Fuel Injector - fuel pump issues - Updated with notes and Pictures

14kmtnman

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I am getting gas in the oil again. Last time was 2 years ago. At that time I replaced both injectors which solved the problem for about 2 years and 10,000 miles. The old injectors (original ones) show 12.8 ohms. The Factory manual states they should be at 12 with no range given. Do they really need to be exactly at 12? Shouldn't there be some leeway? I found a fuel injection cleaner place, that for $20 each, will clean & inspect the original ones I still have. Once I get that report back, I'll decide if I just put them back in to replace the current ones or get new ones. Is there something else I should be looking at or for, before I tear everything apart?
 

gv550

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Gasoline diluted engine oil is caused by leaking injector(s), and that has nothing to do with the resistance of the coil in the injector. Leak can be caused by weak or broken spring inside the injector, loose spring stop, broken or bent pintle, eroded seat.... (All of these issues are not repairable and require new injector). Most likely the leak is due to dirt holding the injector open and a good service shop can clean and calibrate them and you are good as new.
You should remove the fuel pump and check for dirt inside the tank, and replace the fuel filter (I know, gotta buy the whole pump) but feeding dirty fuel through new or cleaned injectors will result in leaks again.
Leaking injector will also cause higher than normal fuel consumption, hard starting, and black smoke when accelerating.
PS, I used to own and operate a fuel injection service centre.
 

Don in Lodi

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There are a few threads out there on replacing the fuel pump sock. It's not straightforward, but it's do-able.
 

14kmtnman

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Update - I found a local company who will do a complete test (with pictures) clean and rebuild of the fuel injector for $20 each. I still had the 2 original injectors that had about 30,000 miles on them and the current pair with about 10,000 miles re-worked. 3 day turnaround. 1 of the 30k injectors is not recommended to use again, but is workable in an emergency. The shop said there was a lot of varnish build up in all 4 of them. A lot of in town commuting is said to mostly be blamed. I do use premium all of the time & try to stay with Conoco or Shell. The injection shop highly recommends Costco because they add in injector cleaner to their fuel.

Got everything back in place, fuel injector wise. I then decided to take the fuel pump out & check it. I had to wait for the fp o-ring to show up before diving in. I learned my lesson on my BMW RT. The main fuel tank o-ring used to be a 1 time use, because as soon as you took it out it swelled up to almost double the size, making it impossible to reuse. After struggling with the fuel pump to get it out, I tried to back flush it with some low pressure air. When I did that some really dirty gas came out of the connection tube. I started thinking that was not a good sign. Sure enough once I got to the filter, I found that the filter bag was almost caked solid. FYI it is about 2 inches by 1 inch. No wonder I was having injector issues! Another thing was my mileage. When the bike was new I would get a consistent 45-50 mpg commuting. Over the 5 years of ownership from new, it has slowly dwindled down to 38-40 commuting. Maybe it is because the pump is working so hard to pull fuel thru a very clogged filter.

The next step is to decide if a new pump is the way to go. This is a strong consideration, considering how much dirt was in the filter & what has happened to the injectors, twice. Without being able to check the tolerances inside, I have no idea what the real condition it is in. Another option is figure out how to replace the filter bag. I saw a thread somewhere about a guy in south america, whose buddies did it all of the time. I am also going to get one of these -
Yamaha Tenere 1200 Fuel Filter Guglatech M22006-ARM. If it keeps the dirt out of the tank before getting to the fuel pump filter, like they say it does, it's worth it. It would have saved me about $500 so far. That is not including if I get a new pump which is around $350
 

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14kmtnman

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After more research, why not just replace the pump itself without the whole assembly for a fraction of the cost? Like this one -
Quantum Intank EFI Fuel Pump For Yamaha Super Tenere (XTZ12) 2012-2019 with a lifetime warranty & only $69
 

Paqard

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This is interesting. You've been using "Top Tier" gasoline already according to the list https://www.toptiergas.com/licensed-brands/ . Are you the original owner of the bike? If not maybe prior owner was not as careful as you. Take any trips to Mexico? How many miles on the bike and do you ever use any fuel treatment in it? Is there a bunch of crap in the tank also? Thanks.....
 

gv550

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It would have been interesting if the fuel injection shop would have provided a photo of the leak test, providing fuel pressure without activating the solenoid, as that would have confirmed dirt holding the pintle off the seat.
Poor gas mileage would have been caused by leaking injectors and/or poor spray pattern.
 

14kmtnman

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Paqard - Yes I am the original owner. Bought new 2013 in spring of 2014 and have almost 40k miles. Yes I have used fuel injection cleaner in it before. I did take a trip to Alaska 2 years ago. Maybe that is what caused the first FI issues. The tank was surprising clean, both gasoline wet cloth & dry. Beware of the sharp edges on the inside of the pump mounting flange. Smaller hands would probably make things easier.

gv550 - They did supply lots of pictures (13 total) even the flow test both static & 25/75 (what looks like a scaled water tube). They all had even resistance & no leakdown on the after test.. They did say that there was some gunk in 1 or 2 of the spray heads on the before tests. I did not have hard starting, black smoke or rough running issues. Just gas in the oil. Which I hope was just from all of the dirt in the system.

After flushing 2 full cans of Brake Clean thru the housing filter, which is the one that is part of the factory pump assembly, I think it is as clean as it's going to get, without being replaced by a whole new assembly. The first couple of rinses provided a very dirty flow in both directions. Once I cut open the tea bag filter, I found that it had a plastic spreader disc on the inside. which I thought was dirt, so my bad. The tea bag filter itself is so full of dirt that a very bright light will not shine thru both layers at 1 time. With just 1 layer, can barely see the light. FYI, there is a little basket screen type filter (about the size of the ones in the injectors) on the outgoing end of the pump which is pinned in place. It appears to me to be backwards, but maybe my thinking is off.

I am still trying to find the correct fuel pump filter sock before deciding on which route to go, just sock it or new pump. Since I am not able to flush the pump, I'm thinking it might be best to get a new pump cartridge, like I mentioned above.
 

14kmtnman

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I went ahead and ordered the Guglatech filter & the replacement Quantum fuel pump kit. I should have both installed by the end of the week. With the new engine oil already in the bike and the injectors installed it shouldn't take long to put tank back together, and get the bike running again.
 

14kmtnman

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Cycledude - 3 ways combined. First, the oil was dark colored after less than 300 miles on new synthetic oil and filter. 2nd, was the oil level kept getting higher in the sight glass every few days when I checked it. 3rd , when I stuck a rod down thru the filler cap hole and pulled it out it out it smelled like gas and not oil. The same exact thing happened to me twice after coming back from Alaska. At that time new injectors solved the problem. This time I am taking the extra precautions with a new pump cartridge & tea bag filter sock, and an in tank prefilter.
 
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14kmtnman

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The bike is all back together & running. Then only hiccup was with the tea-bag filter. Quantum does not have a an exact replacement for the Yamaha version. So it took some fiddling to get it to work right. Once everything was in place, gas in, key on, pressure up & hit the starter. A couple seconds later it fired right up. I let it run up to the fan turn on temp, shut it off & did it again about 20 minutes later. Everything seems fine. I'm going to let it sit overnight with a half tank of fuel, before bolting the tank and side panels back in to check for leaks.
 

Cycledude

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Interesting, oil in my 2018 also seems to get a little fuller all by itself . But I always just assumed it was just the way that crazy oil sight glass works. I will have to give your dipstick method a try sometime. Mpg has generally been excellent.
 

Checkswrecks

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Glad it all seems to have worked out. When I do a major service I pull the injectors and clean them myself, just using a battery and MAF spray (mass air flow sensor). Soak them in it and then start cycling them with the battery. There are plenty of videos about how.

Thanks for the reminder to check the screen on the pump this winter. If/when dirty, I'll sock it and go with a downstream fuel line small car filter. Pretty common on the VStrom and other bikes.
 

EricV

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Thanks for the reminder to check the screen on the pump this winter. If/when dirty, I'll sock it and go with a downstream fuel line small car filter. Pretty common on the VStrom and other bikes.
I'm a little concerned about cutting the high pressure fuel line to the fuel rail to install an inline fuel filter. To me, that's tempting fate a bit more than I want to. Since the pump is in the tank, I don't see any other spot you could install a fuel filter. If this was a concern for my travels, I'd be more likely to install one of the in the fuel neck GUGLAtech filters.
 

14kmtnman

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Since I had everything apart, I looked at putting an inline filter between the tank & the injectors too. Seemed to be enough room. But once I saw how much dirt came out of the pump as well as the non-serviceable housing filter, I decided to go with the Gulatech as a pre-everything filter. Stopping the dirt before it gets to any of the critical parts seemed like a better route to go.
 

14kmtnman

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It is very shiny white material made out of gold, diamonds and micromesh stainless steel. Just kidding.... It looks like some of the new very breathable material. It is amazing that it lets gas thru but not water or fine dirt. In my case, it might be overkill, but it would have saved me $500 plus so far, not including my time, energy and stress. Results are yet to be determined...... I think of it as just another layer of protection, like crash bars, skid plate, boots and armored gear, just in a different location.
 
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