HELP - Looking for technical advice VSTAR 1100

[Lone Eagle]

Help?! Maybe some of you technical folks could offer some suggestions?? A friend of mine has a brand new (2008) VSTAR 1100 Classic - only 5,100 miles - purchased 3 months ago. She has been experiencing several mechanical problems - all of which (in my opinion) the dealer may be blowing incorrect information to her - and/or just not knowledgeable on this type of motorcycle. Thought I would ask if any of these mechanical issues sounded familiar - or may have thoughts on what to specifically say to try and get these issues resolved (other than blowing off the dealer). I did a copy and paste of her e-mail:

 

These things don’t happen all of the time which makes it hard to diagnose and then fix, but they happen often enough to be frustrating, irritating and annoying. The gear(s) issue is what worries her the most because we like to ride twisty mountain roads.

1. popping sound from exhaust – this happens on acceleration and/or deceleration - level and hilly (high elevation) areas. The dealer told her it was the “air injection system”. It wasn’t “blocked off” before which allowed too much air to come through the exhaust causing the back-firing and popping noises.
   
2. it’s not shifting into neutral on a “regular” basis.
   
3. First gear and neutral having problems. The bike originally had issues with getting into neutral. The service tech lowered the shifting lever; it work(s)(ed) a lot better. BUT, it’s still not 100% all of the time.
   
4. I can’t always get the bike into first gear; it wants to stay in neutral or like Sunday, going around a corner, went into neutral. I am being told that this problem is common with this bike – and tends to go away on / after 7,000-8,000 miles on the bike.
   
5. Hard to start: when they blocked the air injection [section or whatever it’s called], this may “fix” that problem. Didn’t matter whether it was cooler temps or warmer, I was having problems. Again, it doesn’t happen all the time.
   

Thanks, anyone - for any ideas and/or suggestions which I may pass on to her.

[tazmocycle]

http://forums.delphiforums.com/yamaha1100/start

checkout this forum for the advice on her problems, lots of great guys there. maybe able to find someone close to you to help on working on it.

my wife has an 06 and haven't had any probles with it. checkout the shifter and see if it's binding on the bolt holding it on. it may also help to go to syn. oil in it, i use mobil 1 10 w 30 in susan's and it helps with the shifting and running. checkout thr exhaust pipe's bolt holding it on to the heads to see if they are loose, they have to take the lower pipe off to install the oil filter unless somebody has put the oil filter re-locater kit on it and it has a spin-on filter. hope this helps some, don.