Difficulty starting new Monster 796

[TakeItEasyMon]

Brand-new bike, I thought everything was great and was having a fantastic time. 

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulty starting the bike about 50% of the time.  Key On, hear the fuel injector, ignition switch to 'on' and press the starter.  Engine will turn once or twice but not start.

A few minutes later after some frustration I'll get lucky and it will catch. 

I can't figure out any rhyme or reason for this, not changing my routine or doing anything different (that I can tell) as part of the procedure.  This has happened after the bike has been off overnight, after riding for an hour and trying to restart to head home after a break, etc.

First occurrence was a few days ago, got caught in the rain while out and had a good 30 min of rain driving, couldn't get it restarted after a brief stop at the gas station.

I hope I'm just doing something silly and there is nothing wrong with the bike... any ideas?

[Artful]

I'm sure it's something electrical and you COULD chase it down... BUT you paid for a warranty, put the dealership to work.

[TakeItEasyMon]

Unfortunately the dealership is three hours away. I need to look into specifics, if my local shop can get credited by Ducati then it should be all good.

It's just extremely frustrating hearing the engine turn and not catch on a brand-new bike.

[Howie]

Is the starter spinning at normal speed?  Battery fully charged?

[TakeItEasyMon]

Everything 'sounds' normal, as in there's no audible difference between when it catches and when it doesn't.

Looks to be full charge, and does not sound struggling like when trying to turn over a weak car battery.

[DucatiTorrey]

I'm sure it's something electrical and you COULD chase it down... BUT you paid for a warranty, put the dealership to work.

+1 worth the trip

[Raux]

does the 796 use the stepper motor of the 1100 or the idle speed lever of the 696?

if the latter, try pulling the lever down at least half way on all starts.

if the former, dealer

[DarkStaR]

Check/clean the connectors at the battery....Unfortunatley I think that's not easy to do on the 696/796/1100...

Check/clean the engine grounds.

[jchurch]

Brand-new bike, I thought everything was great and was having a fantastic time. 

Unfortunately I'm having some difficulty starting the bike about 50% of the time.  Key On, hear the fuel injector, ignition switch to 'on' and press the starter.  Engine will turn once or twice but not start.

A few minutes later after some frustration I'll get lucky and it will catch. 

I can't figure out any rhyme or reason for this, not changing my routine or doing anything different (that I can tell) as part of the procedure.  This has happened after the bike has been off overnight, after riding for an hour and trying to restart to head home after a break, etc.

First occurrence was a few days ago, got caught in the rain while out and had a good 30 min of rain driving, couldn't get it restarted after a brief stop at the gas station.

I hope I'm just doing something silly and there is nothing wrong with the bike... any ideas?

If you search around on the net or even through this forum you will see that it was a common issue for people with both 696/1100's in the first 1000kms/600miles roughly.

I personally had this annoying issue but it was very intermittent at first.... The issue went away for me around the 1000km service mark and others who have had this issue seem to agree as well.

Recently however which may shed some further light I had a new issue. The bike was on about 4000-4500kms. I had an issue intermittently where when I put my kick stand down the gear indicator on the dash would disappear and as such I could not start the bike e.g. bike thinking it was in gear. To rectify this I would then shake the bike slightly and gear indicator would show back on the dash and I could then start the bike and away I went. I took this to the dealer who replaced the stand sensor (as you would think that was the issue) however it was NOT. I then took it back and after speaking to the mechanic himself it was found to be a connector in the middle/right hand side of the bike.... once replaced I never had the issue again......

After this however I came to ponder if my original starting issues was this connector possibly on its way out/faulty from the beginning? Food for thought anyways.

[ChrisH]

The 796 does not have the fast idle lever.

My 2010 696 with almost 5k miles is a pregnant dog to start too, especially if there is a temperature swing of 20 degrees. I have a feeling that this is just a symptom of the ecu used since it's seems so rampant.

Goo luck!

[blitzkraig]

My '09 1100 was really bad about this for awhile.   I usually did it after sitting at least 8 hours.  It would always crank normally, and would fire just enough to keep my interest and thumb on the starter, but would crank and crank but not actually run.  I found that if it didn't start right away, I would turn off the ignition key and count to 12.  Turn the key on and try again and would always start right away.   I took it to my dealer once, and talked with them several times, but could not find a problem or duplicate my complaint.   All this was up until about 7500 miles.  At that time I adjusted the valves (one exhaust was a little loose), tensioned the belts, new spark plugs, and a new Shorai battery (OEM seemed to be fine, I just wanted a lighter one).  Since all of that (about 1500 miles) it's done it to me only once.  It was a very common problem before.  It  does crank over more quickly now.  I never had any battery complaints before, so I don't know if that had anything to do with it, but the cranking speed increase is noticeable.  It also has the DP ecu and termi slip ons on since about 500 miles.
I guess what I'm saying is "Good Luck!"

[wannabfast]

mine does not fire right away anymore, i think its an issue with the battery, as when i leave it on the trickle charger overnight, it fires right up in the morning, but if i leave it for more than a few days(for shame as it has been raining) it doesnt want to start for like 30 seconds or so, i usually wait until the startup sequence on the display has completed and is in the odometer screen before i crank it, it cranks, but doesnt kick over, but once in a while it does, then i crack the throttle a little while cranking and it sputters for a second, im going to take it back to the dealer maybe next week when it warms up a little

[ductech31]

Last post is a solution that Ducati has had for the 696.  If it doesn't fire right away, turn key off and wait about 10-15 secs.  What is happening is the ECU is remembering what the bike was at when key off last time and its trying to start with the old values, engine temp, air temp etc.  By turning key off it's learning the new info and changing all the parameter to current and letting the bike start correctly. 

One other possible explaination is the newer style monsters use adaptive values for the ecu info, so if the bike was run with low quality gas, possible before you bought it, and these values were not reset on PDI at your dealership they could be causing issues too.

If your taking your bike back to the dealer for 600 mile service, ask them to reset these values when they shut off your service light.

[TakeItEasyMon]

Last post is a solution that Ducati has had for the 696.  If it doesn't fire right away, turn key off and wait about 10-15 secs.  What is happening is the ECU is remembering what the bike was at when key off last time and its trying to start with the old values, engine temp, air temp etc.  By turning key off it's learning the new info and changing all the parameter to current and letting the bike start correctly. 

One other possible explaination is the newer style monsters use adaptive values for the ecu info, so if the bike was run with low quality gas, possible before you bought it, and these values were not reset on PDI at your dealership they could be causing issues too.

If your taking your bike back to the dealer for 600 mile service, ask them to reset these values when they shut off your service light.

Thanks for all of your suggestions!

I'm still on that first tank of gas so that might be a possibility. 

Turning back off after failed start and letting it sit for 10-15 seconds before i try again seems to work after a few attempts.

When i get to 600 m service will definitely bring up the ecu to my local mechanic...

[jchurch]

In the meantime mate just put key in then turn on and let it scroll the entire screen first then once its done that push and hold the starter in slightly longer , I found that helped heaps as not waiting too long and pushing the button too quickly would almost always cause the problem too....