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Cold starting problem


Daveyboy64

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Just bought a 2000 VFR 800 18k on her put new battery in after bike hadnt been started in 2years put in new gas it was in old owners garage when i put the fresh gas and battery in started up ran great brought bike home and it has to stay outside covered because i dont have room in garage for it it was in 20's last couple days went to start it it turned over and fired and tried to run but wouldnt start up i can smell gas like it flooded itself what could be my problem the battery i put in has 180 cca is that not enough to get the job dine ??? Please help with diagnosis

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Greetings & Salutations!! 

 

Quick and easy test is to warm it up in garage and see if it'll start. If it does, we know it's cold-weather starting issue and that narrows down what to examine. If it doesn't start in warm garage, then we'll need to do more detailed and methodical troubleshooting.

 

First step is get multimeter if you don't have one. You'll need to use it to troubleshoot by measuring voltage, resistance and perhaps even current.

 

Next, get owner's and service manuals from downloads section - https://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index.php?/files/

 

Spend couple days reading both manuals to get familiar with bike and how various systems work. Then find troubleshooting section for "not starting" condition. They'll be flowchart on what components to test in which order and how to test them. The numbers you measure on these tests can then be compared to standards in manual to determine what's wrong.

 

Many, many possibilities, literally hundreds of things could've gone wrong. But most likely just one or two issues. Following troubleshooting chart will let you find it.

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4 hours ago, Daveyboy64 said:

last couple days went to start it it turned over and fired and tried to run but wouldnt start up i can smell gas like it flooded itself what could be my problem

If you suspect a flooded engine, try the flooded start procedure in the owners manual. It will purge the engine from excessive fuel and hopefully it will eventually fire up, worth a try.

Having the throttle fully open shuts off the injectors, and fully opens the butterflies to purge the engine.

 

FullSizeRender(1).jpg

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13 hours ago, Daveyboy64 said:

what could be my problem the battery i put in has 180 cca is that not enough to get the job dine ??? Please help with diagnosis

It's not so much CCA as that's just potential current limit.  Starter will only suck as much current as its load. Smaller engines present lower loads, a 250cc draws 40-50 amps. Big-block V8 muscle cars draws +200 amps from battery when cranking. A VFR... about 60-80 amps.

 

But... this is pitfall of buying used bike without full inspection. Maybe it's got compromised charging system that doesn't fully charge battery? Maybe that's why it hasn't been used in 2-yrs? On your ride home, maybe this drained your new battery from 100% to just 50% ? Now there's just barely enough power for starter to spin engine, but this drops voltage enough for ECU to not work, usually 11v or less. EFI bikes are much less tolerant of drained batteries than carby bikes.

 

So, pull out multimeter and measure battery voltage under these conditions:

 

1. everything off, battery voltage = ???

2. while cranking engine, battery voltage = ???

 

These numbers will give clues as to where to look next.

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Thank you i put in new maintenance free  battery without charging it that could beissue so its charging as we speak but its cold today 13 degrees out and colder weather coming this week so. And ive heard from others that Hondas plainly dont like the cold and alot people having cold weather starting issues

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Also Ethanol blended fuels don't help with very cold conditions when starting! Try the flooded start procedure with a healthy battery, see how that goes.

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