Engine shut off while downshifting
 

Has anyone experienced their engine just cutting off during a downshifting slow down?

I was going about 60mph on the highway yesterday morning. When I got on the off/on ramp to merge onto the interstate I started to downshift to slow my speed with light braking. As I began my right turn onto the the interstate on ramp, I was then in 2nd gear with brakes engaged for the sharp turn and the bike just cut off on me. It started right back up and I kept going, but it cut off. I couldn't believe it. I had mentioned it to my husband and he had told me that had happened to him as he was downshifting and slowing going downhill somewhere.

Any idea why guys?

Both my wife and I had it happen about 30 seconds appart from each other on a long run back from Texas Hill Country on I-10. Mine died on the ramp when I pulled in the clutch and my wife pulled up behind me and her's died. Turns out we had both run out of gas while taking the ramp to the gas station (both bikes where loaded with gear 75 mph) we ran out sooner than we expected. They both started back up and we made it to the station. My RX3 ran like crap after filling up for 10 or so miles spitting and sputtering could barley get it to 60 mph. It cleared up but I ran injector cleaner through both bikes once we got home and its been good so far. With all the flooding here in Southeast Texas I wouldn't be surprised if we had gotten bad fuel with water in it.

I've had this happen once and only once. It happened just after an extremely long, very steep downhill and a very long decel with a stop sign at the bottom. I did my last downshift rolling up to the stop sign with the clutch in and it died.

Never done it since.

Wonder if it starved for fuel at the petcock? Makes sense on the downhill? I am usually working the throttle while downshifting to aid in shifting on my bashan

No petcock. Injection. I just figured the ECM got confused from all the unburnt gas on the super long decel. I go down that hill now, I blip the throttle once in a while. Cured it.

Ok....rather, the point where the fuel empties from the tank. (Sloshing fuel starvation etc). Is the tank baffled? Either way, getting in the habit of elevating the rpm s will prevent it.

How many miles on your bike and have the vales been adjusted? I believe I read somewhere this was an indication that valves needed adjusting??????? rj

Good point. I do think mad has done her 1st adjustment.

I'd x3 the valves. How's it start?

Have you worked on the bike recently? I wonder if you have a loose connection or crimped fuel line (unlikely but possible)

Prob injection setting..
Not uncommon on injected bike motors..
Some yamaha's were quite bad at just cutting
out while slowing down...
on my XT its the TPS & CO settings...

..

I was riding up hill, so it wasn't down hill and there was only 100 miles on the bike at the time. So there was plenty of fuel in there.

I have 1000 miles on the bike, so we did our 500 mile valve adj already. However, my husband experienced the cut off before the valve change. I've been the only one riding the bike since the valve change and it just happened to me. So, I do not believe that to be the issue. However, to answer your question CSaddict, the bike has never started right up pushing on the start button. It takes a holding it down for a few seconds and doing it twice to get it started. It has never started quickly, never, not even right out of the box.

It's time for another oil change, so I will take the seat off and look around for loose wires and such. It only happened that one time, just really weird.

Madsocial,

I've not experienced what you describe. ABout 7,000 miles so far and I ride a very steep canyon road everytime I'm on the bike.

Two questions: Are you able to reproduce the symptom? When you wrote "engine just cutting off", do you mean as in if the electrics suddenly cut off, or as in if the motor starved for fuel?

Cheers,

Dan K.

Dan, I will try to reproduce it on my next ride. The power just shut off. Electronics it must be. The motor did not starve for fuel. I know what a motor feels like when it is starving for fuel. You feel jerking, and a putt putt type of feel to it. None of this happened. The bike just shut off! It must be an electric thing.

you just answered my question. did everything shut off.check the main power fuse connection. mine did that and it was loose. I also called csc when I got mine because i thought it was idling too high and they said they changed the idle to 1800 ( 2000 when cold) because they had a problem with engines stalling when letting off the throttle.

Between my brothers bike and mine, his has always fired right up, mine has taken a little more time. Even twice at the beginning, as you described.
With miles, mine's getting better. Fires on the first push but still takes a few turns.

As Ron B says, check your fuse connection and also, check your battery terminals for "clean and tight". I read that stalling could be caused by that on these, as well.

I remember reading something on RX3 Forums thread titled "Ignition Problems" Andy had his RX3 lose power and quit. I think he cleaned the ignition switch or something to that effect maybe its worth a look.

Mine would intermittently die while going down the road one day like I hit the kill switch. I could pull in the clutch and hit the starter button and get it running before loosing too much speed so road it this way for a couple of hours to get home. Got home and checked the battery terminals by accident and both were loose and would giggle enough to kill it . Tightened them and problem gone, rj

Thanks guys for all the feedback. At the end of the day, someone put these bikes together so maybe it isn't a 100% and the amount of vibration coming off of them could cause anything to be loose at any time as well. I have learned that to be true with my Harley. I can't tell you how many screws I've lost and I've almost lost my exhaust ...haha..no lie.

Point being, guess this is a lesson to always double check everything. I am going to check the ignition switch, battery terminals, fuse and just any damn wire on the bike. It is possible during build, something wasn't pushed tight together, or with the mileage something came loose.

Cheers friends! I'll let you know if I experience this again. Hopefully the bike starting right up at one push does get better. :thanks:

I checked mine at the 500 miles servicing and sure enough both were only finger tight, actually the neg was less than that and I believe the only thing holding it on was the rubber cap. With the number of bikes CSC is turning out something like this is to be expected ....no one is perfect. Anyone wanting to point the "Chinese junk" finger at this particular issue need only read this: http://www.autoblog.com/2016/01/13/h...ll-motorcycle/

And you were saying ? ? ? :shrug:

I need to make it clear that when this happened ,my RX3 had around 7500 miles on it and I was the one who forgot to tighten the terminals from when I added some battery tender leads to the battery. My fault not CSC's . After reading some posts above it was clear I neglected to mention that little tidbit of info. I'm surprised that with all the turning off and restarting that it didn't screw up the computer thingy and with around 9500 miles on it now ,appears no worse for the incident. It never once hinted that it wouldn't make it home during the Iron Butt 1000 so I think the motor, FI, cooling, computer part are pretty bullet proof. rj

rx3 James had the bike stall wile riding turned out to be purple connector under seat was loose if it only happens when downshifting i would check valve adj. again the more you do it the better at it you will get

I had a similar problem but it went away after the second valve adjustment. I had them too tight. At the loose end of the adjustment spec, the bike hasn't quit. Better gas mileage, too.

The plug under the seat I checked when i got the bike, only cause CSC said to do that in one of their videos, upon receiving your bike. I'll check it again though, doesn't hurt to check

Mine did this the last time I had a chance to drive it. Today after being on the road for three weeks I got a chance to change the oil and check the valves as part of my 2500 service. Both exhaust valves were too tight for my .04mm to fit under. My .03mm fit barely. I set them all to .08MM.

6900+ Miles Still cuts off
 

I have checked the valves, Ok. When slowing down, less than 20 mph and coasting to a stop or about to turn, the engine just cuts off. I hit the starter and it starts immediately, and resumes riding like nothing happened.

This has happened many times, and seems worse in really hot weather.:hmm:

Mine has done it twice now, once more since my last post. When I had it on the rack on Saturday to change the oil, I redid the connections under the seat, just because, and also, redid my battery terminals even though they seemed ok. I put on about 150+ hard miles over the weekend and no stalling. Ran and acted perfectly.

Today was my first kinda worrysome moment with my rx3 at 2600mi. After work I started it up, and you know how a second or two into running it'll cut the idle speed down (depending on temperature of course)? Well it cut it...off. She started right back up and drove home fine. Hope it's nothing. It was also 100 F outside.

mine just did it the one time when I first got it and i found the loose fuse. Hasnt done it since.....(knock on wood)....

weird that is it is happening to quite a few folks. I haven't rode it all week. I have buying buying parts for my other bike and having to drive parts home in the car. lol Exhaust, tires, fender...etc..etc.. The Harley is getting overhauled.
I'll take the RX3 out on Friday for a day ride and see if it happens again.

If you think its happening to the RX3 riders often you should hop over to any R1200GS forums or check out this right up on Autoevolution. BMW G650GS and G650GS Sertao Recalled Over Engine Stalling Possibility

http://www.autoevolution.com/news/bm...#ixzz4DioMeOl7

As the complexity of motorcycles goes up to meet EPA standards so do the problems associated with them.

Ah, you know...I never thought about that. And even ethanol. All these are factors. You nailed it man!

My husband to the RX3 out again coming into our condo.
He said he had gone over the bump, was coasting with the clutch in maybe doing 15 or so mph and the bike cut off. It started right back up for him when he hit the button.

I guess the bike just doesn't like to coast with the clutch in? IDK. This makes it the 3rd or 4th time this has happened with 1100 miles now on the bike. :hmm:

my bike cut out on me yesterday twice 4th gear going right along then just died only thing diff. was raining but have drove in rain before put a little grease around plug wire who knows i don't mind fixing problems but not knowing what is wrong is what sucks :hmm:

Another 150 miles of mixed riding this weekend so far and all is good after re-doing the connections under the seat and battery terminals.

When y'all did that major svc on the bike did you happen to do the connections? Of course not the same bike but I took the advice of C. Riders and re seated with electric grease then electric taped the connections against water. Don't know if this is the fix but gave me piece of mind.

But then again the rx3 is a bit more complicated than the humble bashan .

Well, I guess I will just hang in there.We did order some accessories we plan on installing; such as lights and stuff. So, I'll just keep monitoring this issue and then I will check ever single damn plug on the bike, before installing anything else and put dielectric grease on everything! LOL :tup:

Slip it all the way in.
 

Just a reminder that while you have your hands on a connector, first pull it apart and look inside both halves. The pins and receptacles are attached to the wires before they are inserted in their receiver. If they didn't get pushed in until the lock tang engages, they can still make contact but not be fully connected.

Examine them closely to see if each electrical part is as far out (in) as the others.

So weird. I coast with the clutch in fairly often coming in to a stop, and this has never happened to me. If there was a bump of some kind shortly before the cut out, I would lean toward a loose connection of some kind, as others have suggested.

who knows...if it continues after checking every connection and doing the next valve check at 2500 miles. then i'm going to call CSC.