[molson153]

The 1st week I got my bike, on several occasions the engine warning lamp came on for a few minutes then went off. I called the dealer and he had me bring in my bike to reset the Electronic Fuel Injection/Engine Control System, I'm assuming he disconnected battery power and then reconnected it, kinda like shutting down and rebooting your home computer? Next road test resulted in the same thing, engine lamp on, then off (bulb works!) Bottom line I got from the dealer was that he did not seem too concerned with the engine lamp coming on for only a short period of time (2-3 minutes) as long as it went off.

Anyone out there experience this intermitent problem? Is there a self diagnosis system built into the EFI/ECS? If so, can the diagnostic codes be retrieved to find out what is causing these faults, or should I just take the dealer's advice and not be concerned as long as the lamp goes off?

 

[HIPPO]

Bull$hit.

Makes a big difference what bike you are talking about, but since you posted in the softail forum lets go with a Delphi.

Lite comes on for 4 seconds when you first switch ignition on. If the bike has a historic code it will then come on again for 8 seconds and go out again. This will reset itself after 50 start cycles if the code (or another one) does not recurr. If the lite comes on at any other time the ECM is picking up a current or hard fault.

While there is a procedure to retrieve codes manually, on the Delphi bikes it is only of very marginal use. The MM bikes had a little over a dozen clearly defined codes and the Delphi bikes have about 150 and the numerical codes the lite flashes are only loosely related to the alphanumeric codes retrieved with a scanalizer.

The lite coming on at random could well be a harmless out of spec reading the ECM is picking up, but it could just as well leave you stranded without notice. You'll never know unless you define the code and fix it.

Generally speaking disconnecting the battery on the Delphi bikes will not clear codes, and if you screw up on a sequence it may well create other problems if not with the ECM then with the TSSM.

Don't let the dealer get lazy on you, they do have the equipment to find these things.

 

[JFScheck]

Hippo,

It is so damn nice having you (and others like yourself) around to explain this sh^t to us!

Thanks Bro!

 

[DPrice]

No kidding...he is like a motorcycle encyclopedia. You are the man Hippo!

 

[molson153]

Engine warning lamp retort

Hippo, I also appreciate the technical feedback, especially when I failed to supply critical information to my question. Sorry, rookie mistake. With that said, I have a 2002 FLSTFI Fat Boy equipped with an Electronic Sequential Port Fuel Injection (ESPFI) system. I assume this system is somewhat similar to the Delphi bike's as far as the built-in diagnostic capabilities. Since the bike is new, and I'm not ready to do any tweaking on it yet, I guess the best thing to do is wake up the dealer and have him open the electrical diagnostic manual and fix the problem.