2004 R1150R Power Commander

[silverRider]

Hello, I am a new member and this is my first post on the board. Last week I bought 2004 R1150R with 38000 miles. PO installed Power Commander on the bike, his explanation was to smooth out and crisp up power delivery. The first thing I noticed is that the bike idled too high, 1400 - 1500 rpm when hot. I lowered the idle speed to 1150 but the BBSs were almost completely closed to the right. The bike would not start when cold. So I opened them back up a bit, the idle is at 1350 - 1400 rpm again. This morning was pretty cold (3'C or 36'F, I live in Canada) and the bike would not start again.
Is Power Commander making the engine run too rich? Should I just take the thing out, balance throttle bodies and live happily ever after? My R1100GS with 180,000km on it started with no problems.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or experiences with Power Commander on these bikes.

Doug

[CycleRob]

silverRider,
Not starting in very cold weather can also be too much start lever freeplay, or not pushing the lever all-the-way to the stop. Besides the start lever being fully on, adding a tiny bit of throttle should also help getting it started.

My guess is the PO messed with the TPS factory calibrated setting (that black plastic box on the left TB). If there is no blue paint on the TPS mounting screws, it was "readjusted". It is also possible the PO messed with the idle stop screws . . . also tamper indicating blue painted on the locknut. If the paint is missing on the TPS mount screws you will need to perform the zero=zero TPS resetting procedure -or- have the BMW Service Dept do it for you.

[silverRider]

Hey CycleRob,

Thanks for the reply. I don't think PO messed with the bike, blue paint is still on TPS screw. I actually think BMW (who serviced the bike last) messed up the sync, there is clicking from left throttle body which I think might be throttle valve slap, cable too tight. I added some slack last night (about 1mm free play at the bottom now), set BBSs to 1.5 turns from fully closed and the bike started. Runs rough, needs a good sync and the idle is still high. But no more slap from the left throttle body.

It's Thanksgiving in the great white north this weekend so I'll have to wait till some time next week to do a sync and see what happens then.

Doug

[Roger 04 rt]

Hello, I am a new member and this is my first post on the board. Last week I bought 2004 R1150R with 38000 miles. PO installed Power Commander on the bike, his explanation was to smooth out and crisp up power delivery. The first thing I noticed is that the bike idled too high, 1400 - 1500 rpm when hot. I lowered the idle speed to 1150 but the BBSs were almost completely closed to the right. The bike would not start when cold. So I opened them back up a bit, the idle is at 1350 - 1400 rpm again. This morning was pretty cold (3'C or 36'F, I live in Canada) and the bike would not start again.
Is Power Commander making the engine run too rich? Should I just take the thing out, balance throttle bodies and live happily ever after? My R1100GS with 180,000km on it started with no problems.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions or experiences with Power Commander on these bikes.

Doug

Which Powercommander is installed, is it the PC III USB w/Wideband O2?

[billbeemer]

go back to stock first, and build from that. take power commander off. adjust valves, get a mercury thingy(beemerboneyard) to synch idle and 3k throttle bodies. after establishing a baseline of proper idle of 1100rpm, you can put all that stuff back on. btw, spray some wd40 around throttle body shaft linkage to cable. if idle changes, u got air leak. also when testing, plug both vacuum holes that connect to carbon cannister. this eliminates any other variables...................good luck.

[silverRider]

So I built my own vacuum gauge, 4 feet tall, like the one cycleRob described and tried the sync the other night. The left cylinder pulls waaaay to much vacuum compared to right, sync was completely impossible. I managed to lower idle to 1300 rpm but the BBSs are almost completely closed. Seems like a air leak, will try WD40 trick.

And then I started it last night, god awful noise from transmission that goes away when clutch pulled in. I'll post that in a new post.

[Roger 04 rt]

A couple thoughts:

Which PowerCommander do you have, does it have the Wideband O2 sensor?

Has someone altered the throttle stops by trying zero=zero procedure?

[silverRider]

It is PCIII / USB and yes it does have wide band O2 sensor. And throttle stops haven't been altered, still blue paint on the screws.

[Roger 04 rt]

If you connnect your PC to the PC III you can see what AFR the Wideband O2 has been set to. It should be set between 13.8:1 and 14.2:1. If it is set very rich, it can be hard to bring down the idle. Good that the paint is intact.

Edit, also, if you want to read-out and post the map for the fuel table in the PC III that may also give some hints about what's going on.