Flickering dash and lights, rough idle, stalled bike

[roadwarrior]

Hi all,

RE: 2019 Tracer GT

So a few days ago, it felt like the bike was idling a little rough. Then at a steady speed, I thought I felt the bike surge a little bit at times. I just chalked it up to crazy things you sometimes think you are hearing or feeling from your bike.

Then yesterday, on my way to work the dashboard began to flicker intermittently. It got a lot loss worse on the way home. At this time I also noticed the lights would flicker at the same time. Then at two stops, the bike started really fluctuating in idle and stalled twice. But again, it's intermittent, and most of the time would run and idle as expected.

By the time I made it home, the check engine light came on.

This is super disappointing as the bike has under 6,000 miles on it. I bought it brand new in 2018. 😞

Any suggestions where to start? I'm pretty marginally inclined mechanically, and even less so electrically.

[johnmark101]

Sometimes, with electrical gremlins, tracking them down is the most difficult part, and the repair is something easy.  There is a diagnostic port under the passenger seat that your dealership should be able to plug into and download any fault codes stored in the ECU.  That might be a good place to start.

[texscottyd]

Agreed that an OBD code scanner could be very helpful here.  But if I had to guess, that sounds like an intermittent electrical ground problem to me.   Check the battery terminals for tightness, then chase the black ground terminal wiring as far as you can and check that it’s tight at the frame and/or engine ends.    

[Cogswell]

I agree, start with the battery terminals. Hope you find one loose !

[fddriver2]

1 hour ago, texscottyd said:

 But if I had to guess, that sounds like an intermittent electrical ground problem to me.   Check the battery terminals for tightness, then chase the black ground terminal wiring as far as you can and check that it’s tight at the frame and/or engine ends.    

👆 This. It sounds exactly like a loose ground.

My XR1200 used to do the exactly the same thing. Especially after I put in urethane motor and swingarm mounts.

[peteinpa]

I'd start with the battery/charging system.  With all the problems at once I bet it's on it's way out.

ECU's do not like low voltage.

Got a digital multi-meter?

[Ride365]

Loose battery connection or ground, even bad battery as they do weird things when going bad.

[roadwarrior]

Thanks for the great comments everyone. I'll check the battery tomorrow with my neighbors multi-meter, check over connections, terminals, so forth, and report back.

Edited June 4, 2022 by roadwarrior

[petshark]

It sounds like a loose ground indeed. I think I read about a case like this where it was the key not making proper contact. You could try moving it a little to see if you can trigger the behaviour or remedy it when it's happening. 

[bwringer]

Hey, has anyone mentioned loose battery terminals or connections yet? 

That's the first thing that entered my head as well. I don't quite know why motorcycle batteries in particular are so damn prone to this, but it's a thing I've seen and fixed many times, and your symptoms match.

[DaxTheDuke]

10 minutes ago, bwringer said:

Hey, has anyone mentioned loose battery terminals or connections yet? 

That's the first thing that entered my head as well. I don't quite know why motorcycle batteries in particular are so damn prone to this, but it's a thing I've seen and fixed many times, and your symptoms match.

This is a good point. My old FZ1 had this issue and the battery terminal had just barely broken off and it working was dependent on If i was sitting on the seat just right to put pressure on the terminal.

[roadwarrior]

Thanks for all the great responses. Turns out it may have been a combo platter of a loosening positive terminal and failing battery.

The positive terminal was loose but not totally disconnected. I normally torque the sh!t out of the bolts when installing the battery so who knows.

The battery was also reading under 12v. I left it uncharged in the freezing garage this winter and that must have contributed to an early death.

Anyway, I replaced the battery, tightened the bolts, and good to go. Except...

The check engine wouldn't reset. I thought maybe after several cycles of riding it would reset. i ended up taking the bike to the dealer yesterday over the lunch hour. They hooked up their laptop to the diagnostic port and had to reset two codes (engine idling stop, O2 sensor). It took over an half hour to reset everything. I offered to pay them for their time but they passed. I thought that was pretty cool but I've spent a lot of money there over the years, so I guess it's all good.

Anyway, all set now.

[texscottyd]

@roadwarrior - Glad that got you squared away, and especially happy to hear about the positive customer service experience at your dealership.   A little goodwill goes a long way … 

[bwringer]

Agreed. That was VERY cool of that dealer. Many would take the short-term profit rather than the opportunity to generate much more valuable goodwill for a good customer.

It's really too bad owners don't have a way of doing these CEL resets, or they don't reset themselves after the problem is solved.

[roadwarrior]

2 hours ago, bwringer said:

Agreed. That was VERY cool of that dealer. Many would take the short-term profit rather than the opportunity to generate much more valuable goodwill for a good customer.

It's really too bad owners don't have a way of doing these CEL resets, or they don't reset themselves after the problem is solved.

I was watching this youtube video and the gentleman used a $35 scanner and harness adapter to reset the codes on his MT09. If I ever get another check engine light I might try this next time. Plus you could reuse the scanner for your other bikes, snowmobiles, cars, etc..