

 

[Mapbook]

The point is if you are going to fit alternative tuning kit leave it to someone who knows what they are doing. 

[Dougie]

@Justin, I’ve not seen one yet but intend to do so. As Ray said, it’s generally a great bit of kit, and I think most have just plugged in and left it do it’s thing. I think even at altitude, it would adapt to the environment accordingly on its own so wouldn’t need any extra help, so you’re probably right in the mixture being out. There must be a way of resetting it and letting it “re-learn” I take it? 

[Hollybrook]

Have you hooked up an OBD2 reader to see what code was generated? 

[Ray Ride4life]

15 hours ago, Justin said:

do you think that could possibly be the problem?

That's the only weak point of the system in my opinion. It comes with the best worst option to tap into a wire but when you tap into a wire with a cable splicer there is no control how well the connection really is and there will be a bigger risk getting moist in.

Best way would be cutting and soldering the wire.
I don't know why you did something with the autotune settings, i bought mine especially for the T7 installed it and went for a ride on the TET to let it do it's learning process. That's why i bought this instead of a Power Commander and i guess i still can go to a tuner to do something specific if i want to.
I am an experienced mechanic doing all the work on my bikes myself but i stay away from tuning, that i leave to the specialists.

[Justin]

So I finally made the trip back to Andorra of around 500km. The bike was behaving ok. I disabled the Rapid Bike Evo to just run the stock map and in the middle of the trip the engine light disappeared. (I guess that is a good sign?) The bike does feel a bit weird, maybe some of it is in my head, but it feels like roughly 15% underpowered, a bit sluggish and my fuel consumption is higher at around 5.3 l/100km (44 mpg) with just stock Yamaha fuel map. (most of the trip on highway at roughly 120 km/h - 75mph)  I do smell more gas than usual at stops. I hope it is just a fouled spark plug. 

@HollybrookI do have OBD2 reader but need a 6 pin adaptor which should arrive next week. But since the engine light disappeared, will I be able to read the history of error codes?

@Ray Ride4lifeYou got me worried about that spliced cable. I do not have the skills or equipment for soldering the wire. Need to find somebody who can, or do you think there might be some other off the shelf connectors I could buy to at least improve that current connection?

 

Lesson learned - I should have not tinkered with the settings of fuelling even though I believe I did not do any big changes or anything.  Nonetheless I got Rapid Bike Evo just to make it less lean because of new exhaust and air filter in hopes to protect the engine better (I don´t care about extra power or anything) but ended up messing everything up. I guess I´ll know it better next time haha. 

 

Next week I will check the spark plugs to see how they look. Is there anything else worth checking in anyone's opinion? 

 

Thank you guys.

[qInvention]

Glad you made it back home!

 

I think disabling it was not a good idea as you specifically installed it in order to prevent damage from a mixture that would be too lean. As they learn, you probably didn't have to manually heighten the mixture. 

 

I think it's normal that the bike ran a bit low when returning and probably it also ran hotter.

 

What I don't consider to be normal is that gas smell, but I can't figure out how it could be related to the other problems. It may hopefully be the spark plugs, seems like the least expensive of interpretation.

 

Wishing you luck during research 

[Alan M]

If you’ve been over fuelling and not igniting/missing it could end up in the exhaust.

 

That might be where the fuel smell is coming from. 

[Justin]

@qInvention As you say I probably could have left it on, but since I suspected problems because of running too rich I disabled it just for this last trip home. Once I fix the bike I will put it back on and just leave at default Auto mode. It only ran 1 degree hotter, never went higher than 82C (180F) 

I hope it is just a spark plug problem which will be an easy fix, I just worry if I could have done more possible damage to something else since I had this incident as shown in the video of original post.

@Alan M I hope that´s the case, even though I would have expected the smell to disappear later on by itself, but 500km after the problem happened, the smell is still there...

 

[Alan M]

49 minutes ago, Justin said:

@qInvention As you say I probably could have left it on, but since I suspected problems because of running too rich I disabled it just for this last trip home. Once I fix the bike I will put it back on and just leave at default Auto mode. It only ran 1 degree hotter, never went higher than 82C (180F) 

I hope it is just a spark plug problem which will be an easy fix, I just worry if I could have done more possible damage to something else since I had this incident as shown in the video of original post.

@Alan M I hope that´s the case, even though I would have expected the smell to disappear later on by itself, but 500km after the problem happened, the smell is still there...

 

Don’t assume it’s sorted, I don’t know the system but if it uses the O2 sensor in closed loop the sensor could be contaminated with the over fuelling and the ecu might be getting an incorrect signal.

[Justin]

@Alan MYou are right, but is there a way for me to check so I could confirm if it is all good? Winter is coming and I will have plenty of time in the garage to check most of the things haha

[Alan M]

If the sensor is contaminated it may be possible to remove it and clean it.

 

To be honest it’s not something I’ve ever had to do. Google is your friend , do a search and see if there’s any reliable info out there.

[Justin]

I will take the sensor out and check it out, thanks for the tip! 

[Ray Ride4life]

16 hours ago, Justin said:

or do you think there might be some other off the shelf connectors

Like i said, it came with the best worst option so any other type would be even worse but since the bike seems to work again it's less likely this is the problem.
Best option is to see if there is some kind of reset and let it do it's self learning proces again.

[Justin]

Hello guys.

Today I finally taken out the spark plugs and checked the error codes I had at the time (now there are no present engine light)

See the picture of the spark plug and let me know what you think. They both look the same so I only added one picture. (this plug has been used only for 4500 km) Does it look bad or good enough in your opinion?

 

And here are my previous error codes that appeared when I lost one cylinder etc.

 

I managed to get some basic stats (what OBD2 calls freeze frames) of the time when the error codes appeared. They do not mean much to me, but if they say anything to you, let me know please.

 

And my Oxygen sensor readings currently.

 

 

Any insight highly appreciated.

Thanks! 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Justin
double image

[PNGL]

Check your connection to your TPS wire. When I installed my RB Evo, the splice they sent with it didn't work worth a damn. The first ride I went on it randomly lost contact three times and would run like absolute Shet, while blowing white smoke, then die. Wiggle the splice around a bit and it worked again. Sounds exactly like what yours was doing. The next day, I used a better splicing method and have had absolutely no problems since.

[Alan M]

Just putting this out there……….but does the T7, or more accurately, the CP2 in the T7 actually need this engine mod?

 

[Ray Ride4life]

It doesn't need it but it's a very welcome add on to make it just a little better.

[Justin]

@PNGL thanks a lot for telling me this, that is very reassuring to hear! What type of other splicing method you used? I could buy it and just do the same as you.

[qInvention]

Sorry for highjacking the thread, but @Justin and @Alan M is there a need and a way to clean the O2 Sensors ?