(FCE) Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST1300 - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Your experience with the FCE?

  • NO ISSUES: I have the FCE and am happy with it

    Votes: 51 68.0%

  • REPLACED: I had an FCE w/issues and it was replaced, no issues now

    Votes: 3 4.0%

  • EXTERNAL: I have an FCE w/issues but they ended up being something else

    Votes: 3 4.0%

  • OUTSTANDING: I have an FCE w/issues

    Votes: 11 14.7%

  • REPLACED: I had an FCE w/issues and it was replaced, still have issues

    Votes: 7 9.3%
  • Total voters
    75
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Have had mine in for several weeks and about 1,500 miles. It just does not feel like it has the get up and go. When the RPM's hit 4,500 it is like hitting a switch and she takes off. I even now know when she hits that RPM without looking. I need to change my air filter, but can not imagine it would cause something like that. I pulled mine just now and will see how it runs on my commute to work.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

I had this problem happening to my bike again this weekend. Beside what I've already posted, I've noted the following consistencies with the previous occurrences:

- The ambient air temperature has always been hot, at around or over 90 degrees.
- The bike had been ridden for a couple of hours and then it was turned off for about 30 ? 40 minutes.
- When the bike is restarted, the idle speed is a bit lower than normal but the motor is still fairly warm. Back riding again, I can feel right away the motor has lost its smoothness and the throttle on/off abruptness has reappeared, even more so than normal without the FCE.
- The motor feels struggling at around 3.5K-4K rpms and it gets stuck at around 4,200 rpms. Twisting the throttle after that point will take a couple of seconds before the motor responds again, dumping all the throttle at once.
- Turning the motor off/on seems to cure the problem for the duration that the motor is running. As soon as it is safe to do so and without stopping the bike, now I just quickly pull in the clutch, turn the kill switch on and off, hit the starter button, and then release the clutch.

The FCE I currently have installed is one of the latest units. It does seem that a correlation exists between the FCE surging and hot air temps. I'll continue to experiment and see if I can prevent the problem from happening at all under the conditions listed above (I guess I could briefly start and then restart the bike before getting back on).
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Sounds to me like the system is getting leaner with the FCE. It shows up as a bad thing when the motor is hot and running it's leanest. Maybe the Honda system is trying to lean out more as the FCE is trying to force it to run richer.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

STPaulK said:
Sounds to me like the system is getting leaner with the FCE. It shows up as a bad thing when the motor is hot and running it's leanest. Maybe the Honda system is trying to lean out more as the FCE is trying to force it to run richer.
Click to expand...

That's my guess as well... perhaps there's a bit of heat soak on some of the sensors when the bike is stopped for a short time that's forcing the ECU to overcompensate.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

trek2120 said:
OttawaST: Where exactly is yours located? Mine should arrive in the next day or so. I'm hoping to install it before a trip to Knoxville this weekend. I plan to install mine so that I can experiement with placement in case there's a heat related problem.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I installed it at the ECU as stated in the instructions. The 2 harnesses coming out of the FCE are long enough that I was able to secure it under the elastic strap that holds the ECU and ABS modules in place. I agree with the other poster that stated that the rear compartment isn't a high heat area, it is just that the unit seemed to act up when the ambient temp. was very high. Hope this helps.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

I eagerly await the results of an testing Ivan plans to do... I'm hesitant to install mine now....
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

After taking mine out last night, rode the bike into work this morning. Big difference in power. Once again, she wants to go. Not struggling like it was. I could once again roll the throttle on at 3,500 rpm and she takes off. Temp was in the mid 50's to mid 60's for most of the ride.

Going to call Ivan and see about getting a different one. I bought this about 3 weeks ago.

-Mark
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

I think I'll hold off installing mine until Ivan gets a chance to work through it. I'd love to see a spreadsheet of all of the FCE's installed and the year of each bike they're installed in. I know that the manufacturers tell everyone that no changes have been made, but I'm wondering if any changes have been made to the ECU that may allow the FCE to work perfect on some ST's and not others.

Just a thought...
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

OttawaST said:
I installed it at the ECU as stated in the instructions. The 2 harnesses coming out of the FCE are long enough that I was able to secure it under the elastic strap that holds the ECU and ABS modules in place. I agree with the other poster that stated that the rear compartment isn't a high heat area, it is just that the unit seemed to act up when the ambient temp. was very high. Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

This is the way I have installed mine also. I have some left over bubble wrap heat insulation material that I have used under the tank. I'll wrap the FCE with some of this stuff and see if it'll make any difference.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

At most the FCE is a simple network of passive resistors that modify/bias the O2 sensor voltages. Resistors are generally not overly sensitive to environmental temps unless damaged during original assembly -- but it's easy enough to get them too hot when soldering if you aren't experienced with discrete electronics.

So wrapping the FCE should have little effect on how it works unless it is already defective.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

I had the FCE installed for about a week then started experiencing the 3500-4200 problem described here. Cycling power always cured the problem. I am at 620 ft and it has been cool. I called Ivan and he said there was a design change that solved the issue. I have now installed a replacement. Time will tell if it is really fixed.

I did notice that it did not make as much of a change as I thought when I was testing it with and without the FCE installed. After having the reliability problem, and hearing that many others have also, I'm sorry I cut into my harness. BTW the problem happened to me once in a corner and got a bit nasty.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Do the FCE's have serial numbers so that we can tell if we have one of the "fixed" versions?
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

No serial number or date that I could see. Not sure if his sales records would have some way of telling.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Hmmmm, I was about to pull the trigger on one of these but I'm thinking I'll wait this out a bit and see what develops. It does sound like the Honda ECU is trying to compensate for the FCE and bring the settings back into its programmed range.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

As far as I can tell, mine has been flawless in 3k miles. Mostly temps above 80 and a few into the 100s.

I'll take some tools with me on my upcoming trip so I can take it off if it starts acting up but so far it's been great.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Thought I would throw out some more grist for the mill... :confused:

I removed my FCE over the weekend and took the bike for another ride with it in virgin condition, e.g. stock FPR, no FCE. Well I'll be darned if it isn't doing the same very rough running in the 4-5K range that it was doing all the time I had the FCE installed. Now I'm really confused and dissappointed. :banghead:

I'm really not sure now if my problems were from the FCE or something else. In virgin mode, it now runs just as described elsewhere here: sort of smooth up to about 3-4-5K then all of a sudden starts running as if only two plugs are firing and there's water in the gas. It will run like this until I get just over 5K then the more the throttle is twisted, the more nothing happens until all of a sudden it catches and just leaps ahead and nearly jerks your arms out of the sockets.:22yikes:

I've been asking some of the local ST guys for advice and it sounds like maybe I've got a vacuum leak or bad spark plug wire. I've checked the plugs themselves and they look fine. I've run numerous tanks of gas through, some with some Techron mixed in just in case it was bad gas, etc. I'll be digging around for the next few days and if/when I find out what's going on, I'll update here. But I'm thinking I may have a whole different problem on my hands now than the FCE and if that's the case then I owe Ivan an apology for even insinuating that the FCE is involved.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

I have put about 750-800 miles on my recently installed FCE. I have experienced much improvement as I described in an earlier post.


We certainly are hearing from folks with issues with the FCE. Are there any others out there who have installed the FCE and have seen sustained improvement without the regression in performance? Please post your experience.

Not scientific, but would be interesting to see if other people besides Mellow with thousands of miles on an FCE remain issue free.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

You might want to take a look at the plug wire where the pin was loose, those pins are there to stop arcing and if they come loose the spark can eat away at the core enough that the spark has to jump which just causes more arcing and burn back, you have to physically look at the end of the wire to see it, maybe even snip a little off to check if the core is still fully intact, it can drive you nuts finding it because you can see it.
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

You guys have me all confused. I bought my 2004 ST two months ago and the PO had already installed a 58 or 60 psi fpr and a K&N air filter. I have never noticed any of these flat spots or poor performance issues mentioned in this thread. In fact this is my first fuel-injected bike I have ever owned and it doesn't feel much different from my carbed 1300 VTX. It sounds like the aftermarket fpr is doing its job. Does the aftermarket fpr and better breathing air filter do basically the same thing as the FCE?
 
Re: Fuel Cut Eliminator for ST - On-Off Throttle Issue Resolved

Posted via Mobile DeviceI have about 10K miles with the FCE and it continues to work great. I have ridden in hot conditions up to 100 degrees.
 
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