ZX12 with nasty cough
ZX12 with nasty cough
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the pits

Original Poster:

4,290 posts

263 months

Wednesday 8th February 2006
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Coming back from Paris to London last November my (yr2000) ZX12 had a nasty cough at high speed. The engine just cut out momentarily but it was enough to make me slow down and check the bike over at a service station. I topped up with oil and couldn't find anything wrong so proceeded slowly.

It got worse and worse coughing more and more regularly but it still limped all the way home back to London. Wierd but I do like make use of the bike's titanic performance so wouldn't consider riding it again until it's fixed.

I was hoping some other riders would be able to shed some light on this. It's currently at dyno specialists having it's brain looked at (they said it was too late for my brain). Typically they can't find much wrong with it.

The bike has a full akropovic titanium system and a power commander 3. Were it not for this wierd glitch I'd recommend this mod to anyone. It's spectacularly quick and sounds ripping, complete with blue flames on the over run!

The only other thing that went wrong was it's datatool evo alarm/immobiliser. It just wouldn't de immobilise one day, never happened again. I changed the battery in the plipper but it made no difference. Has anyone else had problems caused by alarm systems freaking out?

Any help much appreciated even if it's a good Kawasaki forum you can recommend.

If I can get it fixed I'll look forward to many more years of epic, thrilling riding. The bike is so good I used to have a GSXR 1000 as well. Needing to part with one of them, I took them both to Silverstone and decided to part with whichever was slower over a lap. With me on it the ZX12 was definitely the quicker bike! It was pulling 165 down Hangar straight compared to the gixer's 155! Simply Awesome!

speed8

5,116 posts

296 months

Wednesday 8th February 2006
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Don't know about the cough problem but the alarm....
The Datatools seem to be quite sensitive to any radio masts around. I parked up in services in France and ended up having to wheel it round the back of the garage, alarm blaring, before the plipper would work again. I won't be making that mistake again.

desmo

144 posts

243 months

Wednesday 8th February 2006
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If it's 5 years old, are you sure it's not something simple like a ignition coil, spark plug or HT lead braking down. What about fuel starvation? is the tank breather blocked?
best of luck, desmo.

rsvmilly

11,288 posts

264 months

Thursday 9th February 2006
quotequote all
the pits said:
The only other thing that went wrong was it's datatool evo alarm/immobiliser. It just wouldn't de immobilise one day, never happened again. I changed the battery in the plipper but it made no difference. Has anyone else had problems caused by alarm systems freaking out?


My System 3 alarm wouldn't always de immobilise. I thought it was the battery so used to get bump started (which often didn't work because it was immobilised!!!). Also, after a run, if you kill-switched the engine but didn't turn the ignition off and you then tried to restart it, it sometimes would become immibilised!

Bloody annoying. The other two Datatool alarms I've had have been excellent.

the pits

Original Poster:

4,290 posts

263 months

Thursday 9th February 2006
quotequote all
Thanks for all the replies,

Did you have to fit a new alarm? Maybe it's worth getting a new one.

But it's knocked my confidence a bit given the speeds the thing is capable of reaching and given I'm just waiting for an excuse to trade it in for the delicious new ZX10R, so if they can't find the problem it might be out on it's arse!

rsvmilly

11,288 posts

264 months

Thursday 9th February 2006
quotequote all
the pits said:
Thanks for all the replies,

Did you have to fit a new alarm? Maybe it's worth getting a new one.
When I twigged what was at fault I just learned to work around it. Didn't stop me taking the bike to France a couple of times later.

dern

14,055 posts

302 months

Thursday 9th February 2006
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Is it carbed or fuel-injected?

the pits

Original Poster:

4,290 posts

263 months

Thursday 9th February 2006
quotequote all
All ZX12's are injected. As mentioned mine's got a power commander 3 connected to it's ecu which really smooths the throttle out which is probably necessary on an early injected bike. It also gets the fuelling right for the naughty exhaust and ups the bhp quite a bit. My bike read over 180bhp at the back wheel, which is what the standard bike reads at the crank!

DennisTheMenace

15,605 posts

291 months

Thursday 9th February 2006
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It could be a coil pack on its way out , also try it without the power commander .