[Ducati] 996 throttle problem

[Ducman]

I'd like to know how they justify $1800, did they do the valves? Belts and
battery shouldn't cost that much. I have heard surging problems arise from
bad injector relays - little black boxes that plug into the harness under
the tank/seat. Personally I would learn to do at least the basic maintenance
to avoid getting raped at the dealer, whats worse is they aren't even
competent. Each spring I also disassemble each electrical connection and
dielectric grease it to ensure no corrosion and a good connection. Except
for a select very few, I think no dealer will do as good a job as a
consciencious owner. If you paid the $1800 with a credit card I would call
the card 1-800 and contest the charge.

PaulM

-----Original Message-----
From: ducati-bounces at ducati.net [mailto:ducati-bounces at ducati.net]On
Behalf Of Darcy Brockbank
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2006 4:35 PM
To: Ducati at ducati.net
Subject: [Ducati] 996 throttle problem


Hello list,

I own a year 2000 996, a bike that has been trouble free until
recently. Last summer
I noticed some odd throttle behavior that was intermittent, if I had
the throttle open
to a point where I'd expect, say, an even 4,000 rpm it would slowly build
RPM or
lose RPM, kind of wavering back and forth.

If it would lose RPM with the throttle held constant, cutting the
throttle down to
idle would have the bike stall out.

I got stuck in the rain with it at the end of last season, and the
electrical system
went kaput on me (no power anywhere). I had to push it home a couple of
miles
in the rain.

This spring I brought it in to the local dealer in Montreal, cost me
about $1,800
to do the 10k checkup and replace the battery (it was old and in need). I
told
them about the electrical problem, and they said some connectors were rusty
so cleaned them out. Took them one month to get this done too. Seemed very
costly and slow.

They assured me they had taken it out on a test drive and it was running
great.

I picked the bike up and got one block before it died on me. Fuel
light was on so
I thought "no gas". Checked fuel, there was plenty in there still. Got one
more
block and stalled out after having the RPM jumping all over again. The
two blocks
back the bike stalled out twice more.

I had the service rep come out. He started asking me where my choke was. I
just looked at him like he was joking but he repeated it. I explained
to him that
the 996 with fuel injection didn't have a choke... (how can this guy be a
Ducati
service rep if he doesn't know this kind of basic stuff?)

I asked him how they could have claimed to have taken it for a test run and
it
worked great, if the exact problems it had when coming in were still there.
Day
wasted. They said they would fix this at their cost, and when I said, ok,
put
it in writing please, it became they would investigate at their cost,
but I would
pay parts and labor for the fix (haha).

The service rep, who does not ride and seems to know nothing about
motorcycles
kept telling me they would adjust the mixture and this would fix the
problem. I
told the guy it worked fine for six years and then suddenly this problem
cropped
up, so it's not like my mixture was set wrong else it would have been doing
this
for six years instead of the last month of riding. They now have the
idle cranked
up and the mixture screwed up to work around this problem so that it won't
stall on startup, but god knows what is happening with the RPM during
constant
throttle.

I explained to him that it was suicide to ride this bike as you didn't
know if it was
going to suddenly accellerate or else drop RPM and die on you in the middle
of the highway, but it is not setting in with them. He just keeps saying
they're
fiddling with the mixture.

Now they say the bike runs fine after warming up for 3 minutes. I am really
hesitant about getting back on this bike, as I don't want to die because the
throttle surged on me and these guys really don't seem to know what they
are doing.

The computer is not registering any sensor failures, but it sounds to me
like
a throttle position sensor problem, and this was also suggested by Ferraci
when I contacted them (there are Forza slipons and a Forza chip in the
bike).

I also had to mail the stock chip up to the dealer as they did not have any
996
chips in stock and could not do any diagnostics on my bike as a result.
Sounds
pretty lame for an outfit who will charge $1,800 for a 10k checkup. But
anyway.

What I am hoping is that someone here has had a similar problem or at least
can give me some hints on what I can do to find out how to fix this. The
bike
is dangerous to get on, and I got on once trusting that these guys gave me
something rideable instead of suicidal and don't want to do that again.

I'm thinking of calling Ducati North America to see if they can help. This
is
my second Ducati and I can't imagine buying a third if the dealers can't do
maintenance and release a bike. And trying to have a technical discussion
with their service people who (a) don't ride motorcycles and (b) don't know
even the basics about the product they are servicing, is frustrating
and fruitless.

Help!

Thanks,

- darcy

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