bwanajames
New member
A guy you never want to meet...
Greetings all,
I've been trying to revive my beloved R1100RS to no avail.
I've gone through the basics, but she still won't spring to life. If any of you gurus have any handy suggestions 
, I'd love to hear them! (P.S. I joined the ranks of the Beemer crowd two years ago, and have found that the people who ride them are half the reason for owning one. Really great folks. Thanks in advance!)The Bike: 2000 R1100RS with 54k on the clock.
Symptoms/Behavior:
1. At idle, it seemed the bike would "stumble" a bit. It was instantaneous, but noticeable.
2. On a spirited run one day, reaching 90mph, but bike began to sputter, miss and lose power. But as soon as I backed off the throttle, it resumed normal operation.
3. The day it died: I was in the middle of nowhere, and attempting to pass a pick-up truck pulling a long horse trailer. To get around him, I started pouring on the coal. Just as I reached his front bumper (about 80mph) the bike again began to lose power. Backing off the throttle didn't help this time. It died in the act of passing. Fortunately I had enough momentum to get around the truck and coast to the shoulder without getting run over.
It never would restart, even when cool (a problematic Hall Effect Sensor (HES) will sometimes allow the bike to restart when cool. And, it was a clear day. No moisture to foul a deteriorating HES). A tow truck was called, and it's been dead ever since.4. Now that its home, when I attempt to start the bike, the starter motor engages and the engine turns (ruling out faults in the side stand, clutch and kill switches...) but the sound it makes is rather curious: not that of simply an engine spinning, but it makes a "chugging" sound (like its trying to start) often accompanied by a backfire (timing?).
Checking the Basics:
Okay, before we get into this; I'd read a great deal about the known issue of failing HES sensors in the 1100 series (basically Bosch neglected to use high-temp wiring on the unit, leading to insulation degradation, and thus the commonly heard failures while riding in the rain, or just after a Sunday wash, etc.). Though I wasn't seeing the bouncing tach (another tell-tale sign of a failing HES...) when the bike quit, my mind immediately suspected the HES.
But, when I called up Beemer Boneyard to order a new one, I happened to mention what the bike was doing and he said: "Sounds more like a bad coil or leads..."
So, I've now installed the new HES (a good idea anyway...) and swapped in a coil and leads from a bike with half the miles (for testing) and have seen virtually no change in the bike's behavior (dead, chugs, backfires, won't start...)
Spark:
I've attached a spark tester (with the in-line light bulb) and have an orange spark on both cylinders (Actually, it looked a little weak. But I tested running bikes and it looks the same).
Fuel:
Fuel Pump: Turning the key, the whirring sound of the fuel pump pressurizing can be heard. This suggests that the pump is at least functional.
Injector Check: I've detached the fuel injectors and cranked the engine and witnessed a strong spray of atomized fuel. (Fuel starved at wide open throttle? Don't know. The fuel filter has 9k on it. Not new, but far from scheduled replacement. Plus the bike accelerated like a champ prior to dying. But it does seem high rpm related - at least that is when the symptoms showed up.)
Compression:
The bike ran strong until it quit, without any catastrophic sounds/feelings, etc. Even if compression were gone on one cylinder, it would still start/run on one (roughly of course, but it would run...).
Timing:
Beyond the HES, is there anything else that regulates timing? (other than the Motronic, of course...). While setting the HES, I took great pains to make and re-align to scribed baseplate lines from the original HES position, so I doubt it's off much. In fact, I'm told the slot latitude on the HES base plate is so narrow, that even if you adjusted it to the extreme end, the bike should still run...
So, there you have it. Any suggestions?
Jim in Colorado Springs
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but I've made some progress (I think...). Based on the discoveries of a lot of folks these days, I understand there are a lot of internal fuel line failures going around. Most often, it's thought that ethanol is the prime suspect. The link below details the trials & tribulations of a fellow those symptoms mirrored my own: "Running fine with low throttle demands, stumbling wide open, until total failure refusing to start."
that's where the pressure test suggestion came from. If you have pressure, all that stuff in the tank is not the problem. So, see if you have pressure. Hopefully you do since all of the in-tank stuff is new. You want 3 bar (just under 45 psi) on the lower hose going into the fuel distributor and it should stay there for a while when the pump shuts off.
One of the first things I did was pull each injector and found a strong atomized spray of fuel. (And of course, hooked up my in-line spark tester...) But one of the other fellows mentioned that the fuel demands at WOT would be considerably higher, and the spray I was seeing may not be adequate. Indeed, a pressure test would have been revealing, but I didn't have a tester at the time. (I've since acquired one, so stay tuned).
