Monster intermittently loses power around 4500rpm, check engine light comes on

[MarioJC1]

Hello All,
My Monster 696 has been running poorly for a few hundred miles. There are alot of symptoms, sometimes it will run fine during a ride, then a few minutes later it will feel like although I am giving it throttle the engine doesn't rev at all. This seems to happen at about 4000-4500 RPM. After that happens it runs rough, backfires and tends to stall at lights. I have to advance the idle lever to idle faster when this happens and even when pulling away from the light, it seems to lose power after a short distance. Very strange and it's making her extremely un-enjoyable to ride.
I took it in to my local mechanic here in the Chicago area last fall for these issues, they took my money and said all was fine, on my way home the issues kept happening. I thought it was maybe bad tank of gas so I called them back and they immediately went into a sales pitch about aftermarket exhausts clearing up many issues with these bikes. Before I spend the money for a termignoni or even go back to them again I would like to have a little more knowledge under my belt so any help would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone else had this problem??? I have approx 3000 miles on her and she's out of warranty. Before this happened she ran like a champ.
Thanks Guys!

[Raux]

is this a used bike that you got?

If so, take it to a Ducati dealer for warranty work.
There's a crossed wire that caused this issue for many. and it's a service bulletin so they should at least check it if not do the work.

[MarioJC1]

Nope, I bought her brand new in 2008 and she ran great up until last fall, I took it in to the dealership I bought from and they told me that the bike was fine, charged me for the mechanics time (warranty was up in August of 2011) and it immediately happened again. If there were a crossed wire I would imagine it would have run this way from the start correct? This issue didn't happen until I got to about 2900 miles on the odometer. I was hoping it was a tank of bad gas so I filled her up with fresh gas and stored it for the winter, when I was riding her home last week the same thing started happening again.

[Raux]

Not sure if riddn it enough to feel it




seriuosly have the coil wires checked

[Howie]

If this problem is happening after a period of riding you might have a venting issue.  If opening the fuel cap temporarily fixes the problem the fuel tank is vent hose is probably pinched or clogged.  Also, is the charcoal canister still on the bike? 

I also wouldn't rule out bad gas or a clogged fuel filter.  Drain the tank into a clean (if you can, clear) container.  Contaminants will settle to the bottom.

[MarioJC1]

Made the appt with my mechanic for this saturday. He is aware of the coil issue and will look at it. Howie- After my initial thought of "just a bad tank of gas" I filled up just before getting to my buddies place to store it for the winter and the problem seemed to disappear, but just like you mentioned it was back again when I rode her home for the first time this past weekend! Thanks for the tip, I will bring up these suggestions to them on saturday. BTW, yes charcoal canister is still on the bike, I haven't done anything to her except new mirrors and rear fender.

[MarioJC1]

So I just got her back last week. Seems the problem was a bit larger than crossed wires or bad gas. Apparently the tech seems to think that on overseas shipments Ducati adds some type of alcohol to the gas tank and that over time this may have caused some type of sediment or "gray sludge" as he referred to it, to build up inside the passages under the throttle body leading to the MAP sensor. This caused the electronics to receive wrong signals fromt he engine and made it run extremely rich. Fortunately there was no damage to the engine, unfortunately it took them a long time to figure out the problem (just over 2 months and 18+ hours of tech time).
So if anyone else is having the symptoms I had, please run this scenario by your technician and save yourself alot of time and headaches!
Thanks for all of the input from those who responded.

[ducpainter]

Where are you in the world?

Do you have ethanol fuel?

I really doubt Ducati adds alcohol to the tank as it's well known alcohol causes problems with the nylon tanks.

[MarioJC1]

Chicago
I always use 93 octane gasoline and try to buy from the more well known brands, Shell, Amoco etc. Ethanol is available at some gas stations for the flex fuel vehicles but i've only used premium gasoline.
Thought it sounded strange myself, I don't know if he was just throwing anything against the wall and seeing what sticks but that's what I remember him telling me. Seemed odd that it took 3 years for the problem to arise but I wasn't in a  position to argue, my bike was out of warranty and I could have been on the hook for almost $1900 in repairs when they only charged $450 since I bought it from them.

[ducpainter]

The premium fuel is probably E-10.

Flex fuel vehicles can run E-85.

I believe what he saw was a mixture of ethanol and water.

It accumulates over time. Did he drain the fuel system?

[needtorque]

Just an aside. Assume ALL gas has at least 10% ethanol in it unless it is stated otherwise.  Search the following link for stations in you area that offer ethanol free gasoline.

http://pure-gas.org/

DO NOT fill your tank just before winter and then park it. EMPTY the tank and then park it for the winter. Fuel that sits over the length of a Chicago winter, especially ethanol fuels, will destroy rubber lines and plastic tanks and will also separate and make the bike run like shit if it runs at all.

[kokis]

seems like bad gasoline problem. Had the same issue.

[MarioJC1]

What type of fuel do you run? what would you suggest? Seems my options are limited if they are just adding ethanol to gas???
He didn't say if they drained it, and I didn't see it on the work order but I'm more concerned with it accumulating over time- you're saying this is bound to happen again to me and pretty much everyone else who is stuck having to use gas that may have ethanol blended in?
Just saw your second post- for the past three years (on the advice of the salesman) I have been filling my tank and adding STA-BIL to it.

[MarioJC1]

Fantastic, seems there are NO gas stations anywhere near me that sell ethanol free gas...
How is it that this issue isn't blowing up the forums or that my dealer didn't mention it?

[needtorque]

Fortunately for me I have 2 ethanol free stations in the town I live in. If I am out and about and have no choice I will use a 10% ethanol fuel (premium) and ASAP run through it and put ethanol free back into it before parking it.  The Best practice for winter in the north (I used to live in Michigan) is to drain the tank completely before parking the bike.