2008 buell lightening cityx xbsx with jardine gp1 exhaust is backfiring on idle

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Originally Posted by Cooter

There is a very convenient 1/8 male pipe plug in the base of the fuel pump assembly for that:up:
left side of bike, bottom of frame, just in front of swingarm. You'll see the 4 bolt flange and fuel pump wires. The plug is the off-set one.
But I imagine you put fresh fuel in during the 200 mile ride? Seafoam and such is nonsense (IMO).

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Nope, I have not ridden this bike at all yet. Just started it up at the dealer and then started it once after trailering it 200 miles in the covered snowmobile trailer (shutoff after a few seconds of running rough), rolled into 55F garage, put on battery tender overnight and started it the next day.

I do know where that fuel pump is because I actually watched a youtube video on fuel pump replacement on this bike during my youtube search for similar setups with these problems. Didn't know about the fuel drain...nice thanks! These bikes really do have some pretty unique design features!

Attachment 9214 Here's what I hauled it in, just before I started the trek back.

happens frequently and pretty simple cure:
1-remove seat....carefully and closely check battery terminal connections....remove/clean/reinstall if suspect. buy or borrow a real battery charger and give it 6 amps for at least 15 minutes. tell you right up front if the battery now installed is some weirdo goof-ball chinese POS ditch it and buy a quality one. why? inevitably it will either leave you sit or dump multiple fault codes into your ecm and put a tremendous strain on the charging system.
2-plugs of choice are NGK DCPR9EIX. not all "9's" are iridium. if suffix is IX they are. can virtually guarantee yours are fouled and in need of replacement.
3-you have a faulty ground. either download a service manual from this site.....click on my name then recent posts...or google "buellXB ground wires-2008" and you'll see all of them listed.

start there. you have either a low voltage situation...fouled plugs...low fuel delivery. frame/tank has sufficient fuel i presume? is it fresh??

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Originally Posted by Cooter

Seafoam and such is nonsense (IMO). Proper injector cleaning requires removal, sonic cleaning, and testing. I don't believe you are to that point yet.

Remember what I posted about wasted time, effort, and money?:black_eyed:

I'm just trying to avoid this being a larger issue than you actually have. I'd like to see your Buell experience be the best, trouble free one you can have:applause:

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Agreed, we know what it's like getting your new toy and not being able to play with it or being overly worried about something small and turning it into something bigger than it really is. Save your money, go out and turn some wrenches on it... even if just for piece of mind. Grounds, exhaust studs/collector clamp, oil condition/level in primary and swing arm, ECM harness plugs, inspect plugs/boots/coil connection, inspect wheel bearings etc...

Cooter, good call on the fuel pump housing drain, I totally forgot and I've used it multiple times! Also long time no talk to.

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Originally Posted by lunaticfringe

happens frequently and pretty simple cure:
1-remove seat....carefully and closely check battery terminal connections....remove/clean/reinstall if suspect. buy or borrow a real battery charger and give it 6 amps for at least 15 minutes. tell you right up front if the battery now installed is some weirdo goof-ball chinese POS ditch it and buy a quality one. why? inevitably it will either leave you sit or dump multiple fault codes into your ecm and put a tremendous strain on the charging system.
2-plugs of choice are NGK DCPR9EIX. not all "9's" are iridium. if suffix is IX they are. can virtually guarantee yours are fouled and in need of replacement.
3-you have a faulty ground. either download a service manual from this site.....click on my name then recent posts...or google "buellXB ground wires-2008" and you'll see all of them listed.

start there. you have either a low voltage situation...fouled plugs...low fuel delivery. frame/tank has sufficient fuel i presume? is it fresh??

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Thanks a lot man! I will check those things for sure but bike turns over just fine or at least the same as all youtube startups of xb9sx that I've watched. The battery was not dead even at temp. of 12F but I thought perhaps it was low and wanted to be certain so I connected it to my "OptiMATE 4 Dual Program, TM-241, 9-step 12V 0.8A Battery Saving charger-tester-maintainer" which I've been using on my other vtwins for a year and has worked great. It did do some charging on it but the next day (like 12 hours later) the bike started pretty much with the same cranking ease that it had when I first got home in the cold weather. The bike started just fine but again it was popping into the exhaust very loud as I described.

I have not yet drained the existing fuel in the bike and I plan to do so. Dealer only admitted to adding something called "starttron" to the fuel but didn't say anything about draining or topping off with fresh fuel. I have some 93 octane fresh fuel I plan to try once I drain it. I will also add seafoam to that.

I bought some NGK DCPR8E plugs (I think), which are what were specified from a cross reference from 10R12X. They are definitely cheaper copper ones for now since that is all the local stores had and I figure I may foul more plugs in trying to figure this out and the iridium IX ones are more expensive. I have the 9's on order.

I have the 2009 xb service manual downloaded. Just posted on here to learn from other owners and experts. I plan to connect to ECM and read any codes and collect more once I receive the USB dongle I ordered.

I'm hoping to get a video of this very soon to upload and show you all what is going on as well.

Thanks again. I do appreciate all of the insight.

Wow. Lots of good help,info and ideas. Good job fellas. I'm with Lunatic on this one. Plugs are fouled from starting and shutting off too many times without a proper complete warm up. Plugs and battery first. Then diag from there.

I did a cold start in my garage again (3rd startup) and the bike only backfired (popped in exhaust) once this time. It's barely noticeable in the video. I guess that's good? Except now it makes my concern seem unwarranted. Trust me this thing was exploding every few seconds last week like I've never seen an engine do before. Perhaps it was just environmental adjustment but if this thing does that every once in a while something's not right.

Here's around 8:16pm cold:
https://youtu.be/m5vj-4TxcBw

Here's a bit later restart after being off a few minutes:
https://youtu.be/raedAPHIIMo

Here's about an hour and a half later:
https://youtu.be/Ynlh0lDr5zY

Perhaps the engine was just not back to 55F from the 12F 2 hour trip even after 8-12 hours in the garage but has since warmed up? It is on tge opposite corner of the building as the modine heater, in front of the door.

I'll try again this morning.

I understand you have snow, but starting and starting ...... is not the best on a engine, it needs to be brought up to temp and taken out and driven at a higher rpm range. It might run fine after that.

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Originally Posted by lowkey

Okey here is your problem "After purchasing I drove it home 200 miles", I was assuming you "drove" the motorcycle but in fact you have not. Picture this, a primitive computer controlled motorcycle is in one type of climate then awakens in a completely different one, it will run like **** until it can work itself out in its new environment... could turn out to be an actual problem i.e. leaking header BUT from your description so far I'm standing by it is simply environmental change at this point. Everything is speculation until you can talk with the ECM and report back with actual numbers.

As for that exhaust - not a fan of the looks personally

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Well so far I would say lowkey was correct about the bike adjusting to environmental conditions. Started it cold this morning and no popping or backfires, just rough warm up idle.

I am thinking that it just took the 2nd startup and run for 15-20 minutes to actually warm the engine to above the 55F temperature of the building. Like possibly it was still quite cold from the 3 hour trailer ride home in 12F temperature and the start this 2nd start next day is where it ran like crap but figured out the new conditions.

I'll post one or more videos to this thread demonstrating the improved start and I'll update with status in next few weeks.

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Silverrider

I understand you have snow, but starting and starting ...... is not the best on a engine, it needs to be brought up to temp and taken out and driven at a higher rpm range. It might run fine after that.

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Thanks but respectfully, I do know that. I'm
only new to motorcycles. I've got 3 sleds and
I've been around snowmobiles most of my
life. Before I got a battery tender, on years
that I didn't remove battery and put a storage
charge on them, l would start them every few weeks but always let them warm up to running temperature. My mistake here was in thinking this thing could rapidly compensate for super cold conditions after previously only started and run in a room temperature dealership.

Apparently these Buells have a performance motor that is a bit more cold blooded and
temperamental. I'm learning