2001 F650GS Broken Down in Quito
 

my wife and I are travelling from our home in Calgary, Canada to Argentina on our BMW F650GSes, and we've been broken down in Quito for 2 weeks.

Our bikes had been running fine, about 6 weeks ago my wife's
2001 F650GS broke down, turns out there was a large rip in the rubber
intake manifold. We replaced that and the bike ran perfectly, until 2
weeks ago when it broke down again, I don't think it is related but it
has been at the local BMW dealer in Quito and and they don't have a
clue what is wrong...

It was running fine, we did a very high and extremely bumpy mountain
road, we came back down and rode on pavement for the rest of the day.
We stopped for lunch and the bike started up fine, they we stopped at
our hotel, and the bike would not run properly and stalled often.
The next day we nursed it to the next town, but it got worse and
worse, in the end it was very difficult to start, would barely run,
and had no power, max speed has 20kmh. We checked everything we
could, cleaned all the sensors we could find, disconnected the battery
and changed the spark plug, nothing helped. Both Sandra and I fueled
up at the same time, and my bike is running fine.

Here in Quito BMW has run the computer diagnostics and the computer
registered no faults, they proceeded to check the same things I did
and could not find anything. They checked the timing and then felt it
could be something to do with the gasket and disassembled the entire
top end of the engine - nothing changed. They are now talking about
replacing the piston rings, however I don't recall it ever blowing
blue smoke.

Any suggestions or ideas you may have would be greatly appreciated,
the dealer said they don't have a clue what's wrong and it feels like
they are just randomly trying things... I'll try to get a detailed
list of everything they've done so far.

Thank you,

Jordan and Sandra Hasselmann
Destination: End of the World

I had one of these, and the relays were the source of a lot of problems.

My manifold split too.

There are three or four relays and they are mounted on a board just behind the steering head, underneath the cover in front of the battery, etc.

Some of the problem can be corrosion on the pins , as moisture seems to find its way up from the front wheel, but they also fail.So pull them and check for corrosion on the pins, and if posible substitute with known good items.

You could also have the start of the self igniting wiring harnes syndrome - the harness rubs against the back of the adjuster for the rear shock, where it crosses over from the frame to the engine.Pot luck what shorts out first, yours may be one of the sensor wires, but the starter cables and alternater wires are in there too, and they can pop of real quick when they do.DAHIK.

HOPE YOU FIND THE PROBLEM!

Just for the record.............
 

......... there are two discussions about this same situation, but I guess the more ideas the better, so long as the bike is fixed!!

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...wn-quito-60777

It's fixed - thank you!
 

Sandra's bike is fixed, we just picked it up from the BMW dealer in Quito and it's now running better than ever. Although it was a long process and a bit frustrating, in the end it all worked out. We actually went to the shop ready for a fight, since we had sent them an email more that a week ago stating that we thought it was the fuel filter and/or injector, they then proceeded to dismantle the top end of the engine and fitted a new gasket (?).

In the end it turned out to be the fuel filter and the injector. On the positive side they did not charge us for ANY of the other work they did and they gave us a sizable discount for our trouble. We're just happy to have her back up and running!

Thank you very much for all your suggestions and encouragement, it really makes a difference!

See you on the road,

Jordan and Sandra
Destination: End of the World