fuel pump problem

I sense something here. On Yamaha snowmobiles we have a relay issue. When its damn cold we have to take away the relay and warm it our hand. Then the engine starts.

I think that along with the price of 218 one is required to do special handling ! I hope we do not have a relay problem. I could see a snowmobile with ice or shrinkage problem when cold. Is there moving parts in late model relays or what? Berwyn

I know that my Yammy snowmobile has a wr 250 engine * 2 and have fuel pump relay that are sensitive to temps. Maybe they are sensitive to heat as well. We should ask Rydnseek. He lives very close to hell

I have now talked with Stefan at Yamaha Sweden. He didnt seem to happy to get my call.
I actually was a little surprised of his reaction....
At first he seemed really angry and asked me were i got such information from and so on.
After maybe ten minutes of explanation he kind of calmed down and told me his wife actyally rode a wr250x too.

But anaway he told me that Yamaha sweden did not have any kind of information about fuelpump issue but told me to take the bike to my lokal dealer to get it checked up.

So i will get it checked when i leave it for (first) 1000km service.

It got me thinking that maybe there is some other problem after all.....
And if you google the japanese yamaha website you can see in the bottom of page were it says campaign or something (depending of wich language you are googling..)

You finally get the list that has been around here were it shows that up to 4200 bike had the problem.

But you can actually search for your specific bike and it will tell you if it is concerned or not. Mine was not, and my number is 591.

This is the text that show you if its NOT affected by the fuelpump issue:





Hope this helps a little or if its just gives us more questions....

My 08 WRX stranded me the other day with the pump problem, had to park it in the shade for 20 mins until it cooled down. The dealership told me they'd need to keep the bike for a week to diagnose the problem and that they hadn't heard of the issue before, yeah right. Rather than letting them tear my bike apart I just ended up ordering a new pump. Funny they started off quoting me 350 bucks for it, I told him he was crazy and I could order it for alittle over 200. He dropped it down to 250 so I just said what the hell and ordered it. My VIN is 416 and the bike has less than 1500 miles.

I called Yamaha's corp office and told them what happened. The first person I talked with wasn't aware of the fuel pump problem with the 08 wr r/x so she connected me with someone who was. He was aware of the problem created a trouble ticket for me and had me take it to my local Yamaha tech so they could diagnose the problem.

My local dealer was aware of the problem and had a procedure to able prove the fuel pump was failing. He called Yamaha and they are going to cover the pump and labor.

Just got back from western part of TAT. Three of us (16 riders in all) had wr's. We had a pump failure just before leaving on s/n about 380. Put a new on it and it has run fine since. S/n about 1500 has and did run fine. S/n about 2200 also runs fine . We found the TAT to be quite challegening for us old men. We Texans were gone 18 days and had a great time. Berwyn

New owner here with some fuel pump questions. I recently picked up a 08 model and I'm getting ready to install a IMS 3 gal tank this week. If it must be done I'd rather replace my fuel pump during the tank swap then after. I live in the desert, and it wouldn't be unusual for me to take the bike out in triple diget temps.

I read through most of the fuel pump issues here and on TT. The list of affected bikes from Japan seems to be from a date range of 10/07 through 11/08 and a s/n range from #89 through #4297 or so. My bike is a 1/08 manufacture date, but is s/n #00007, in the date range but not the s/n range.

Is there any info on more or less failures of California model bikes? I know they are different fuel tanks, would they have been manufactured with a different batch of fuel pumps?

The bike has 5600 miles on it, and in the first week of riding daily, I haven't noticed any odd sounds or fueling issues.

So, do I order a pump now, or wait for issues should they occur?

Get it now...you know Murphy's Law right....

Shewolf is right If money is not the problem. It is likely that sooner rather later you are going to need one on that early s/n. Have a good one, Berwyn

I was affraid that might be the answer. Its not like its something that would have kept me from buying the bike, I'd just rather spend that $$$ on more farkles for my new ride. I was hoping maybe there was a chance that the first batch might have been spared from the fuel pump woes, or that Cali bike got a different batch of fuel pumps to go with their different run of tanks.

Oh well, if it is between spending and pushing, I guess I'll spend. Thanks for the input.

Do shop around, the price varies a lot. A friend from Montana just ordered a pump from Oregon, seems to be a very popular place to get the best price. Berwyn

I've decided to put off the fuel pump until after the tank install, so I can take a look at what is in there.

Is there any way of knowing if the fuel pump has been replaced already? The bike had two previous owners and 5,500 miles. It may have been done already.

Are there any distinguishing marks or differences between the old fuel pumps and the replacements?

There is nothing much in the tank. Pull tank, unbolt the fuel pump, rebolt and put the tank back on.
There are photos of fuel pump here.

http://bamarides.com/rideforum/tech-talk/fuel-injection-fuel-pump/

You can call the Yamaha 800 # with your VIN number and they can tell you what warranty work has been done on your bike.

I don't suppose anybody might have an NFG fuel pump kicking around and would be willing to part with some pieces at a reasonable price? Huge bonehead move today, in the process to adjusting my TPS to try and cure the throttle on/off sensitivity issue I managed to knock the loose fuel tank off the bike. The elbow coming out of the fuel pump snapped off . I've considered a few different options that may work, but I really don't want to risk having my crotch on fire and would much rather fix it properly.

I had a WRX fuel pump fail, complete silence. I did a destructive failure analysis and I think I may have discovered an additional failure mode to the one Yamaha claims of the impeller swelling and binding. For practical usage purposes I destroyed the pump I have in the FA process, but I want to verify if I'm correct, and I don't want to wait until the replacement pump I put in my bike fails. I was able to re-assemble my pump holding it together with external fixtures and it whirs away again. So here's the deal: you send me your failed pump at your cost (I don't want more than 3 to start) - if I can fix it you pay for the return shipping. If I can't fix it you can have the pieces back if you wish. I really only want the fuel pump canister, but that is difficult to extract from the plastic fuel filter and support housing. I'm pretty sure I can fix the pumps that fail due to sudden shock - did you drop the fuel tank and now the pump doesn't work? I think I see why this kills the pump and I think I can fix it (I was able to verify this failure mode on my pump, and I think it can be fixed without any damage to the fuel pump canister). Getting to the canister requires careful removal of the fuel filter and assorted crappola, but it can be done non-destructively. The Yamaha announced failure mode of the impeller swelling is almost certainly valid - the clearance of the impeller to the outer housing is only several mils (I wonder if the Yamaha cure was to increase the clearance from the impeller to the housing - that would fall in line with folks saying the new fuel pump runs louder and longer). I'll bet fuel formulation (like ethanol %) plays a role (and I only say this because of a previous experience I had with a Chinese made LandRover fuel pump and it's plastic parts that were shockingly fuel sensitive). The brushes for the electric motor I can easily see chipping a corner and having that chip lock-up the pump - and this failure mode might also be curable. For the chemically challenged (myself included) it is fascinating to think of an electric motor (8 pole permanent magnet) whirring away in your gas tank.

Anywho, I'm bored and I'll spend some time on this. If we can come up with a verifiable diagnostic procedure and fix then we'll write it up for everyone. PM me your email if interested. I'm in Sunnyvale CA so take that into account for shipping costs.

And I should add that Yamaha COULD make this failure a non-issue if they had their Chinese fuel pump manufacturer just make the impeller (now plastic) and inner housing (looks like brass) and outer housing (looks like recycled el-cheapo carbon steel) all out of the same material so the CTE is the same for all the parts.

daggone928 wrote:

I had a WRX fuel pump fail, complete silence. I did a destructive failure analysis and I think I may have discovered an additional failure mode to the one Yamaha claims of the impeller swelling and binding.

Can ya post some pics of the impeller and housing ? Just curious to see what they look like.

Chrispy1200 wrote:

Can ya post some pics of the impeller and housing ? Just curious to see what they look like.

+1

This is the WR250X/R fuel pump disassembled. It is very delicate. The printing on the pump was as follows:
Made in China (I think this is the country of manufacture)
1100-01090 (I think this is the model number)
07123021 (I think this is the lot number run number)

Another option is to ditch/bypass the defective fuel pump altogether and install one of these:



This is a Mikuni DF44-211

Very simple to install. Inlet/outlet and a vacuum source to power it. These little jewels cost about 20 bucks and are extremely reliable. Rebuildable for under 10 bucks! All you need are a few simple fittings to adapt this to any bike.

ballisticexchris wrote:

Another option is to ditch/bypass the defective fuel pump altogether and install one of these:



This is a Mikuni DF44-211

Very simple to install. Inlet/outlet and a vacuum source to power it. These little jewels cost about 20 bucks and are extremely reliable. Rebuildable for under 10 bucks! All you need are a few simple fittings to adapt this to any bike.

That Mikuni diaphram fuel pump can supply enough pressure to operate the fuel injection system?
Right from the turn of the ignition switch?

ballisticexchris wrote:

Another option is to ditch/bypass the defective fuel pump altogether and install one of these:



This is a Mikuni DF44-211

Very simple to install. Inlet/outlet and a vacuum source to power it. These little jewels cost about 20 bucks and are extremely reliable. Rebuildable for under 10 bucks! All you need are a few simple fittings to adapt this to any bike.

Can you provide details and pictures of how you installed this on your 2008-2012 wr250x/r????

motokid wrote:

ballisticexchris wrote:

Another option is to ditch/bypass the defective fuel pump altogether and install one of these:


This is a Mikuni DF44-211

Very simple to install. Inlet/outlet and a vacuum source to power it. These little jewels cost about 20 bucks and are extremely reliable. Rebuildable for under 10 bucks! All you need are a few simple fittings to adapt this to any bike.

Can you provide details and pictures of how you installed this on your 2008-2012 wr250x/r????

As I am sure you know (me being new here and not owning a 250R), There is no way I can give you exact details on how to mount this on a 250R

I am sure it can be done though, as racers have done this on other fuel injected bikes for years. All you need to do is find a vacuum source to power it. As you crank the engine, enough pulse vacuum is created to power the pump. You may also need a check valve installed as well if no petcock is being used.


I'm just trying to give another option for you guys to save a few bucks. I'm just trying to help. Not trying to start an argument. I figure since I have been "lurking" here for a while, I should try to help with some decent advice and tips.

I am really hoping to have this bike before summer hits this year!!
Happy New Year!
Chris

The Mikuni fuel pump is a low-pressure pump that costs under $25 (Amazon.com). I think any motorcycle manufacturer would use it in lieu of their current crop of $200-$400 high-pressure fuel pumps, if it would work. These low pressure pumps are typically used to move fuel from low spots in the fuel tank to high spots where the high-pressure pumps can then suck the fuel; see IMS and Safari large-capacity fuel tanks for this very WRR that many of us ride.

You idea of offering alternate suggestions is laudable, but you really should speak only of what you know. To speculate wastes everyone's time. I'm not jumping on you, just sayin'