Immobilizer? ---- Will

[DRKWNG]

Yea, replacing/repairing body panels on those things is BIG BUCKS!  That's why I stayed away from the 996 that I wanted to buy when I first moved here.  Over a thousand dollars just for the right side fairing and controls!!   

[MadDuck]

That thought rarely leaves my mind when I throw the 999 into a turn. Actually I should say when I used to throw it into a turn.

[DRKWNG]

Tell me about it.  I thought I was going to lay the Daytona down coming down my street the day I got it.  That thing litterally falls with such minimal "english".  The thought of replacing body panels on a brand new bike sent the pucker factor to astronomical heights!!

[MadDuck]

The first thing to do, absolutely the first and most basic thing is to make sure you have a good battery and the charging system is working properly. I'm not kidding. Your problem sounds like that. The immobilizer is usually not an intermittent problem. Far too many people overlook or discount the battery/charging system. The fact that your sweep is half-assed at times leads me to suspect low charge.

The keys do have chips in them but that is almost never the problem. The dash recognizes the key and unlocks the ECU to start & run.

Start with the battery. At least check battery voltage with a digital voltmeter when this is happening. If it's dropping below 11 volts when you switch on the ignition this could be the whole cause.

[DRKWNG]

Waiting to hear what developed down at South Seas today...
 

[MadDuck]

Ivan had the day off.

Arlen tried to be helpful and told me they are still waiting for the dash and the ECU.

That's it so far.

[DRKWNG]

Arlen tried to be helpful and told me they are still waiting for the dash and the ECU.

That's very helpful of him. 

[MadDuck]

In all fairness to Alan, he just reported what he could figure out. There's no way he is going to be on top of every little detail of every job that is in the shop and especially one where there is more going on than the standard Ducati twists and turns.

The situation is going about as nicely as it could.

South Seas is handling this as good as anyone, and perhaps even better than most. The major bug-a-boo variable in this whole mess is Ducati itself. They can be great bikes when they are working (given enough modifications and tweaking) but if they stop working then watch out.

[DRKWNG]

So...?

[MadDuck]

So...?

Stay tuned.  It turned out that the most cost effective solution (so far) is to go with the factory parts. The ECU turned up this week.  Soon, maybe......

[WillS]

got your call, plan on finishing it monday.
my house computer is out of wack, just using a friends.
thank you for you understanding

[MadDuck]

Thank you Will.

[MadDuck]

Just for the purposes of good thread closure this is how things finished up.  The bike needed a new dash. That wasn't the end of it. Once it got the new dash it wouldn't recognize the key. This bike had the DP Termignoni full exhaust & DP ECU installed way back when it was new. It turned out that the red key had it's chip removed so it would work with the original ECU that was most likely sold off. (Will's theory). Will had a spare chip that he installed into the red key (saving me the cost of having to buy new keys and ignition switch -- thanks again, Will) --- So we had a new dash and key but the ECU was coded to the original red key chip and once coded that's it. It wants the original chip. So we needed to get a new DP Performance ECU. Waited weeks again for that but finally got it in and everything coded together. The bike now starts like it's supposed to and runs like a champ (which it always did, hey it runs even a bit better now that the throttle bodies were set).  It costed lots of $$$$.

If I had a crystal ball and could have seen how things were going to work out I would have gone a different route. That's unknown too and who knows how that would have turned out. No one could have seen how all this was going to turn out. My plan B was to get a Nemesis aftermarket race ECU (still made by Marelli) that would bypass the immobilizer function. However it cost more than the dash and at first we thought we only needed the dash (there was no way we could know about the key chip issue until we had a dash that could "see" the key. The Nemesis comes with some maps and you can also dyno tune and custom create your own maps so it would take some time & money to sort it out. There was another kicker though.

Ducati (not the dealer but corporate Ducati) has a huge penalty percentage part return charge once the parts have been ordered. 20% of the retail price. If the return charge dollar ding were added to the price of tuning the Nemesis there wouldn't have been much of a cost differential between that and staying with the factory setup. That and the guys down at South Seas helped me out a bit so all was good. It's just goofed up that Ducati used the "Red" key marker to unlock & lock the ECU during that production time. Now it's different, there are no more red keys and the Mathesis can use the regular keys to get in and out of the ECU.

[MadDuck]

SaltLick ---- how did your bike turn out? What was the deal with it?

[MadDuck]

  I have it sort of figured out, my bike doesnt like it when you put the key in and leave it in for any amount of time without starting the bike. I have had luck with putting the key in and immediatly starting it. Likewise when i stop the bike first thing i do is take the key out (if i run into the store) No problems when i do that. Problems come in say if i sit on my bike, put the key in, then put my helmet on gloves on put it in neutral and try to start it. Or if i leave the key in to take a smoke break on the side of the road. Definite no no.

That is very strange.