R1100GS cutting out leading to lack of breakfast

[Bolton]

Good evening all. A funny thing happened on the way to Catalanos on Sunday, which is why i didn't make it. Just headed onto freeway North, after unremarkable start up and ride for several kms to freeway entry. On entry ramp bike started to cut out. She died and I noticed rev counter reading rose and fell a little improbably. She then started running again, cut out again, restarted etc, then just died by the freeway. Had to wait about an hour for dutiful wife to come along in the old Landrover and tow me the few kms home. I did try occasionally to start her whilst I was waiting, without success. Pulled up outside house, pressed start button and she started straight away!! Took her for short run a bit later and she again made to cut out and rev counter again gave odd reading, but then she recovered without the motor actually cutting out and made it through the ride round the local streets without incident. Started her tonight and I think she was a little rougher than usual when starting, before smoothing out. Or I could have been imagining that.

I hate intermittent faults. I would actually rather she had just stayed dead and I could have trailered her to Vince or Torsten and got them to diagnose fault. Now she runs, but I have no faith it won't happen again. Any clues as to what I am looking at here?

Of note was when bike was stopped by freeway there was nothing happening when I cranked her over with throttle closed. Opening throttle to full whilst cranking her did make her turn over that bit faster and I thought for a second she might start. Immediately on turning ignition on whilst she was broken down, I noticed rev counter give a slight jump, which is not usual.

One hint. I washed her the day before. I know enough not to use a pressure washer, but did spray water from a standard garden hose around throttle bodies and connected parts as there was a lot of red dirt around. Don't think I got any water under the fuel tank. I then started her up for long enough just to ride her into garage and then turned her off for remainder of day. I have hosed her off before and ridden for long stretches through torrential downpours without incident. Any tips gratefully received.

Cheers All

BB

[wightman]

These modern BMW's are very digital and with time a small contact lost can scramble the brains of the computer, so I reckon the hosing is the guilty party. I use INOX spray to spray all over my bikes. It helps disperse moisture. Maybe your TPS has gotten damp. Put the bike out in direct sunshine for an hour and clean whatever contacts you can easily access with WD40 or electrical contact spray.

[profoundly_disturbed]

For what it's worth; one of my bikes displayed a similar fault. It turned out to be a break in the harness and insulation from the right hand switch cluster shorting when on full lock. Most embarrassing on U-turns (twice)!

Again, for what it's worth, I use ACF50 for electrical contact maintenance. WD40 contains too much H2O for my liking.

[Paddy7]

Hi Brian,

I am sure you have long since resolved the problem.
I would be interested to know what it was being the proud owner of an 1100Gs too.

Cheers

Patrick

[spacey1]

Hi Brian,

Have you resolved this issue yet?

If not, have a look at my Technical article on the R1150/R1100 hall effect sensor / crank angle sensor in the Technical Forum.

http://forum.bmwmccwa.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2297

These can fail fatally or randomly play up until they fail. Mine was also connected with water (wild storm front) where it failed fatally. It has done 6000 km on the new sensor and hasn't missed a beat, including 140 mm of rain around Orrorroo, South Australia on the weekend. It survived swimming across flooded flood ways.

Hope you've fixed it in the meantime though.

spacey... out...