Running on one cylinder after rain.
 

Hello there,

My 2007 650S kindly decided to run on one cylinder spontaneously whilst driving home today in the mad rain in central London. There was lots of standing water, lots of water not standing… but sloshing, and an awful lot of rain. Taxis and busses were pretty much attempting to capsize Bluesteel with bow waves… yes, the rain was that heavy and that sudden. Biblical!

Over 18 months ago, for reasons of acoustic vanity, I removed the airbox snorkel. I fear this has been my downfall, and now, a year and a half later I’ve gone and broken my bike :(

I managed to nurse it home (making a lot of noise and with muchos backfiring). I just tried restarting it after leaving it in a nice warm, dry garage for an hour… but, to no avail.

Has anyone suffered the same issue? Does anyone know what I’ve gone and done? Could it be sympathy pains for all the misfortunates in Iran? Will Bluesteel ever rise from his paraplegic state of decay?

Help please!

Befuddled in SE11.

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

This is a very common problem on the SV. Due to the nature of the engine, it has to be positioned in such a way that the front cylinder head (and so front spark plug) get's soaked when riding in very wet conditions.
Simple solution.. get yourself a fender extender. Only cost about £20 and is one of the most important mods for the SV if you ride in all weathers.
Hope that helps ;)

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

+1.

Try drying out the 'plug cap(s) and spark plug recess.

Then try again...

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

Dry it out, and get a fenda extenda!

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

So it should work OK when left to dry? I mean, what a load of old rude things.

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

Spray some WD40 down there to Water Disperse. You can use silicon grease round the plug cap instead of the extenda, or do both for belts and braces. Make sure the drain hole on the right of the head is clear too.

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

Thanks all. I'm very gratefull. It's the only thing that's gone wrong in 2 1/2 years...

I'm going to celebrate not having to spend all night crying in a corner shouting 'why? Why me?'

I will have a fiddle with WD40 tomorrow night and ram some slicone breast implants or something onto the plug holes (oooh er!)

I'm going to make a spicy bean, lentil and gammon cassolette, would anyone like some?

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

Get a fender extender. :)
I haven't used WD40, and just used my fender extender.

For the sake of peice of mind and only minus £20, its well worth it.

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

ok a useful post now. I've always had the fender extender fitted but in really really horrible torrential rain, i've still had the front cylinder cut out. Fortunately it doesn't rain like that too often.

Haven't had the problem since I've cleared out the drain hole with WD40, but frankly, i haven't been rained on like that again.

Re: HELP! Running on one following massive deluge in central London
 

Halleluiah! I’m back on two. Although it took a bit of dramatic and frankly environmentally unfriendly over-revving to clear things up.

Roll on my Griso… that would never suffer such a quirky fault*

* It’ll have a constant conveyor belt of much worse faults…