free website stats program Bad Gas??? | Harley Davidson Forums

Bad Gas???

ultraclassic01

ultraclassic01

Member
Contributor
Ok, I needed my shifter tightened and drove 30 miles and no problem, in fact no problem in 11 years with engine running smooth and stopped at a BP and put 4.5 gallons of 93 octane in. Went to the dealer 1/2 mile away and they did their thing and got back on the highway and after about 25 miles the bike started to run real rough and it was losing idle. The outside temp was around 95 degrees. So my question is "did I get some bad gas" or could it be something else. I can hear the fuel pump going when ignition switch is on. I think I am going drain this tank and put some new high octane gas in and see if it runs better. Maybe a bottle of Textron also. Looking for any thoughts on this situation. 2001 ultraclassic 38K
 
I think Bodeen is on the right track. I had a similar situation a few days ago and it turned out to be the throttle control circuit. You would have a Check Engine Light and the computer puts the bike in the 'Limp' mode or fast idle as it is called, so that you can 'limp' home with it. It is a well documented problem and a shame that MoCo doesn't do a recall on the bikes involved. Let us know how you make out.
 
Sorry but I do not have any check engine light on. Everything is normal for a start up situation. I always wait for the engine light to go off before starting the bike. It is over 100 degrees in Southern Illinois right now but when it cools down I am going to get some Shell 93 octane and get rid of the gas in the tank and put some different gas in. Maybe some water got in the gas at the BP station.
Any solutions are welcomed and I will detail how I fixed the problem or how the dealer will fix the problem.
Thanks for the input.
 
Had a similar situation in the wife's car a few years back. Filled up at my local WaWa and started the 4 mile drive home. Barely made it into the drive. Fortunately for me, my station wasn't the only one effected and WaWa started to broadcast over the radio that several stations had bad regular gas. I immediately went back to the station and spoke to the mgr and he confirmed that some idiot up at the refinery had turned the wrong switch. He took my name and # and good thing too, as the injectors and fuel tank had to be replaced in a 2 year old car. WaWa picked up the bill with no problems, mostly because of the publicity. You might want to go back to the station and ask someone in charge if they had any problems with the gas. Who knows, they might be having a problem....
 
The4opps1 said:
Had a similar situation in the wife's car a few years back. Filled up at my local WaWa and started the 4 mile drive home. Barely made it into the drive. Fortunately for me, my station wasn't the only one effected and WaWa started to broadcast over the radio that several stations had bad regular gas. I immediately went back to the station and spoke to the mgr and he confirmed that some idiot up at the refinery had turned the wrong switch. He took my name and # and good thing too, as the injectors and fuel tank had to be replaced in a 2 year old car. WaWa picked up the bill with no problems, mostly because of the publicity. You might want to go back to the station and ask someone in charge if they had any problems with the gas. Who knows, they might be having a problem....
Click to expand...

Great advice!
 
Thanks for all the replies. That was the first thing I did was to call the station and give them the pump number and my ticket # and he took my phone # to give to the manager. He said that after our phone call he was going to do a check for water in the tank but I have not gotten a call back. If they do not call me I will call them back Monday.
Thanks for all your inputs.

He did say that he did not have any complaints from any other customers but that was 8am in the morning.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ultraclassic01 said:
Ok, I needed my shifter tightened and drove 30 miles and no problem, in fact no problem in 11 years with engine running smooth and stopped at a BP and put 4.5 gallons of 93 octane in. Went to the dealer 1/2 mile away and they did their thing and got back on the highway and after about 25 miles the bike started to run real rough and it was losing idle. The outside temp was around 95 degrees. So my question is "did I get some bad gas" or could it be something else. I can hear the fuel pump going when ignition switch is on. I think I am going drain this tank and put some new high octane gas in and see if it runs better. Maybe a bottle of Textron also. Looking for any thoughts on this situation. 2001 ultraclassic 38K
Click to expand...

Hmmmm...Stock injected 88" motor? What exactly was the "their thing" that the dealer did when you brought it in? What do the plugs look like? How about the air cleaner? Have you ever changed the plug wires and the fuel filter in the tank? Hot weather will bring out the worst in a motor...especially an air-cooled motor. You may be surprised when you see what that fuel filter looks like. Especially with today's gas. But before you go ripping into it, maybe a couple ounces of Seafoam might help you out a little. At least so you can burn this tank of gas out.
 
Ok! Here is how the story ends. Drained the BP 93 Octane gas out and filled the tank with some Shell High Octane gas. I also added a bottle of Techron and started the motorcycle and let it run a bit. Today (AM) I took it down a county road and was getting some hic cups around 60. I put on about 20 miles and it was still cutting in and out around 60. Ok! Huston we have a problem so I called my local Harley dealer and said I was going to trailer it in today and leave it there so they can look at it. Got the trailer all hooked up to the truck and started the Ultra and it just sounded different. I decided to run it up the road a little and see it it was running better. Well 30, 40, 50, 60, 70 and not one miss fire. Could not believe it. So I said this can not be and took it out again for about 15 miles and not one hic cup or mis fire. If I did not do this and if I would have taken it to the Harley dealer they would have called me and said there is not anything wrong with it. SOooooooooooooooo by putting some different fuel in and adding a bottle of Techron it solved my problem and probably saved me hundreds of dollars at the Harley dealer. If the problem returns then I will have something for the dealer to look at but for now, it is running great. I still think it was just some bad gas!!!!!!!! Watch out for BP 93 OCTANE. Thanks for all your feed back and help.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top