motor died while riding

After nearly 18k on my first one and 15,678 miles on the current bike, the WR250R let me down. Or, more likely, I let her down somehow.

A few weeks ago, the bike would not start and was showing a code 19 (side stand switch). I removed the side stand switch, clipped the wires, and wired them together. Plugged the closed circuit back in, still threw the code. Then suddenly it cleared itself and the bike ran with or without the plug for the side stand plugged in. Been fine for the last couple weeks of daily riding, figured it was solved.

Today, leaving for the west coast. Bike was running perfectly until I went to merge onto the interstate again after riding the back roads a while. As I went to accelerate onto the ramp, the motor lost power and sputtered. It ran with the throttle turned, but cut out at idle. Eventually I lost all momentum and the motor died completely and would not restart either via the button or bump starting. Occasionally it will throw a code 19 when trying to restart after cycling the key, but clears itself after a few seconds. Once again plugging the switched plug in and out has no effect on the code. The few times it did try to catch and run, it backfired severely with a loud metallic clang.

I do not think the fuel pump is the culprit. Every time I cycled the key, the pump would prime and visibly be moving fuel in the tank. Airbox and pipe appear to be clear on visual inspection. I did not check spark but the plug is newer and was replaced with an iridium plug and I didn't want to pull the tank in a pizza hut parking lot with a ride on the way and being so close to home.

Any ideas? As I'm typing this I'm thinking a bad ecu or broken wire(s) in the harness. Not ruling out the pump (and wouldn't mind getting it replaced since its already in the shop) or maybe the coil.

Oh man, skierd! I'm sure sorry to hear about this. Better now than 500 miles into your trip, though.

Sarah

Fuel, air, spark are first. Then compression....


Low hanging fruit easiest to check first right? Battery is good? Fuses? Spark plug has spark?

What mods do you have? Could your fuel programmer have crapped out? (if you have one)


Your coil might be a culprit. That thing is pretty robust though. But you also put the bike through quite a lot as well.

Is the code 19 thing limited to the side stand? Does it come on for anything else?

Since the side stand switch totally prevents bike from starting/running, I'd certainly trace through that electrical path considering you
tried to force a change there. Is there a fuse associated with that circuit? Could you have shorted something out along that path?

Based on your knowledge and experience I'd guess you've been through these things already.

Just thinking through what I'd look at first.

Battery is good, or at least is good enough to power the display and crank the bike.

No fuel programmer or aftermarket exhaust anymore, all stock. Except the AIS is removed (wondering now if that might have been the culprit, maybe the plate worked itself loose?) and the EXUP is still bypassed.

No fuse on the side stand circuit afaik. Didn't have a voltmeter with me on the bike to start checking wires. Didn't check the plug, didn't want to tear it that far down with a friend on the way and it only being 15min to the nearest dealer. I bought the extended warranty for a reason after all, here's hoping...

The code 19 is definitely suspicious. I would be tracing those wires back to the ECU. I wonder if they have developed an intermittent 'open' in the harness. That's the one problem with our bikes is that there's a lot of complexity controlling the air-fuel-compression-spark process.

Motokid wins.

Got the call this morning, survey says...

Broken spark plug. Internally, the plug broke and was no longer sparking. It was a denso iridium, not the stock plug fwiw. This is a new one for me, never broke a plug before on any car or bike. This was a new plug as of mid summer too. Guess is that it was shorting causing the weird electrical stuff... not entirely sure I trust the logic but my bike is running again. I'll likely have to wait till tomorrow to go get her...

geeze, I've never heard of the internals of a plug breaking before, just the porcelain. glad they got it figured out quickly though.

Apparently spark plugs aren't supposed to wiggle. Looks like the porcelain broke at the base where it attaches inside the metal body.



Bike runs great now, and I also purchased a spare (stock) plug.

Just checked it as I was putting the saddle bags back on (run the enduro saddlebag straps under the seat), code 19 is no more and the stand switch circuit is working like normal. Looped wires plugged in, works fine. Not plugged in, bike will not run in gear. No codes. Winning.

Be careful about quoting that loser... How anyone can consider being a pathetic drug addict and having their kids taken away from them to be "winning" is beyond me.

Hope to see you on your tour, dude...