Mileage has dropped

[ediddy]

My gas mileage has dropped and my bike isn't running smooth. The carbs have been synchronized so thats not the problem. I used to go 165 to 170 miles on a tank before switching to reserve but now am only going about 130 to 135 miles. When the weather was cold and I started the bike the left pipe purred fine. The right pipe would skip every now and then. The bike doesn't seem to have the power it had before and I am getting some vibration that I didn't have before. Any thoughts? I have an 05 RSV. BTW I have used seafoam and it didn't change anything. At the last service, 52,000 miles, the plugs where changed. Now have 56,000 miles.

[Yammer Dan]

Did you use Sea-Foam before?? It is not a miracle worker if you wait too long but a little now and then will keep things flowing as they should.

[twigg]

I'm thinking that one of the carbs has a blocked, or partially blocked pilot jet.

 

Those things are tiny, and would produce exactly the symptoms you are describing with one cylinder only running part of the time.

 

Seafoam will not clear it ... well not usually.

[Cougar]

One Fouled plug is my guess

Do you let the bike idle a lot?

[Freebird]

I would expect a bad coil. For some reason, right rear coils fail more than the others. Mine did exactly as you are describing when the coil went bad.

[twigg]

My gas mileage has dropped and my bike isn't running smooth. The carbs have been synchronized so thats not the problem. I used to go 165 to 170 miles on a tank before switching to reserve but now am only going about 130 to 135 miles. When the weather was cold and I started the bike the left pipe purred fine. The right pipe would skip every now and then. The bike doesn't seem to have the power it had before and I am getting some vibration that I didn't have before. Any thoughts? I have an 05 RSV. BTW I have used seafoam and it didn't change anything. At the last service, 52,000 miles, the plugs where changed. Now have 56,000 miles.

 

Heh ... give it time and you'll get a million suggestions, all of them having merit.

 

One of the problems big engined bikes have is that they are rarely run much above half throttle. They are cruised, lazily and the engines don't like it much. A fouled plug, or minor carbon build-up can often be cleared by "running it like you stole it" for fifty miles.

 

I mean, get it up on the highway and really make it work hard.

 

You will do it no harm at all, it's fun and you may even clear up a slight mis-fire.

 

Just watch for the LEOs.

[sleadhed]

I would expect a bad coil. For some reason, right rear coils fail more than the others. Mine did exactly as you are describing when the coil went bad.

ditto I fought the same condition for quite a while under warranty. I finaly got them to change the #1 coil and I changed the other three for GP Now I can get it over 100 mph and depending on the sevarity of my wrist disorder I can get up to 40MPG

[N3FOL]

I have about 30K and hoping that my coils hold up for a long time. However, with the symptoms described in this thread, it is good to know where to look for the problem.

Knock on wood,bike is still running fine. There is one thing I don't neglect to do...I replace plugs every 8K as recommended by Yamaha. Ride Safe.

[dacheedah]

Can't ignore bad gas either, don't refill at whatever station you are getting gas at, go to a big brand for gas and see if that helps

[Capt-D]

I had the same problem and cleaned up the spark plug caps. When you take the cap off the plug, there is a brass piece the unscrews inside the cap, behind that is the resistor, don't mess with that, and then there is a spring, and you will find heavy corrosion on the end of that spring, clean it up the end of the spring and put it back togather, and see how it goes.

[Barry.B]

one time with my first gen wash the bike and got some thing wet and the bike ran like **** I used a couple gallons to go 30 kms

[Bobby G]

Start with the simple, less expensive possible fixes first that have been suggested - - get rid of the current gas in it, go 1/2 tank of really good gas, add lots of Seafoam, run it hard and fast for awhile, then check the plugs for a possible foul. If the problem persists, it's likely a coil.

[jilldwr]

How many miles SHOULD we be able to get to a full tank of fuel in an RSV? I get 125 miles (200 klm's) till I hit the reserve also, and just thought this maybe was normal for these bikes?? I bought mine in Nov. and just started seriously riding.

 

The PO had BUB pipes on and the bike backfired alot. I replaced them with road king pipes and changed the plugs from the DPR7EA9's the PO had in there to the recommended DPR8EA9 plugs. The old plugs didn't look unusual. Still getting 125 miles. Was thinking I'll check the plug cap resisters before looking at the coils. I don't know when the valve lifter gap has been adjusted last, would this have a big impact on mileage? or just performance?

 

When changing the plugs, is it safe to remove both front cylinder engine braces at the same time? or should I be removing one at a time? I've been leery of removing both simultaneously.

 

D.W.

[Big_Iz]

Remove both braces at the same time -- no problem

[Rick Haywood]

I found that the tubes that go into the top of my carbs kept working loose from the carbs and it would make mine run rough and the mileage would drop a little. I finally took the tank off and the air box and fixed everthing. As for how many miles you can go on a tank depends on how a person rides. if you run 75 or 80 all the time you are gonna get about 125 miles before reserve. If you cruise the 2 lanes and keep it under 65 you should be able to go a bunch more. I usually go to reserve at around 175 miles. Have went as high as 210 and as low as 130. But normal for me is around 170-175 miles. I get about 42 mpg and usually go to reserve after using about 4.2 gallons.