Need some help with a stalling engine

[BobOdenweller]

Bike is a 2004 R1150RT with 40,000 miles. Seems to run fine at speed, but at idle it will run fine then suddenly quit. Valves were adjusted and throttle bodies synchronized by dealer. This seemed to help with the rough idle and the idle speed, but it will still stall. No diagnostic codes on the bikes computer. Engine hot or cold does not matter.

I'm looking for ideas on what to do next. I was thinking about replacing the plugs and stick coils. The plugs aren't very old, but they are not the BMW spec ones, either. They are the Champion RA6HC and Autolite AP3923 that others recommend for this bike. Any other ideas?

[aaaaaa]

Does it start right back up after it stalls? Does it stall just idiling at a stoplight? Does it stall when you chop the throttle from speed and pull in the clutch to stop? More details please.
robert

[BobOdenweller]

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it will start right back up no problem. It only stalls when at a complete standstill for a short period of time, like at a stoplight.

[My04Boxer]

I just went thru this with my 04 R1150RT with only 20K on it. It would Idle down real low and sound almost like a skip, but it ran pretty good at speed, also it was cranking over alot before it would fire first thing in the mourning. Fix was 1 Stick Coil. $107.00 from Max's and I had it in 2 days. Much cheaper from Chicago but it would have been 2 weeks before I had the parts.

[BobOdenweller]

How did you know which coil to replace? Did you just try one side and if that did not fix it then move the new one to the other side?

On the advice of someone else, I siphoned the gas completely then refilled, but the problem is still there. I didn't see any water in the gas.

Here's a few more details. Bike idles pretty smoothly at about 1100 rpm for a short time, but then suddenly it will sputter for a second where the rpm's drop real low, but then the engine usually regains the smooth idle again. It goes through this for a while but eventually the engine doesn't recover and it stalls.

I'll call the local dealer on Tuesday to see if they have a stick coil in stock.

Thanks,
Bob

[My04Boxer]

The symptoms you give are pretty much a carbon copy of what I went thru. Heres what I did.

Pulled L side bottom plug wire clipped a length of wire up inside the boot to the metal piece. clipped the other end to exhaust stud.
Started the engine and it ran bad then skipped/ ran even worse then it stalled out.

Put it back together than ran the exact test on the R side. The bike ran the same as it was before any testing with no change for the worse.

I switched L stick coil to the R side and the R to the L side

Then I did the test once again on the R side and it ran bad/skipped ran even worse then stalled out. WALA the problem followed to the opposite side with the bad Stick coil.

Note: before doing this test I did a 18k service and then some. I replaced Plugs(4) Air Filter Cleaned BBS, Adj Valves, TB Synch, Fuel Filter.

[rockosmith]

I just went through this same thing with my '04 Dual Spark R. Turns out that both primary (stick) coils were intermittent. Inserting plugs in the coils and grounding them on the engine, you could see sparks but apparantly with the plugs under compression, they didn't fire consistantly. Two new coils and it runs like new.

[BobOdenweller]

Just to follow up on my original post, I replaced both stick coils and now the bike runs great. The dealer, Foothills BMW in Denver, couldn't figure this one out. I initially brought the bike to them complaining of rough running and stalling. They worked on the bike for a little while and called me and told my I had a big problem, possibly a bad crankshaft bearing. WHAT!!!! They said the engine had a low end knock. I should have gone and got the bike from them right there and then, but I OK'd them to pull the cylinder heads to look for damage. They did and they couldn't see anything and to go any further would involve pulling the engine and the estimate jumped to $5,000+. I had them put the bike back together and my bill was $760. Later, I spent 15 minutes replacing the stick coils and now the bike runs good. I think the "low end knock" they must have heard was simply the trans in nuetral. If they'd have pulled the clutch in they would have noticed the noise dissapeared. This is a common noise on these bikes and they should have known that. Now that the ignition system problem is solved, a good throttle body sync should all but eliminate the transmission chatter. I'm going to take it to the independent BMW mechanic here in Denver to have that done and also re-torque the heads.

I will never give any more business to Foothills BMW.

Bob