Johnlyn said:
Need some advice, I have my R3 as a Trike and have had a year of starting problems. Very rarely will it start first time and has on many occasions failed to start at all. I’ve had every new tune that Triumph have brought out and they do help, for a little while anyway before it goes back to giving me problems. Bought in March 2006 for the first 6 months had no trouble with starting at all then in Sept 2006 had the output shaft bearing go and it was taken in for replacement. At that time it had about 8300 miles on the clock but the speedo on the trike is a good 10% out for the most part so it would have done more like 7500 miles or so. While it was in bit’s the dealer did the 10000 mile service and the valves. It was done in good faith and to save me some money. The day I got it back she failed to start twice and I had to get roadside recovery out. Put it down to it being out of action for about 2 months I thought the battery must have needed attention. Got home charged the battery, it continued to be reluctant to fire so thinking the battery was expired I bought a new one. I must say it was better for a short time but soon was back to it’s wicked ways. I have it plugged in to a battery optimiser all the time its in the garage. Since then it’s been a nightmare not knowing if it’s going to start or not. Back and for to the dealer (120 mile trips) for the latest tune, a replacement throttle sensor which did solve the problem for a while, but not for ever. Anyway after speaking to Triumph this week got it into the dealers, they checked the valve clearances and sorted them out, replacing a shim, fitted new plugs but, could find nothing else wrong. Paid again for the valve adjustments which I’m not happy about, and more to the point have been told that she will continue to be reluctant to start. They suggest this might be because I have GPS, Autocom and for the winter 2 pairs of Gerbing gloves on the Trike. All these are wired to the battery terminals and I was told to wire it through the loom as opposed to directly onto the terminals. From my little understanding of electrics I would have thought that it would only be the Autocom that might be drawing from the battery as for most journeys I don’t us the Garmin and haven’t used the Gloves since the spring and have had many starting problems during the summer when the gloves were in the boxes. I mostly fire up the bike before plugging in the helmets to the Autocom. If this is the cause I can get that remedied easily, but I don’t want to pay for an auto-electrician to do the work if it’s not going to improve the situation. Anyone out there with these accessories with the same problem? Or is there someone out there who has the accessories and has no problem? Any suggestions? Not rude ones please. If you want to read this post without the censorship check the UK R3 site
OK John, let's go through this in logical steps.
1) You have a trike conversion
- This is almost certainly NOT the direct cause of your starting or output bearing problems. (Unless they guy who did the conversion screwed the wiring up or did something stupid with the transmission)
2) You have a "starting problem"
- OK, is it battery related - does it turn over reluctantly, then die?
- If so, get a new heavy duty battery. Either a Dekka (or odyssey, but they have warranty issues), or a car or truck battery - you have space for it.
- If it turns over and over and over and won't fire, it's either fuel or electrical. either way, it's a return-to-dealer, imho.
With modern electrics there are 10 independent failure modes. A PROPER dealer with electronic diagnosis will find one (or more) faulty parts in 10 minutes. There is about 75% chance that the first part they tag as "faulty" is the guilty one.
The you get on a path of diminishing returns and escalating charges.
if you stick to your guns, you can in sist the dealer removes any part they put on which DIDN'T fix the problem, and refuse to pay labour for fitting parts that weren't needed.
BUT, make sure you will NEVER need that dealer again!