Tuesday, September 27, 2022

'02 - '03 Yamaha R1 Fuel Light Flashing Eight Times

How to fix...

There are a lot of opinions out there regarding this fault, and some would have you believe it's an engine management issue. But this is down to the fuel sensor circuit only. 

Mine started flashing after a jolt from landing a wheelie and became really annoying at night - those LED's in the dash are so bright! So, as much as I didn't want the tank off yet again, I decided to bite the bullet.

Seat off, and then the side trims on the tank (to avoid damaging them), I placed the tank upside down on an old duvet. Amazingly, no fuel came out of the fuel cap and this tank was pretty much full. I should just mention that I had checked for resistance at the terminals on the bottom of the fuel filter/pump and had come up with an open circuit.

With the six screws removed from the aluminium plate holding the fuel pump, I removed the unit. The fuel level sender needs to be unclipped from the fuel pump module each time because it catches on the tank aperture. It probably should come out complete but I don't want to risk breaking anything. It's easy to unclip once the module is halfway out.

With the unit removed, I disconnected the wiring for the sender and start to check it with a multimeter. It will occasionally come up with a resistance across the terminals but quickly goes open circuit again. I checked for corrosion and placed the sender in some CLR to clean it up internally. I was getting a resistance at the sensor itself, but not from its multiplug. 

On closer inspection, the wire from the sensor itself is barely hanging on at the two-pin multiplug. Carefully removing the terminal from the multiplug (using a thin pick tool), I cut the wire off and opened up the terminal. The wire was stripped on the end and soldered back into the terminal which could now go back inside the multiplug. 


The terminal looks much better now and will have superb continuity.


Now it had good resistance all the time. With everything cleaned and checked, it was refitted into the tank.

With fuel tank back on the bike, it was back out for a road test and I'm happy to say it's now working perfectly.

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