Alright I'll try and be as thorough as I can to make the situation clear. I have an 02 F4i, 11k miles. Unfortunately I live in northern Montana, so I she has been in doors for 4 months :..( I would start the bike at least twice a week and sometimes (I know, pathetic) I would ride circles in my shop just for fun. But I had to leave town for nearly a month, came back and the battery was dead. tried to charge, no go, so I bought a new one. Put it in and it won't start. I also put in a new air filter and spark plugs. It primes when I turn it on, seems like its almost going to start everytime (I think its doing that on purpose to rub it in my face).... I can't figure it out. Do you think the fuel being in there so long is causing it? Should I drain the tank?? I thought about trying the old run it down a hill and drop the clutch in case I flooded it... Please help.

 

my best guess is flooded. Have you tried starting it many times and if so i think the constant priming might be wh its flooded. the two thing i would try is to either leave the plugs out for a day or so to let whatever gas is there to evaporate or try turning it over with the throttle pulled all the way to get a bunch of air through and just hold it open. Its for me before with cars and bikes.

 

How about the bank angle sensor in the nose?

 

tip the bike on it's side to drain the carb then tune the key off hold in the start buttion and open the thro for 5 sec then wait 10 sec turn the bike on and switch it to running then try it if I was u I would put in new gas and drain the old stuff before u try

 

Guys... it's an '02 F4i... it doesn't have carbs, and it's probably not flooded. When the pump primes, the injectors don't fire, so there's no fuel spraying into the intake tract... all the priming does is build rail pressure.

What I would suggest, and this would probably clear up about 90% of the "won't start/ runs like ****" threads, is to pull the codes and go from there. You can fiddle with it, throw parts at it, dump it on it's side, ect... all you want, but until you ask the ECU what's wrong, YOU DON'T KNOW! If you don't get codes, put new gas in it. It it still doesn't start, manually check for spark. If it still doesn't start, use a noid light to see if your injectors are firing. Check all your fuses, too. If you do think it's flooded, you don't have to leave the plugs out for a day. Fuel evaporates VERY fast, and probably only need to leave them out for an hour; if you don't want to wait that long, crank the engine for about 15 seconds and put the plugs back in.

FWIW, my bike sat for four months and started right up. No fuel stabilizer, no trickle charger on the battery, no nothing.

 

Thanks.. appreciate it.

 

Exactly

 

One problem I have though is the nearest Honda dealership is 130+ miles... so a lot of things i have to try and figure out myself.

 

First step should be to find an F4i service manual online and download it.