CBR troubles

**Hurrie** · 28th September 2010, 22:50

Hey I've got a couple of problems with my CBR 250 hopefully someone on here can help.

Firstly, when i ride around town for about 10mins it gets hot (about 3/4 of my temp gauge) and thats on a winters day. and when it does that it just dies everytime i stop at a traffic light unless i give it a little gas to keep the rpm up than it will stay fine on idle.

Secondly, when i warm it up for a couple of mins and take it for a ride, there's an odd ticking sound coming from somewhere in the engine. it is even more noticable if i'm on low rpm's while just cruising and than i give it gas and the ticking sound just increases with the rpm.

Not sure if those two problems are linked or not, but any help or ideas would be appreciated.

**ducatilover** · 28th September 2010, 23:28

How many KM has it done? Has it had the valve clearances checked? (Ticking noise) and when was it's last oil/filter change?
If it has over heated check the oil colour, any condensation on the oil cap or in the oil? Will be a milky colour.
Is your electric fan working?
Are both sides of the radiator and both hoses warming up evenly?
When was the last coolant change?

**Hurrie** · 29th September 2010, 00:34

Originally Posted by ducatilover

How many KM has it done? Has it had the valve clearances checked? (Ticking noise) and when was it's last oil/filter change?
If it has over heated check the oil colour, any condensation on the oil cap or in the oil? Will be a milky colour.
Is your electric fan working?
Are both sides of the radiator and both hoses warming up evenly?
When was the last coolant change?

its only done 26000km no idea when the valve clearances have been checked, last oil and filter change was about 4000km ago and changed the oil about a month ago. oil colour looks normal.
i'm not really sure if the fan is working but right now my guess is that my battery is too weak (headlights flicker with indicaters and brake lights) so im guessing that when the fan needs to get turned on my battery just dies as soon the bike stops moving.
i havnt check the radiater hoses but i will when i go into town tomorrow and i have no idea when the last coolant change was. but im planning on doing that at some stage soon.
Thanks for the tips

**Hurrie** · 29th September 2010, 00:35

Originally Posted by ducatilover

How many KM has it done? Has it had the valve clearances checked? (Ticking noise) and when was it's last oil/filter change?
If it has over heated check the oil colour, any condensation on the oil cap or in the oil? Will be a milky colour.
Is your electric fan working?
Are both sides of the radiator and both hoses warming up evenly?
When was the last coolant change?

its only done 26000km no idea when the valve clearances have been checked, last oil and filter change was about 4000km ago and changed the oil about a month ago. oil colour looks normal.
i'm not really sure if the fan is working but right now my guess is that my battery is too weak (headlights flicker with indicaters and brake lights) so im guessing that when the fan needs to get turned on my battery just dies as soon the bike stops moving.
i havnt check the radiater hoses but i will when i go into town tomorrow and i have no idea when the last coolant change was. but im planning on doing that at some stage soon.
Thanks for the tips

**ducatilover** · 29th September 2010, 01:19

Originally Posted by Hurrie

its only done 26000km no idea when the valve clearances have been checked, last oil and filter change was about 4000km ago and changed the oil about a month ago. oil colour looks normal.
i'm not really sure if the fan is working but right now my guess is that my battery is too weak (headlights flicker with indicaters and brake lights) so im guessing that when the fan needs to get turned on my battery just dies as soon the bike stops moving.
i havnt check the radiater hoses but i will when i go into town tomorrow and i have no idea when the last coolant change was. but im planning on doing that at some stage soon.
Thanks for the tips

Try a wire from the temp sensor wire on the left hand side of the radiator [from memory] to an earth, radiator mount will do. This will hard wire the fan. [After warming the bike up and listening for the fan]
Get somebody to check if the battery is okay or if it is the charging system itself, could be regulator/rec problems with flickering lights etc.

**imdying** · 29th September 2010, 10:27

Just keep changing the oil and rape it till it dies. Should you upgrade before that, and it's still good enough to sell, consider it a bonus

Wind the idle up a little if it stalls. You could test the temperature gauge with some boiling water and a thermometer, to see if there's actually anything to worry about with the temp.

(in other words, just ride it and hope for the best... if there actually was something wrong, it probably wouldnt' be cheap to fix, but it's likely that it's just old and rattly)

**SMOKEU** · 29th September 2010, 10:37

It should idle at around 1,500RPM when warm. The idle adjust screw is on the left side of the bike and you don't even have to unbolt anything to get to it.

**Hurrie** · 29th September 2010, 10:43

Originally Posted by imdying

Just keep changing the oil and rape it till it dies. Should you upgrade before that, and it's still good enough to sell, consider it a bonus

Wind the idle up a little if it stalls. You could test the temperature gauge with some boiling water and a thermometer, to see if there's actually anything to worry about with the temp.

(in other words, just ride it and hope for the best... if there actually was something wrong, it probably wouldnt' be cheap to fix, but it's likely that it's just old and rattly)

lol but thats just a waste of a really tidy bike thats been well taken care of!!

Originally Posted by SMOKEU

It should idle at around 1,500RPM when warm. The idle adjust screw is on the left side of the bike and you don't even have to unbolt anything to get to it.

yeap not really an idle rpm problem though, like when it heats up and i slow down to stop at the traffic light the rpm will just drop to 0 unless i give it a little throttle than it will just stay at 1500rpm

Originally Posted by ducatilover

Try a wire from the temp sensor wire on the left hand side of the radiator [from memory] to an earth, radiator mount will do. This will hard wire the fan. [After warming the bike up and listening for the fan]
Get somebody to check if the battery is okay or if it is the charging system itself, could be regulator/rec problems with flickering lights etc.

i'm trying to find the temp sensor but i just cant, on my old cbr it was on the left side but on this one i just can't spot it, will take the fairings off and check the coolant and try and look for that wire

**Hurrie** · 29th September 2010, 10:45

The ticking sound almost sounds like the spark cap isnt on properly and its just ticking away.

**Gibbo89** · 29th September 2010, 12:03

Originally Posted by Hurrie

lol but thats just a waste of a really tidy bike thats been well taken care of!!

yeah ignore his comment. that was fucking retarded. it's your pride and joy and should run how you want it to/ has done in the past.

**imdying** · 29th September 2010, 12:19

Originally Posted by Hurrie

lol but thats just a waste of a really tidy bike thats been well taken care of!!

Riding a bike is not wasting it, it's what it's designed for. The temperature you will need to double check, it's quite possible the gauge is putting you on a wild goose chase. Winding up the idle a little will cost you nothing.

I'm saying ignore rattles, that's 20 year old 250s for you. If the top end was rooted, you might have to drop a thousand dollars into what, a 2 or 3 thousand dollar bike, to fix it? Screw that, ignore it, rape it like it wants to be done, and save your money for your next bike. Even it rattles, you'll still be able to sell it... someone will buy it, you did...

/edit: I have a mate who is local to you, he has 2 or 3 of these (MC19s) if you get totally stuck

**Hurrie** · 29th September 2010, 12:32

Originally Posted by imdying

Riding a bike is not wasting it, it's what it's designed for. The temperature you will need to double check, it's quite possible the gauge is putting you on a wild goose chase. Winding up the idle a little will cost you nothing.

yeah but what if its just a minor problem? and if i leave it would just get worse? and like i said above its not the idle problem.

Originally Posted by ducatilover

Try a wire from the temp sensor wire on the left hand side of the radiator [from memory] to an earth, radiator mount will do. This will hard wire the fan. [After warming the bike up and listening for the fan]
Get somebody to check if the battery is okay or if it is the charging system itself, could be regulator/rec problems with flickering lights etc.

alright so i'm electricaly challenge so im not sure if what i did is what you meant. i turned the bike on and i took a wire from what i think is the temp sensor (cable attached to the front of the radiator) and than touched the other end to the frame of the bike and nothing happened. did you mean that i should get it warmed up to the point of almost overheating?

coolant is at the normal level however when i took out the drain bolt to drain out a little bit of the coolant, only 2 drops came out. does that mean i have a blockage? and both sides of the radiator are pretty evenly warm.

and it sounds like the ticking sound might be coming from one of the spark plugs or (maybe its the normal cbr sound and im just going crazy?

) so ill take the sparks out over the weekend and have a looksie

**imdying** · 29th September 2010, 12:48

Originally Posted by Hurrie

yeah but what if its just a minor problem? and if i leave it would just get worse? and like i said above its not the idle problem.

That's a potential risk of course, but on your own bike you'll notice when things change (a funny noise, a new rattle), so it's not like you're just blindly going to ignore everything. A bit of a rattle isn't uncommon on something so old and easy to thrash.

Whilst you have the tank off, check the valve clearances... the valves are right by the spark plugs, and will rattle it they're out of spec. Once you have the clearance measurements, you can find out how much they're out by, and make an informed decision on whether to do anything about it. Each valve head is the size of a 5 cent piece on something like that, and there's 16 of them, so if they've hammered the seats in the head to death, it's an expensive job to fix.

**ducatilover** · 29th September 2010, 13:27

Originally Posted by Hurrie

alright so i'm electricaly challenge so im not sure if what i did is what you meant. i turned the bike on and i took a wire from what i think is the temp sensor (cable attached to the front of the radiator) and than touched the other end to the frame of the bike and nothing happened. did you mean that i should get it warmed up to the point of almost overheating?

coolant is at the normal level however when i took out the drain bolt to drain out a little bit of the coolant, only 2 drops came out. does that mean i have a blockage? and both sides of the radiator are pretty evenly warm.

and it sounds like the ticking sound might be coming from one of the spark plugs or (maybe its the normal cbr sound and im just going crazy?

) so ill take the sparks out over the weekend and have a looksie

You should be okay if the radiator is evenly warm in terms of blockages, but even so it may pay to give the whole system a good flush.

With the thermoswitch wire, run a wire from the plug to an earth, try it with it connected to the thermoswitch (If you know what I mean?) It all depends if the switch is "open" when cold or "closed" when cold. Either way you should get the fan to run.
I'll google some info and see what I can find, the revs dying when hot is typical on a smaller bike, my spada was doing that on long trip before I found a few tiny blockages in the radiator....

**Hurrie** · 29th September 2010, 13:35

Originally Posted by ducatilover

You should be okay if the radiator is evenly warm in terms of blockages, but even so it may pay to give the whole system a good flush.

With the thermoswitch wire, run a wire from the plug to an earth, try it with it connected to the thermoswitch (If you know what I mean?) It all depends if the switch is "open" when cold or "closed" when cold. Either way you should get the fan to run.
I'll google some info and see what I can find, the revs dying when hot is typical on a smaller bike, my spada was doing that on long trip before I found a few tiny blockages in the radiator....

fan works fine although i saw some sparks

so i probably wasnt connecting it right. thing is the temp gauge doesnt get to to red zone just abou 3 quarters of the way there