I've got a 2001 F4i which I love dearly, but much to my dismay I had rode the bike home for lunch yesterday and when I finished eating hopped on and tried to start it, it did crank but sounded almost like it wasn't running on all cylinders (really rough low idle) and then it died on me. Not wanting to force and more damage if there is any I parked it and upon getting home from work began a good once over giving it an oil change, new air filter and so on.
Cleaning up I once again tried to fire it up and what happened is quite strange... turned the key to the on position, (everything fired up electronicly) rocked the kill switch to run, (and the injectors fired off) and then proceeded to press the start button and upon doing this, everything in the display actually "died" blanking out even all body lights. When I let go of the starter button everything came back up and once again fired the FI. No engine turnover upon pressing the start button. Anyone have any suggestions? Much thanks...[>:]

 

sounds like battery is almost dead to start with......

 

My vote - Loose/Corroded battery connections - Pop the seat - check out the wires leading to/from the battery - Make sure they're tight.

 

Could a bad battery cause it to start and run really rough like that? I would have given anything to have recorded that sound man seriously.

 

the lack of stator charge/rectifier could be related, i guess.. but i may be wrong..

 

I'm putting in a brand new battery tonight as soon as I get outta work, the battery i've got has a lifetime warranty and the shop i got it from said to come get a brand new one no charge! I needed the good news. Aside from that, I hope that the battery does the trick.

 

try buying a dry cell battery, best thing ive bought for my bike hands down. if not try checkign conections maybe somethign stupid and small hopefull yit is so u can ride ur girl again. if not bust out a multimeter and start testing and if it comes down to it check the strator charge like apkraven was saying, it shoudlnt be that but it wouldnt hurt to check but really sounds liek a crappy battery, mine was doing same thing until i got a new battery. keep us updated on whats goign on with her

 

as soon as i got home i puta brand new dry cell battery in and nothing happened. won't even turn the engine over much less fire the fuel injection now. let alone all the fuel that has started seeping from where my header meets my slip on. feelin kinda ****ed at the moment.

 

all is well and my bike is fixed, what had happened was a fuel regulator needle valve had failed and hydro-locked the engine. fairly simple fix although it still made me wanna pull my hair out

 

glad you got it fix man i wish I could geet mine to run right