Having trouble starting your FZ8 when cold?

[GarryM]

I was having a problem starting my bike when it was cold. The bike would crank like normal, fire up easily but then stall straight away. It refused to start after that no matter what I did unless I turned the ignition key off and then back on again and then it would start up easily and was fine for the rest of the day only to repeat the hard starting thing the next day I rode it.

I took it the Yamaha dealer and they replaced the fuel pump. They said it was running out of fuel at the top end of the rev range so they thought it may not be priming the fuel system properly and causing the starting problem. They also found that the clutch switch was broken. Gotta love Yamaha parts durabilty, the bike has less than 11,000 easy ridden kilometers on it and only ridden on the weekends.

Unfortunately it still wouldn't start when cold sometimes. I took it back to the dealer and they had another think about it and they remembered an "undocumented feature" of the R1. When the cranking voltage of the battery gets below about 10.9 volts the engine immobiliser is switched on. They checked my battery and sure enough the cranking voltage was under 10.9V. Even though the battery had enough juice to spin the starter easily. They charged up the battery and all was well for a day or two. I didn't ride the bike for a week, went to start it and it refused to start again even though the starter spun the engine easily.

I bought a battery tender, the battery stays fully charged and everything has been sweet ever since. It seems that for some reason R1's and FZ8's need a lot of power to run the electrics.

 

[hypo]

good to know! I know the bike runs through a pretty hefty self diagnostics at the beginning (not just checking the LED's work and the meters and needles sweep properly.) Cold is a nasty battery killer.

 

[Hoover]

When I parked mine up in December, I pulled the battery and stored it in my basement. A steady 56 degrees. Reinstalled it last week, turned the key on, let it go through the sweep and hit the button.

Fired instantly. I did not touch it for 3 months and no problems here.

 

[Black Widow]

Odd for sure. I went and fired up my FZ8 for the first time in 2 months(was 3*C and sunny so , spring is on it's way), no battery charger hooked up and battery still hooked upto both terminals and temps down to -23*C in the time it has been sitting. Anyway, i turned the key ,heard the fuel pump prime touched the starter button and vroom, it fired up instantly, let it idle for a few mintes and took it for a spin up the road and back( country road, no plate yet). I was pleased with the way it started to say the least, but not surprised, my Yamaha WR250R( dual purpose) sits all winter (6 months and fires up the first crank every spring, as well as my 550 Grizzly ATV wich hadn't been started since last August, cranked a little slow but fired right up and ran great. Yamaha has never let me down, in the 30 years i have been useing their products. This is my first street bike and i can't get enough of it, hopefully the weather keeps getting warmer and melts the snow so i can get on it again. My WR250 hasn't turned a wheel since i bought the FZ8

 

[Deleted member 438]

It must be the engine immobilizer that's screwing things up. I wonder why don't get any of the features the rest of the world gets, like parking light, four ways, immobilizer, and ABS?