Water in Petrol?

[Basil the Labrador]

Hi All

Wondered if anyone has has the same issue as has blighted my weekend at Mondello for the BSB, before? I'll explain..bit of a saga I am afraid...

Set off in the pissing rain on Friday morning, rode for a hour, got drenched and bow waved by trucks etc etc...not quite as bad as a French thundersorm a few years back but WET. Got to work on Reserve, put bike in shed, worked (?) for 4 long hours and then set off to meet mates at Holyhead. Filled up not long after setting off.

Ran fine down along the A55 cruising at 80-85mph in, if not sunny, then dry conditions.

After about 85 miles, felt the bike hesitate a few times, so I pulled in but she was still ticking over OK so kept going..hmm I thought.

Got to Holyhead and just as I pulled in engine died. Restarted and went round to fill up with fuel...thinking well maybe Tesco's has slipped me a bad batch when I left work.

At ferry would tick over but every so often would just die.

Arrived Dublin, started up but the bike was not happy...wished I had stayed in Holyhead at this point...only 3 miles to accomodation so I coaxed the bike there although by then it did want to run below 3000 rpm...stalled at every trafic light.

Spent two "happy?" hours with larfing Jap four riding mates stripping and WD40ing things...but everything electrical seemed dry...could only wonder if the pump fuse might have backed out a bit, cos after a bit of revving and fiddling Beemer seemed to be back to normal. At one stage it did seem to blow rather of lot of "shite out of the pipes".....blocked injector or crap in filter we wondered.

So set off for practice at Mondello...there and back 25 miles each way ran fine even with light rain on the return.

Race morning set off, went about ten miles or so and at set of traffic lights bike died again and would not restart... bugger.

She was just onto reserve and the pump ran on a bit when ignition came on..but no way was it empty. Fortunately just past a garage so put five litres in and... wow fired straight up, good as new. At the garage could only get about another 7 litres in so should have had about five left when she stopped.

Anyway kept her topped up after the experience and has ran fine since then...150miles back home

So questions;

Anyone had summat like this before?

I am thinking that it's either spurious electrical fault of water got into tank during morning ride and at 1st fill up?

Are there two pipes from tank with two filters..?

Ever had water get passed the tank filler seal? I mean it was raining hard but shouldn't be able to do this surely?

Anyway cos warranty is wonderful thing, she is now back with Pidcocks for investigation....I have to say it's not done wonders for my confidence in her, especially two weeks before a European tour..it can rain there too in my experience!

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Simon

[Ruffy]

Hi basil,that does sound like a saga,maybe it is water based but not in the petrol it sounds like youv'e got water in the electrics somewhere but i'm sure pidcocks will sort it for you,my 1100 came from there and it,s been totally reliable so far,let us know wot the diagnosis is eh,cheers tim.

[nab 301]

Hi All

Wondered if anyone has has the same issue as has blighted my weekend at Mondello for the BSB, before? I'll explain..bit of a saga I am afraid...


Cheers

Simon

To answer a few of your questions ,there's only one filter in the tank , the pump should only need to run for a second or two after switching on , if you do a search the only real wet weather problem from memory is the side stand switch (but this wouldn't be intermittent.)
If its fuel pump/ blocked filter the only real way to check would be substitution or pressure gauge in line . What mileage is on the bike? breather pipe blocked?...........

Nigel B

[Basil the Labrador]

Bike has 15000 miles on it.

Side stand was one of the things WD40'd...couldn't work out how to take it apart to check further.

Really a couple of things don't make sense to me;

Why the first time it would happily run 80 dry miles, before starting to stutter...water sinks so I would have expected it to draw through before this if it had got into the tank earlier that day.

Why it would be seemingly cured the second time just by adding 5 litres of fuel (unless the problem was linked to fuel level) and why before the fuel was added when I turned the ignition key on, instead of the usual short fuel pump prime noise it ran on constantly as though unable to prime...this is why I was thinking a fuel issue.

[snavetrauts]

Could be blockage/vacuum in the tank.... cured when you filled up. Try blowing through the waste pipes????

Stuart

[oyster]

Your symptoms are exactly what made me strip the fuel system last week. I suspect water in Shell fuel, only location I bought it from for the three previous fills. Found what looked like yellow jelly in the bottom of the tank. New fuel filter.
Also, take the fuel pipes off the top of the injectors, a bead of water may be sitting there unable to get through, but blocking the injector. I washed everything in plain water and left it to air dry before reassembly. Easy in a June heated shed.