Left stranded with only 185 miles on the ODO

[Guest Brent]

Went for my first long ride today after getting my new LeMans last week, and after about 80 miles the bike started acting like it was running out of fuel, and then finally quit. Luckily I was able to pull into a MacDonalds parking lot before that happened.

 

I checked for 'tank suck' and there was none. I turned on the bike and listened for the fuel pump (pressurizing?) and heard nothing. Then I checked the fuse and found it to be OK. I decided to let the bike cool a while, so I had a long lunch and then tried to start the bike again--still couldn't. So, with only 185 miles on my ODO, I get my first tow home. The dealer will pick it up from my house.

 

I'm just hoping that this isn't an omen of what to expect from this bike!

[Guest Buck]

Sorry to hear about your experience with your new Lemans. Whenever I read a story like that I hope it's just a fluke, not a prediction of what I should expect. I purchased a new '02 Lemans last month and have already put 1200 miles on it, pretty much without incident. Here are the problems I've had so far:

 

1) Lots of dirt in the paint on the left fairing piece, noticed at delivery. My dealer is replacing it this wednesday.

 

2) Right side cover is cracking around one of the mounting bolts.

 

3) Tach fogs up (I've heard several others talk about this problem)

 

4) Speedo is 10 mph fast at 60 mph. When stopped the speedo needle only drops to 4 mph.

 

5) The rear plastic vibrated loose at about 200 miles. My dealer had warned me to go over everything at about that mileage anyway. It's a good thing he did because I found several loose pieces.

 

6) The shifter sometimes gets stuck and I have to "bump" the clutch to get it to return to it's at rest position. It seems to do this more when downshifting into 4th gear.

 

7) When I did my 1000 mile service I noticed the left spark plug was loose about 2.5 turns.

 

I consider all of this to be relatively minor, and the bike is simply a blast to ride. I have 4 motorcycles in the garage but the Lemans is the bike that calls to me when I open the garage door. I sure hope I don't have the mechanical issues I see posted here, such as broken transmission springs, engine not starting, etc.

 

Please let us know what fixes your bike!

[Guest Brent]

Just out of curiosity, I went out to the garage tonight and tried to start the bike...and it started! Before I pushed the starter button, I heard a loud 'click' coming from under the seat, and of course I also heard the fuel pump working. The click sound was loud enough that I'm sure I would have heard it before if it did this every time the fuel pump came on, so it makes me think that maybe the sound isn't normal. I pulled the seat and touched each relay as I turned the ignition off/on, and I found that the last relay (closest to the rear of the bike) was the one clicking. I assume that this is the one that controls the fuel pump, and that it's going/gone bad.

 

If I need to replace the relay, I'd like to use a Bosch relay that others here (in this forum) have switched to. I would appreciate any information (model, etc.) about which one to buy. Maybe I should go ahead and replace them all?

[Guest Brent]

Please disregard my request for more info about the Bosch relay. I did some searching and found the part number.

[Janusz]

The rearmost relay controls pump, coils and injectors. Carry one or two spares (Bosh of course) and you'll be immune to further troubles of this nature, Brent.

[Guest Brent]

On the way to the dealer's this morning, I got about 1/2 mile before the bike shut down again. I swapped the rear relay with one of the others and the bike started working again, so there was no doubt at that point that my problem was a bad relay. (If only I had known on Sunday to swap the relays...)

 

I made it to the dealer's without a problem, and I had them replace all the relays. I was surprised when the relays that they pulled out to install on my bike were Siemens instead of Bosch, and I told them that I wanted the NEWEST relays from MG. They explained that MG is no longer using Bosch, and that the new Siemens relays are supposed to be better than what was used in the past. They'd better be! Just in case, I have a few spares now.

 

By the way, the new Siemens relays have the same part number as the old ones, but the batch number on the side is different.

[al_roethlisberger]

That's interesting, as my "mix" of new and old Siemens relays definitely had different model numbers... I seem to remember the old ones being xxx...74 and new ones being xxx...75 or something like that.

 

I received the same story though, that MG had switched back to Siemens, and that the new relays were supposed to be trouble-free. yeah... I switched them all to the gray Bosch units

 

...I kept the "new" Siemens as spares in my tool kit.

 

Hope everything else goes well for you. Oh, and BTW, although I never did mention it in my various other posts... my paint has "dirt" in it on almost every body panel, especially the fairing. I just decided not to persue that ... as I had too many other issues *sigh*

 

al

[Guest Buck]

Why not pursue the dirt in the paint issue? You did have to pay for your bike, didn't you? Part of what you paid for was a warranty to deal with those kinds of things. I just had the left side fairing replaced on my '02 Lemans today because of dirt in the paint. I told my dealer that although it didn't bother me cosmetically now, I was sure it would bother me the first time one of those pieces of dirt chips off and causes the paint to start peeling off of the fairning. He understood completely, ordered the parts, and installed them today without a problem. Furthermore how will MG really know they have a quality problem unless they are told? If you don't do anything about it you haven't told them that dirt in the paint is an unacceptable way to sell a bike. They'll keep on building them that way unless they get hit where it hurts - in the wallet.

 

Just my $.02