WR250R dying out

Hello all, ran into a problem yesterday. Haven't ridden the bike in months so took it out the garage and warmed her up for about 5 minutes. Then I shut the bike off for about a minute. When I went to start back up I noticed it had a slightly hard time starting but didn't think of it much.

Rode about half a mile going thru the gears from half to 3 quarters throttle and everything was fine. Then the first tight turn was coming up so I downshifted and started to add more throttle thru the turn. Next thing you know the bike shuts off. After that it had a hard time starting. It would start but had a hard time holding idle or die out again I also noticed it backfired when trying to start it but only sometimes.

Finally after 10 minutes of trying to figure what was wrong with it we decided to head back home. When riding the bike back home I couldn't go anything past half throttle or bike would stutter and die out.

So I what does everyone think it is?

I was thinking it was the fuel pump but I could hear it priming up every time.

It also might be old gas because I know the gas is probably at least 6 months old.

Currently my bike mods are:
2008
Sumo trim
Delta full exhaust and header
FMF programer
no toil air filter
air box mod

Again the bike ran fine until yesterday, so eager to hear what everyone else thinks. Thanks

What's the air filter look like?

YZEtc wrote:

What's the air filter look like?

It was pretty clean, It's fairly new but when I took out the no toil filter it was really sticky and seemed to be somewhat falling apart. The clip that holds the filter down was stuck to it and where the filter wrapped around was stuck too(kind or like glued). I used my K&N filter oil.

Two things come to mind.

First is how old is the battery? If it is a bit old you may want to have it tested. I have seen a battery drop a cell and the bike behaves much like you describe since the fuel pump is not getting the correct voltage.

Second, bypass the FMF program by disconnecting it from the injector and plug the stock connector back on the injector. If things run better this would point to the programmer as being an issue.

However....

Get rid of that old gas first and put some fresh gas in the tank. It that gas has ethanol and was not treated before storage you could have water in the gas now which could cause this issue.

rsteiger wrote:

Two things come to mind.

First is how old is the battery?  If it is a bit old you may want to have it tested.  I have seen a battery drop a cell and the bike behaves much like you describe since the fuel pump is not getting the correct voltage.

Second, bypass the FMF program by disconnecting it from the injector and plug the stock connector back on the injector.  If things run better this would point to the programmer as being an issue.

However....

Get rid of that old gas first and put some fresh gas in the tank.  It that gas has ethanol and was not treated before storage you could have water in the gas now which could cause this issue.

The battery is pretty new, I put it in around the beginning of this year, the bike has only been ridden about once or twice a month. How do I test the battery voltage?

Tomorrow I'll buy new gas and see how it runs, and if I have time I'll change the spark plug (any recommendations?).

Today I double checked the fmf programmer to see if maybe the setting were changed but everything looked fine. Also will try what you said also. Thanks

250wrx wrote:

rsteiger wrote:

Two things come to mind.

First is how old is the battery?  If it is a bit old you may want to have it tested.  I have seen a battery drop a cell and the bike behaves much like you describe since the fuel pump is not getting the correct voltage.

Second, bypass the FMF program by disconnecting it from the injector and plug the stock connector back on the injector.  If things run better this would point to the programmer as being an issue.

However....

Get rid of that old gas first and put some fresh gas in the tank.  It that gas has ethanol and was not treated before storage you could have water in the gas now which could cause this issue.

The battery is pretty new, I put it in around the beginning of this year, the bike has only been ridden about once or twice a month.  How do I test the battery voltage?

Tomorrow I'll buy new gas and see how it runs, and if I have time I'll change the spark plug (any recommendations?).

Today I double checked the fmf programmer to see if maybe the setting were changed but everything looked fine.  Also will try what you said also.  Thanks

I usually take the battery in to be load tested. Either my local bike shop does it (I trust them) or a Batteries Plus store which is near to me as well. Most Auto Parts stores should be able to test it too. However, I may be a bit leary buying a motorcycle battery from an auto parts store after what one of the other inmates went through with getting a number of bad batteries right from the store.

Update, yesterday didn't have time to work on the bike but I started the bike a few times to see if the problem was still there and yes it still remained. Only had about a cup of old gas in the tank but added about a cup of newer gas. Still problem remained.

Today I started the bike and the problems still remained, idle for a little while then shut off. Sometimes it took longer to start but still sputtered and clicked off. Bike also turned but would not start. Looked over the bike to see if anything was loose, pinched or disconnected but everything was good. Also bypassed the fmf programmer but problem still remained.

So put a new spark plug in and the bike started up fine and idled great. Left it running and revved it to see if it would lag or shut off but no. Added more fresh gas and rode it hard around for about 20 min and the bike is running great! Seems like the bike is running better then ever. So I guess it was the spark plug or gas that was the problem. Pretty happy now but I just hope it wasn't the fuel pump being nice today that'll leave me stranded another day.

Glad it worked out but at the rate you ride I would put the battery on a tender.

Were you using ethanol gas? Ethanol is poison for small motors. Even ones that were "made" for it. I had been running ethanol in my bike and it was running terrible. I found a local no ethanol gas station and the poor running issues were gone after the 2nd or 3rd tank. My bike is a 91 and runs better than it has in 10 years.