Re: 570 COLD START Issue & Solution
COLD START ISSUE & SOLUTION (2011 FE570):
2011 Husaberg FE570S
60 hours of gentle ride time
Purchase Date: 5-16-11 (Post Date: 12-19-11)
DESCRIPTION OF THE COLD START ISSUE:
Now that the weather has cooled down, I'm riding several times a week, and this COLD START issue seems to be getting worse (because it is a COLD-START issue and cold weather affects it). So, I took a break and spent several days to go through most of the 2009-2011 Husaberg 390, 450, and 570 posts on Husaberg.org and KTM Talk.com to see if I could gain some wisdom about my COLD STARTING problem. From these forums, I've found some good resources and recommendations.
I noticed that some of the dealers are passing their problems back to the owners by saying that the 450's and 570's are just hard to start and we can't do anything about that! So, we just have to try over and over again until the bike finally starts. But how do you explain that inside each group of riders, there are some who have bikes that start right up? On the forums, we're getting condolences from riders who have bikes that start right up; they have no cold starting problems, and they are a bit worried, wanting to know the solution in case their bike begins this behavior. If there are friends that bought bikes from the same dealer, and one has serious cold start problems, and the other bike just starts right up, doesn't this prove that there is a cold start problem?
FIRST, here's a REVIEW of what my 2011 Husaberg FE570S is doing:
COLD STARTING PROBLEM:
1. The bike seems to be hardest to start on the first ride of the day. After it has warmed up, and has been ridden for a while, it will usually start right up. The problem is getting worse though as the weather is becoming colder. If I take a 30 minute lunch break while riding on a day in the 50’s, it might be hard to start, but not nearly as hard as the first start of the day.
2. The starting problem is somewhat intermittent, and usually takes many attempts to get the bike started. Occasionally, it will just start right up with no problems whatsoever (although it seems to turn over slowly). I believe that when it is starting properly, it is because the cylinder is past the compression stroke, and the starter motor gets up enough speed to carry it all the way through to get the engine started. (Note: I've already replaced the starter and the battery; I have a Lithium-Ion battery with twice the CCA of the stock battery which makes a noticeable difference over the stock battery.)
So, if the cylinder is at the compression stroke, the starter will make a single click, rather than turn the engine over (or maybe it turns the cylinder a little). This could happen as many as 6-8 times, sometimes even 10 or more tries before it begins to turn the engine over. I Believe that with each click, the engine is slowly moved until it is past the compression stroke.
Sometimes it will turn over after a few clicks, but not fast enough to start the engine; the engine will go ruh---ruh---ruh---ruh (half the cranking speed), instead of ruh-ruh-ruh-ruh (full cranking speed), and then I'll get caught on the compression stroke again and have to start over with the click, click, click, thing again.
If the exhaust valves aren’t opened up a bit by the cam-auto-decompressor, this could explain why it’s hard for the NEW BATTERY and STARTER to turn over the engine. (Note: My first valve lash check at 10 hours showed the LEFT Exhaust valve, the one responsible for decompression, to be at 0.13mm, which is within factory specs of 0.12-0.17mm.) The older 2004-2008 Husabergs did have cam-auto-decompressor problems, and I've found that some dealers have found the cam-auto-decompressor fixed the cold starting problem for some of their customers with the 70 Degree engines. (And have confused the torque convertor problem for the cam-auto-decompressor problem, and vice-versa.)
The stock battery just barely got the bike going which was why I purchased a stronger battery. If I didn’t have a lithium-ion battery with twice the cold-cranking amps, I’d be running the battery dead quite a bit. Fortunately, I never had to push start it, but often wished I had a kick starter.
3. Once the engine starts (and gets warmed up), there is little to worry about for the rest of the day. The bike will usually start right up, but there’s been a few exceptions, and this seems to be worsening now that the weather is becoming considerably colder.
HERE'S WHAT I'VE DONE ALREADY:
After discovering my new Husaberg had a problem, I traced, cleaned, and tightened all the wires and connections around the battery, frame ground, to the starter, and all the way to the start button, kill switch, etc., and used dielectric grease on all the contacts and used contact cleaner and a contact enhancer on all the plugs.
Since my dealer hadn't seen this "click-click-click" cold start problem before, and because I live almost 3 hours from the dealer, and because the problem was somewhat intermittent, I decided to replace the most likely offenders first -- the battery and starter -- and hope the problem would go away. I replaced the stock battery with a Lithium-Ion battery (14 CCA, twice the CCA's of the stock battery), and then the starter motor. After that didn't work, I brought it to the dealer who thought it was the torque converter and replaced it to no avail. He also suspected the Throttle Position Sensor could cause my problem, but it tested okay. After a whole day drive to drop it off, and another whole day drive to pick it up, the next day I tried to start the bike and "click-click-click!"
After this I started reading the forums for some help. It looked like I was going to have to figure this out on my own. I found that some dealers had seen this "cold start" problem and fixed it with a new cam. So I started a process of elimination because my dealer didn't believe that my bike had a cam problem. So, first I tested the starter relay by by measuring across it (with the battery disconnected), and it was ~ 0.1 Ohms, so I knew it's not an open circuit; I removed the cable from the starter motor side of the relay and checked to see if there was a voltage drop (voltage difference) across the windings (with power on). Since both sides of the windings were 12.6 Volts, it was likely that the relay did not have an internal short (if it did, there would be a Voltage difference between the two sides of the windings as one side would pull toward ground giving a voltage difference). With the starter motor reconnected to the starter relay, and while pushing the starter button, the Voltage remained the same on both sides of the windings. These tests pretty much eliminated a short circuit issue in the windings and let me know the starter relay was okay. Since I have a new battery and starter, the starter relay is okay, and the wire to the starter is okay, I have pretty much eliminated the starter circuit from the equation.
As a former video technician for nearly two decades, I know that Voltage (V) and Current (A) share an INVERSE relationship; if Voltage goes up, Current goes down; if Current goes up, Voltage goes down. And that's what proved to me that I really had a cam problem, that it was not decompressing. Using the frame ground and the starter motor positive side, I measured the voltage before and after the start button was pushed. The voltage would immediately drop from 10 volts to 5 volts when the start button was pushed which means HEAVY current draw (Voltage goes down, Current goes up). This means the NEW STARTER would suck down huge amounts of current (and heat up) while trying to turn over the engine, and that turning over the engine was not possible without the auto-decompression feature working properly. So, it seemed to be something after the starter circuit!
At this point, I called KTM Customer service to talk about a warranty cam problem. The Customer Service rep said the cold start issue as described was a problem he had seen before on certain EXC530s. I guess some of them use the same cam as the 2011 Husaberg FE570. The rep asked me to do a "COLD-CRANKING" compression test to help verify if the cam was the problem. He said that if the compression was under about 90-100 psi, this would indicate that it's not a cam problem. But I'm not sure that this is a valid test, because when the starter makes the "clicking" noise, there is a huge Current drain, and their is no compression reading; this is when the reading is probably 175 psi and the engine cannot be turned over! My bike did have a cam problem, and when it did turn over (not "click"), the compression reading was always between 60-90 psi, which would seem to indicate that the cam is okay. So, if you do this compression test yourself, be mindful of the above experience.
Even though the readings didn't jive with what they expected, the rep gave my dealer the okay for the repair. Then he looked through the stock of cams, and used a micrometer to measure and find one with a cam lobe that was on the high side of the specs, and turned out to be 0.03mm taller than the one that was on my motorcycle. Apparently, my cam lobe was on the low side of acceptable specs and did not sufficiently open the LEFT exhaust valve (which was within proper specs) to lower the compression enough for the battery-starter circuit to turn the engine over quickly enough to start it.
That took care of the whole problem. It now starts every time, and the first time you push the start button, with no starter motor "clicks" at all. Generally, it takes about 6-8 seconds to start when cold, and just a second or two when the bike is warmed up. It has been several weeks since I picked my bike up, and I have started it everyday without any disappointments.
My bike went out of warranty while we worked on this problem, but KTM gave me warranty coverage, and assured me from the beginning that KTM was not going to leave a customer stranded. Both KTM and my dealer kept at it until the problem was solved to my satisfaction.
I hope this helps you get your bike running soon.
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PS - Another tip from KTM Customer Service that is worth mentioning: Put your Husaberg 570 in 2nd or 3rd gear and roll it backwards; this will put the piston on the other side of the compression stroke... your engine will get a running headstart and probably be able to start until you figure out what your problem is.
What I've learned from the forums is HOT START issues appear to be injectors, torque converters, hairline cracks on a defective batch of NGK spark plugs, hairline cracks on the spark plug cap, and electrical problems (bad wires, wiring harness routing problems, loose connectors, loose start button wires, battery & frame ground connections, etc).
COLD START issues appear to be cam auto-decompressors, batteries, corrosion and moisture inside the starter motor because of bad o-ring seals, loose connections, wiring, and frame ground connections. The cam auto-decompressor seems to have similar problems as the torque convertor and has been misdiagnosed at times (and vice-versa).
There is a very useful procedures overview that helped me understand my husa's problem. It's worth reading even though it is for older Husabergs. Go to:
download/file.php?id=1283
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