vfr800_red

Here is my 5th gen. Because of your help it is running well, two short but nice rides this weekend. Sargent seat, Givi top case, Heli bars, Zero Gravity windscreen, Race Tech front suspension and Penske rear shock. The rest is stock. 83k + miles on odo. It’s been a great bike, mine since 2003.

Hi vfr800_red, Thank you for your donation of --. We look forward to improving the forums with your donation. Thanks VFRDiscussion

The orange junction block seem to be the culprit. See pictures. As a quick fix I cut the connector and mashed all the wires together with a big wire nut, and the FI light has gone away, and the bike is running well. To answer Grum’s other questions. The FI light was full brightness. The bike died instantly when the FI light was on. I’ve checked the main fuses and they are ok. I did not check the instrument panel, but that no longer seems necessary. Some questions about soldering all these wires together. What gage do you recommend for the wire going back to the battery? I’m ok at soldering. Of course, wires should be tinned before they are soldered together, but it would seem impossible to keep all these tinned wires together, even with a cable tie, so is it ok if I skip the tinning? I knew that solving this electrical gremlin was going to be challenging. Thank you all for your help. After too long, I’m ready to ride again. I need to hang out here more often and I’ll make a donation.

Hi Grum, Cogswell, and RaYzerman, My ground connections were in good shape, as the bike is garage kept and rarely sees rain, but I removed the little bit of black crud with a brass bristle brush and 220 grit sandpaper at all chassis ground connections, including the surfaces between the brake PCV valve and the chassis. Ditto for the battery terminals. There wasn’t any white fuzzy material, I certainly know what that looks like as I have seen it often on car batteries. I had high confidence in the battery but to be thorough I took it to the auto parts store and it passed the load test. Yes, the bike was running when the FI light came on. Actually, the FI light had been intermittent for a long time, but it was illumination was becoming more frequent when the bike died on me during a ride. I reset the ECM and now there are no codes. The bike runs. The charging voltage is 14.1 V at idle and 14.35 V at 5k rpm. However, the FI light is now always on. To further muddy the waters, the FI light blinks when the turn signals are activated. This tells me there is a short in the wiring harness. Until the FI stays off, I won’t trust it for a ride. I have considered cleaning the injectors, but what is a bench cleaning? Is that a service my local dealership can provide? Should I run the bike on fuel injector cleaner? I had a car which had problematic injectors which were typically solved by pouring a can of Seafoam in the gas tank.

Hi Grum, When my fuel injection issues started with my original ECM, I had one blink and 19 blinks when the service check connector is jumpered. 1 blink is a map sensor. The diagnostic procedure for the map sensor is on page 5-14 of the service manual. The voltage between pink wire and ground is between 4.75 to 5.25 volts, as is the voltage between pink and green orange wires. The voltage between the light green and yellow wire is 4 volts, which is out of the 4.75 to 5.25 range, but not by much. The map sensor voltage is within the 2.7 to 3.1 range. Per the procedure this means either an open or short circuit in the light green/yellow wire, or loose or poor contact on the ECM connectors. The ECM connectors look fine. Fixing either problem will likely mean replacing the wire harness and replacing the wire harness is a very labor intensive task, right in the middle of prime riding season, and we have long winters here in Chicago. So yes, I did not completely follow the procedure because I was hoping for a quicker fix to get riding again. On the aforementioned 19 blinks, that is the ignition pulse generator. I followed the procedure on page 5-44, and my voltmeter registered much less than 0.7 V. I purchased new one, but my voltmeter still registers much less than 0.7 V. I’ve concluded that this the ignition pulse generator produces a very short spike, to brief for my inexpensive Radio Shack voltmeter to register. I don’t have an oscilloscope, but somewhere I do have better voltmeter. All 3 purchased ECMs came from salvage yards, so who their condition is not guaranteed. The first used ECM produced 1 blink, 9 blink, 14 blink, and 18 blink faults, very different that the faults with the original ECM. I followed the 9 blink procedure (IAT) and all tests passed, therefore the ECM is bad. As mentioned in my post, the other 2 used ECMs don’t power the fuel pump. Thankfully, I have been able to return these for a full refund.

Hi I have a 98 5th gen. It no longer runs reliably because of fuel injection problems. Following the step by step diagnostic procedures in the factory service manual I have concluded it has a faulty ECM. Because new ECMs are no longer for sale, I have purchased used ECMs on Ebay. So far I am 0 for 3. All 3 Ebay used ECMs, which are all from different salvage yards, have also had problems, including two that didn’t even power up the fuel pump. It would seem that over time these ECMs go bad, and since Honda no longer carries inventory, it is time to buy another bike. Thoughts please, or does anyone have a known good 98 – 99 ECM they are willing to part with. Thanks in advance.