Bike dies at idle

[NoBull]

My bike is a 2006 GSXR 750. Starting the last session or 2 at Lightning 2 weeks ago and again today at Summit the bike would first only fire up when given some gas and then it wouldn't idle without just shutting off. After warming it up for some time I got it to idle OK and went out on track, but only did 3 laps because I think the bike would die when I pulled the clutch in for downshifts and then restart when I let the clutch out.

I tried pulling the tank up and ensuring all connectors were good. Ensured the battery wires were tight. Changed the airfilter. Still no go.

If I just cruise along there's no problem. It cranks just fine and starts most of the time, but may need some gas to keep running. Whenever it does idle OK it sits around 1300rpm.

Somebody suggested having the "idle control solenoid" checked (whatever that is).

Anybody have this model/year bike and have had a similar problem before I put the bike in the shop?

Thanks,
Finn

[bigkaley]

Hey Finn,
Sounds like maybe a fuel pump issue. Also is the fuel good quality? Any chance of some water in the fuel? Good luck and hope it's an easy fix!

[The Chad]

Does it have a power commander on it? If so you could try and disconnect it and see how the bike runs then.

[NoBull]

Kaley, I thought of bad gas, but I would think bad gas would cause it to stumble at high revs too, not just die at idle.

Chad, no power commander, although it's possible part of this whole thing will cause me to get one ;)

[Emerson]

i was having the same problem with my bike, all i had to do was get a new battery. the engine has to work harder to keep the stator working, and giving the bike the electricity it needs. check it out, it solved my problem

[NoBull]

Hmm. A new battery. That's an idea.

[Landshark]

Did it throw any codes?

[NoBull]

Nope. No codes.

[Landshark]

That is also a signal that the battery is weak since a disconnect clears codes. Got a load meter?

[NoBull]

For the sake of somebody having the same issue I will list what was done to fix this.

I took the bike down to the dealership to have it diagnosed. They spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was wrong since it was intermittent and mostly (they say) when it was stonecold.
In the end they replaced the sparkplugs and ran some injection cleaner through the fuel system as well as adjusted throttle position sensor and 1 or 2 other sensors.

The bike no longer dies on idle the couple of times I've tried it since picking up the bike. The dealership tried several days in a row as well and didn't have the problem either. Hopefully it's gone. It'll probably take me a couple of trackdays without problems to gain complete faith in the bike again. I may put a PC3 with a custom map on it as well.

[NoBull]

OK another update. I jinx'ed it with this post and the same night I posted this I started it again and the lumpy idle made it die again. It never did sound really healthy when it came back from the dealership.

Dealership said the next thing they were going to try was to swap the ECU and they had also mentioned the Secondary Throttle Valve motor on the TB's.

I first bought an ECU off ebay and replaced it. That did nothing.

I then bought a complete set of TB's and replaced them and that fixed it. I could hear as soon as I started it the first time that the lumpiness in the idle was gone and after a week+ of starting it 1-2 times a day it has displayed none of the symptoms it had before. I am confident it's fixed this time.

[Thunderace]

Finn, don't jinx yourself again! Let's just say that it appears to be working properly at this time and you'll keep an eye on it for any changes. Now, if we can just keep people from using the "R" word we'll be good to go.

[RollieManollie]

I then bought a complete set of TB's and replaced them and that fixed it. I could hear as soon as I started it the first time that the lumpiness in the idle was gone and after a week+ of starting it 1-2 times a day it has displayed none of the symptoms it had before. I am confident it's fixed this time.

The 04's and 05's were notorious for that! I've heard alot of people just zip tying the secondary throttle bodies wide open instead of replacing the secondary throttle body acuator in which you need to replace the entire TB's because it's one unit.

Good to hear it's all fixed up!

[NoBull]

Ryan,

that's interesting. The dealership spent a long time on the phone with Suzuki America and they claimed to have never heard of a problem like this. Searching gixxer.com yielded some posts of people claiming the same type of problem. A couple were solved with a PC3 (which is just a bandaid) and one replaced the TB's like I did. Some never posted a solution. I never did see anybody ziptying the STV wide open, but I guess that's something you hear about when hanging out at the track on race weekends.

Thanks for posting.

[RollieManollie]

Ryan,

that's interesting. The dealership spent a long time on the phone with Suzuki America and they claimed to have never heard of a problem like this. Searching gixxer.com yielded some posts of people claiming the same type of problem. A couple were solved with a PC3 (which is just a bandaid) and one replaced the TB's like I did. Some never posted a solution. I never did see anybody ziptying the STV wide open, but I guess that's something you hear about when hanging out at the track on race weekends.

Thanks for posting.

Yep, I've heard of that problem every year since 2004. "knock on wood" - I actually had that problem before on mine. I bought 3 sets of TB's on ebay and everytime I got a set it was the wrong one for my bike ie, 600, 750 california emissions type, etc. The manual said to never take the secondary thottle body acuator off but I did and replaced it with another one that I bought off of ebay. Like I said, "knock on wood" it still works...lol!!!