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Messages - gwdoiron

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31
General Discussion / Xciting 400I / Xtown 300i questions
« on: August 15, 2017, 12:35:19 AM »
I currently have an XC250 and an XC500Ri ABS
I *was* looking to replace the XC250 for something with good mileage and ABS brakes, and keeping the XC500 for long trips.
I had narrowed the choices down to the Burgman 200 and Forza, and finally decided that the Forza was the one (no loss in short run interstate ability, plus that 8000 mile oil service interval would mean only two oil changes per year instead of 6-7 on the XC250), but I just noticed the announcement of the XC400I/Xt300i.
The current reviews don't have a lot of great information, such as

Fuel tank capacity/mileage?
Oil service interval?
GPS top speed?
Most importantly, what frame is each bike a descendant of?  The Downtown would have been a good bike except for the fact that leg room was too tight, which is why I went with the Xciting frames.


32
Xciting 500 / Re: 2009 Xciting 500 RI abs ECU codes
« on: July 23, 2017, 04:37:20 PM »
SOLVED - LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES
I have been using the 10-second off, 10-second on, 5-second off throttle pattern to try and reset the ECU codes.
I succeeded in getting the rest to perform AFTER I pulled out a stopwatch to time the throttle periods.
The ECU is pretty picky about the duration of the first two periods of time, I was counting it out in my head and it wasn't working.

The most likely explanation is:
* The ECU sensor problem checking hardware probably only checks for an open circuit (or short circuit to ground).  The O2 sensor and coil were likely already out of the service manual's tolerance range.
* When I turned the bike over without the O2 sensor or coil wired up, the ECU saw an open circuit and latched the fault codes.
* The service manual LIES about ECU code storage -- error codes are NOT lost when the battery power is removed.  If this were the case, the codes would have cleared when I yanked out the battery.  They must be stored in nonvolatile memory.
* Timing of the first 20 seconds of performing the ECU code reset procedure is critical, use a stopwatch.
* I most likely spent $120 for an O2 sensor and ignition coil that didn't need to be replaced yet.



33
Xciting 500 / Re: 2009 Xciting 500 RI abs ECU codes
« on: July 23, 2017, 12:23:49 PM »
Just went out and checked all the other visible fuses:  6 in the fusebox, and a glass fuse behind the battery in an inline holder.  All meter out OK, and the ECU isn't dead, so the 30A fuse I replaced is also still ok.
Additional information:  When I finally re-installed the right side crankcase cover, I wanted to turn the engine over and listen for abnormal noises (before putting the exhaust on and using the gaskets), so I disconnected the ignition coil via the quick connectors from the main wiring harness (as I didn't want to have flames belching onto the garage floor or to hear the exploding gas.)  At the time the O2 sensor was not connected (the exhaust pipe was in my stack of parts to put back on my bike).  This is when I discovered the blown 30A fuse; at the time, the O2 sensor, ignition coil, and oil pressure sensor connectors were all dangling, and possibly the new generator wasn't hooked up as well.

34
Xciting 500 / 2009 Xciting 500 RI abs ECU codes
« on: July 22, 2017, 02:26:35 PM »
I have a 2009 Xciting RI ABS.  It was not charging the battery, so I ordered the stator and regulator assembly.
Pulled the bike apart and did the stator and regulator replacement.   Bike appeared dead when I attempted to start, had to replace the 30A fuse beside the starter relay.  (Something *must* have happened while doing the repair, but I don't for the life of me know what).
Then the bike was throwing two ECU codes (O2 sensor heater out of spec, Ignition coil out of spec.)
Thought it was kind of weird to have two failures, but when I checked them against the spec in the repair manual, sure enough they were outside the listed acceptable range.
Ordered a new O2 sensor and Ignition coil.  Replaced them, bike is still throwing these two codes, can't reset the codes with the procedure in the manual.
Looked at the schematic diagram and saw that the ECU pin #1 ground was common to both sensors.  Measured from pin 1 to the ground connector on the ignition coil, came up with <1 ohm. (Using a Fluke 87 meter).   Checked again from pin 18 to the ignition coil firing connected, again < 1 ohm.
At this point, the new sensors seem to check out fine, which is why I suspected the wiring harness.   Is the procedure for resetting ECU codes in the Cyclepedia service manual incorrect?  Is there something else I should be checking?  Or am I looking at a new ECU?
The bike DOES start, however the check engine light turns on.
Thanks,
Glenn

35
Xciting 250 / Re: Kymco Xciting 250 Under Powered
« on: June 23, 2017, 01:57:43 AM »
Seconding Forbes1964's experiences, I weigh around 260 lbs, max speed is 75mph GPS verified (speedo reads 85), redline at 65mph GPS.  Something is wrong with the bike if you aren't getting over 60mph.

36
Xciting 500 / Re: 2007 500 for $700 or straight up trade.
« on: June 20, 2017, 10:21:52 PM »
Just as an FYI.  I have recently replaced the stator in my XC250, and am in the process of replacing it on the XC500i.
The stators on these bikes are sprayed in engine oil during operation.  When I installed the new stator in the XC250 (which cured it of its charging problems, I am happy to pass on), I noticed (where the bolt heads contacted the stator) that the new stator definitely has some sort of conformal coating on it.  I saw no evidence of conformal coating on the old stator.
So it seems that Kymco already has the problem sorted out, and added a conformal coating to the stator coils to prevent breakdown of the insulation.
This, unfortunately, means that pretty much every Kymco 250cc engine, as well as the Xciting 500, manufactured at least up until 2009, *WILL* eventually require the stator to be replaced, unless you get lucky and only use whatever motor oil doesn't end up damaging the stator insulation (something which we have NO information on).  I started having the problems with the bikes after changing the oil (on the 250) and topping off oil (on the 500) with something I had bought at the local Autozone.
This also means that buying a stator on Ebay instead of from your dealer (and waiting for the slow boat from Taiwan to deliver it) is a complete crapshoot, since we don't know when Kymco started producing stators for each engine which have the fix.
Note that I was getting stranded on my XC500 prior to ordering the replacement stator; whenever I turned off the bike, I wouldn't know if it would actually crank over and start!  I actually kept a 2nd fully charged battery under the seat and was hooking it up to the battery tender connecter for jumpstarting in these situations for a few weeks; near the end, simply driving the bike for two hours was sufficient to drain the primary battery (which is new, and being put on a tender each night) to the point where the low battery light was turning on at the end of my trip, which convinced me to stop putting off the repair.
I'll try to post a followup after the repair is done to see if this fixes the "getting stranded" issue; I don't have a lot of time to work on the bike each weekend, and I need to replace the stator, the clutch shoes, and perform a valve adjustment, so it might be a few weeks.  I've had a couple of instances where it simply did not want to turn the engine over (as if it was dead-ending) and I suspected decompression problems, but each time a boost DOES cause the engine to turn over and fire up.

37
Xciting 250 / Re: Any vertically challenged riders out there?
« on: April 14, 2017, 11:59:08 PM »
The Xciting is NOT for people with short legs.  Sit on one before buying it.

38
Xciting 500 / Re: Odometer not working Kymco 500
« on: April 14, 2017, 11:47:52 PM »
3 possibilities.  The speedometer assembly, the ECU (engine control unit), or the wiring between the two.  Since the bike runs, I'd lean away from it being the ECU.

39
Xciting 500 / Re: Great highway ride...J/K
« on: April 14, 2017, 11:35:58 PM »
The loss of power is certainly due to over heating.  The smoke is probably caused by oil hitting the exhaust pipe.  The good news is, that you made the correct call and stopped riding the bike, before all of the oil was lost - this means that you might not need a new motor.  The bad news is, the bike should never overheat, and should never spray/drip oil onto the exhaust pipe.  There certainly is a problem.  The motor noise you heard when you turned on the ignition engine is the radiator fan; it usually only turns on when the bike isn't moving and pushing air through the radiator.  If you think that there's something wrong with the fan... well, there probably is, since you should only hear an electric motor whine and the sound of rushing air, and you probably heard additional noises.  It takes a good 5 minutes of driving the bike before it gets up to temperature and the fan could kick on during a stop, so it being a new bike to you, it wouldn't surprise me that you hadn't heard it yet.

1. You have a serious cooling system problem, which needs to be addressed before taking the bike out on a trip again.  This is NOT a known problem on the XC500.  I've taken mine out on a 240 mile each way day trip (2x 4 hour trip legs, stopping only for gas), running at up to 80mph, and have never had the temperature gauge move above the middle point. 

2. If the oil leak was not cause by something silly (i.e. loose oil filter or drain cap, which I'm personally doubting is your case), then the oil leak has to be found and fixed, which will probably involve stripping off the plastics.  The Xciting is overall a very easy scooter to work on; the only items that typically require you to take off all the bike plastics are front fork issues or control cable replacements (which pass along the rear side of the fork).  Unfortunately, I don't believe that it was coincidence that the oil leak happened at the same time the bike overheated.

If you plan on fixing the bike yourself, do yourself a favor and get a hardcopy of the service manual from Cyclepedia.  The service manual is good, and loaded with pictures, which pretty much eliminates the need to take photographs of things as you disassemble them.
 

40
Xciting 500 / Re: 2007 500 for $700 or straight up trade.
« on: April 14, 2017, 11:01:00 PM »
Yes, the Xciting 500 does have cold start issues. (2009 Xciting Ri ABS here).

It is due to the drop in battery voltage when turning the engine over; your battery needs to be in good shape, or it will spin but not start up.  This is in stark contrast to the Xciting 250, which can still start with a pretty well run-down battery.  The XC500 electronics system kicks the bucket under a certain voltage; it needs to have gas and spark near TDC, which is when the starter is using the most current (to compress the air/gas mixture) which makes the battery voltage drop.  If the battery loses its cranking capacity, the Xciting will happily turn the engine over and over until the battery is dead without ever starting up.  If you lose the time on your clock while turning the engine over, your battery needs to be recharged, and replaced if recharging won't help the situation.  Fuel injection happens during the air intake part of the cycle, and that's when the injectors are used, so fuel injection probably doesn't meaningfully contribute to the starting problem. Colder temperatures reduce the available cold cranking current on a battery, which is why the XC500 has (a somewhat deserved) reputation for cold starting issues; the reduction in battery starting capacity can cause the voltage to drop further, crossing that magic line where it simply won't start.

In any event, when you turn the ignition on, WAIT for the engine light to go off before cranking over.  When you turn on the ignition, it momentarily turns on the fuel pump to pressurize the fuel rail; you don't want to crank it over while the fuel pump is still running (since it will be an additional load on the battery and drop the voltage more).


41
Xciting 250 / Re: What is the best site to get Xciting 250 parts?
« on: February 14, 2017, 07:57:55 PM »
I've used kymcopartsmonster several times as well; they are a tad slow (I imagine its because the parts are drop shipped and not stocked), and if there are issues they take a while to get back to you, but they eventually do.  For instance, I needed to replace the exhaust pipe on my XC250, and the new pipe had a different flange on the end than the pipe I was replacing.

To make a long story short, Kymco had changed the exhaust pipe assembly (probably to stop them from cracking, like mine did when I hit a pothole at 70mph, because the new flange is about 3x the thickness of the old one), but the online drawings were not updated; they still showed the old exhaust pipe, and the old exhaust stud bolts, which were far too short for the new exhaust pipe assembly.  It took two or three rounds of back and forth before they came back to me with the information about the stud bolts (as I was exceedingly concerned about replacing the stud bolts and putting on an exhaust pipe which may not be geometrically correct for the bike - a surefire way to repeat the problem).  I've put a few thousand miles on the bike since, without any exhaust problems, although I'm in line to replace the stator and the battery when the weather gets warmer, as I was getting the battery voltage low lamp on a battery which was about 6 months old when the light turned on.



42
Xciting 250 / Re: Kymco 250 Temperature Gauge
« on: February 14, 2017, 07:45:06 PM »
When its about 40°F outside, it takes about 15 minutes (5 minutes of warmup and 10 minutes of driving) for my Xciting 250 needle to get in the normal area.  It takes about a minute to get there once I see it start moving.
The Xciting 500 engine takes about 25 minutes to get there at the same temperatures.   I'm having the cold starting problems with my XC500RiABS, I need to put the battery charger on and put it in start assist mode to get the 500 running when the temperature drops to near 40 degrees, so I usually just take the 250 out on those days.  (The 500 is relatively new to me, and I've yet to replace the battery or stator).

43
Xciting 250 / Re: New Xciting 250
« on: September 18, 2015, 03:11:06 AM »
Congratulations on the new bike.  The Xciting 250 is a really nice bike for people that want to do only occasional highway travel.  If you keep it at or below 65mph, you will be able to get 65mpg.  I weigh 260 lbs and there's still enough oomph to bring the bike all the way up to 80mph (possibly higher, but at that point its well past redline), which means that most hills won't slow me down.  The bike is also quite heavy, which helps tremendously with highway stability.  My previous bike was a Chinese Honda Reflex (244cc) knockoff, and it was very easily blown around, being 100 lbs lighter.  The Xciting 250 was an upgrade in every possible way.

Of course the downside is, the bike is heavy.  Your acceleration isn't a good as it would be with a lighter chassis.  And its more difficult to push around.  And the bike was designed for people with long, long arms.

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