Cold starting

Would welcome some troubleshooting advice on cold starting my 2004 R1150RT. 30,000 miles. Have performed regular maintenance plugs, filters,as well as fitting AX-FiED, new stick coils, battery, and new balanced tills fuel injectors. Runs great once above 3-4 bars oil temperature, but requires three dabs on the starter to get running and very weak until warmed up. Always on the battery tender every night. Bike is used for daily short commute, as weather gets closer to freezing don't want to rum down battery on start up.

What have I missed? My co-worker's R1200 starts immediately and pulls strong right from startup.

http://bmwsporttouring.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=856202&page=1

You can jump to the end if you want.

Are you using the choke?

What have I missed?

Without knowing more, it is hard to diagnose. But you haven't mentioned a valve adjustment and a throttle-body sync.

I have the same bike, and recently replaced bad stick coils. I also added the same mods as you have done. I had the same symptoms you describe. What I found was that I had badly synchronized throttle bodies, perhaps because I had at one point compensated for a single bad stick coil without realizing the actual problem. I also had 1 out of the 8 valves slightly out of adjustment, which may have contributed slightly to poor idling.

In any case, the TB sync made a huge difference. And now, along with all those mods, my moto runs smooth and idles fine.

Would welcome some troubleshooting advice on cold starting my 2004 R1150RT. 30,000 miles. Have performed regular maintenance plugs, filters,as well as fitting AX-FiED, new stick coils, battery, and new balanced tills fuel injectors. Runs great once above 3-4 bars oil temperature, but requires three dabs on the starter to get running and very weak until warmed up. Always on the battery tender every night. Bike is used for daily short commute, as weather gets closer to freezing don't want to rum down battery on start up.

What have I missed? My co-worker's R1200 starts immediately and pulls strong right from startup.

Afternoon Colnago

Go through the info that Roger posted to see if something fits.

Otherwise you will probably need to try & eliminate things one at a time.

You made so many changes that any one or all added up could the cause of your cold starting complaint.

First thing to try is to change your starting technique-- Try turning the key to on for 5 seconds (do not crank) then off again (do this 3 times)-- THEN, try to start engine (see if this makes a difference)

Next, (next day) try holding the twist grip at about 1/8 to 1/4 open then try starting the engine (see if this makes starting any different or easier).

Next, after riding the bike home at night remove #5 fuse for the night, then next morning put fuse #5 back in then do a quick TPS relearn & see how it starts (any difference noted with this method?)

If nothing found then get your multi-meter out & record battery voltage while starting the cold engine (is it under 10.5 volts?)

Then, next morning move your meter to the upper stick coil power wires (green/black wires) & see what the coil supply voltage is during cold cranking (is it a lot lower than the previously recorded battery voltage?

If you feel like working then before cold starting put new (or good used) spark plugs in the lower plug holes (do this AFTER the bike sits all night not the night before)--Possibly oil is running down when parked overnight & fouling the lower plugs (oil fouled lower plugs could also make the engine run poorly after starting until warmed up to 4-5 bars)

Lots more to test but this should hopefully be enough to give us a direction to go after your problem.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I poured over the suggestions in the earlier thread that Roger pointed to. Lots of great stuff there. Waiting for some fresh plugs to arrive in the mail and I will get to work next weekend. Full report to follow.