Guys - I would be willing to build anyone an "ERUPTION!!!" free of charge. Just send me: - the correct 8 thermisters (Digi-Key is a great place to get them) - an IAT - and a box or padded envelope with return postage (ask them at UPS, Fed Ex or USPS how to do this) I will supply the shrink tubing. I am a veteran electronics tech with over 30 years of soldering experience in the aerospace and HVAC industries. I can build these in my sleep. I should be able to turn one around in 3 days max. The actual build time should be around 30 minutes. I just bought a Strada and it has the dreaded stalling problem pretty bad. I am willing to do this as a service to the Terra/Strada community. Feel free to e-mail me and I can give you more info and even my phone number if you are not sure. dankeifer@yahoo.com Take care - Dan UPDATE 10-16-13: I installed my eruption last night. Works great so far. UPDATE 12-2-13: I have been riding in pretty cold weather (mid 30's F) and the bike runs really rich and sputters a bit until really warmed up. The yellow engine light lights up intermittently too. I guess this is the only downside to the IAT mod. I'm looking forward to spring and warmer weather. UPDATE 5-2-14: Only two people have taken me up on this so far. I think both were successful (I'm sure I would have heard if they were not). UPDATE 1-26-15: I sold the Strada in the Spring of 2014. I have a 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 1000 now and I am VERY happy with it. I will still make the eruptions even though it is not a long term fix (the stalling returned with my bike).
Very generous offer Dan! If I didn't have one already I'd take you up on it. BTW I'm not opposed to anyone making these & getting compensated for their efforts, so you may want to make this a limited time offer!
Thanks for the advice. I'll just play it by ear for now. If I get swamped with requests, I'll make a decision then. If I can prevent one person from having a stall in a bad place, it will be worth it.
I really don't buy it. I'm no expert at these things, but this is the way I understand the situation. The bike has a temperature sensor in the airbox which detects the air temp and this is one of the inputs the ECU uses to 'adapt' to the environment. The ECU is programmed to run the engine somewhere on a scale between lean and rich, depending on the temperature, and a number of other parameters. Spoofing the ECU into believing the temperature is 20° lower than it really is causes the bike to run a bit richer. The bike has no way of knowing the temperature is being spoofed, therefore if it 'adapts' to it's environment, it will not be ignoring the spoofer and adapting to the real airbox temperature and leaning up the mixture. It will only adapt to the spoofed temperature, which will richen the mixture. The only way in which the ECU could detect the spoofed temperature and ignore it, is if there were two temperature sensors, in which case the spoofer would probably make no difference to begin with.
I don't think that is true. There are other variables to draw and prioritize from. One example is the feedback loop from the O2 sensor to determine mixture. The ECU could say, "I know the temperature says this, but the O2 level is always different by this amount, let's adjust the temperature response across the board by this amount" or maybe it says, "I was letting that reading influence my choice 90%...I'm only going to let it choose now 50% and give 50% weighting to the other variable because the emissions goal is more closely reached". I know ECUs have become and continue to become more sophisticated over time with both the amount of processing power increasing as well as cost and size dropping, instrumentation is becoming more precise per cost, programmers more sophisticated (or at least using more lines of code in increasing available space), as well as regulations becoming tighter and more focused. I think the notion that the computer is compensation for our little cheat is at least plausible. Now, I don't have a way to prove or disprove it though.
I can think of a way. If someone had their bike on the MOSS, found it ran too lean, plugged in the spoofer, that improved it, but over time it started to creep back towards lean, then removing the spoofer, putting the bike on the MOSS, reloading the stock mapping, and then reinstalling the spoofer should return the bike to a richer mixture, and demonstrate that the bike was adapting to the spoofer and trying to work around it. I imagine that hooking the ECU to the MOSS and reloading the factory values would reset any self-adjustment that the ECU had made on it's own. Of course the result of this would still be somewhat subjective. I guess the subjectiveness could be removed with a before/after test with an exhaust gas analyser. I'm dubious that the benefit of the spoofers degrades over time. I think we would have heard about this from the owners of BMW models who have had these installed for a longer time. Anecodtally, I have run about 6800km on my bike, The first half of that without the Wuka-King, and the second half with it. I have noticed no degradation of the initial improvement I had when I installed it.
Nice write up! I don't have a TR, but an older BMW Dakar. Will have to try this mod and see if it wakes the ol' girl up. It uses the same temp sensor as the TR. Thanks run-it!
You'll have to let the ecu experts throw that around. It seems from the posts above that this is a good fix and they did their homework. You can always keep your original IAT and modify and install a second one in case the problem returns.
Look for reports for those that have used the Booster Plug on your bike - if that worked good than this will likely be as good or better.
Hi ya, I have had my terra for 8 months now, i been remapped three times to make it usable .. but still it was lacking . so today i decided to have a crack at this .. i could not source the thermisters list on here so i got these ones instead http://www.jaycar.com.au/productView.asp?ID=RN3444 My bike has always been a total b**** to start , i see tomorrow morning if its any better
Hi revsinc, The Eruption makes NO claim to help with a difficult starting engine. I see some potential problems using the thermistors you linked. I'd urge you to stick with the thermistors used in the example - they're sold around the world. Where are you, Australia? Try this link.
Thanks, yes im in australia i will try and get some this week and change them over, but i only decided on sunday to do this and jaycar was the only place open the bike is running good now, much more fun to ride . ( still not perfect ) i have also notice decrease engine braking also and your right its made no difference to how it starts , and my dealer has no more answers for me .. thanks Kevin
Run-it, if I wish to not have the 20º offsett, but rather something less, could I do something like this? I am not sure if I need more or less resistance to get the 10 or 15 degree ofsett.
Yep, the second one, the first would make the offset greater, the second one would lessen the offset. The real trick is to find something that will make a consistent offset no matter what the temperature happens to be. A thermistor + resistor may also do the trick. If something can't be found to mimic the existing resistance / temperature curve it likely can for at least some of its range, for example between -10F & 40F.
Guys, I'd like to credit everyone for all their input - I've used your info to keep the initial post up-to-date so new people don't need to read the entire thread. So a good portion of initial post is now YOU!
Just made mine tonight....pretty staight forward if you follow the above steps...I got a spare housing from ebay for $14 shipped just incase I screwed up haha...hooked my ohm meter up to it in side the house at 68 degrees and then carried it outside where its 39 degrees the resistance started to climb ... I exhaled on it and the warmth of my breath made the resistance drop so fingers crossed I think it will work just fine ... I am gonna install it tomorrow I will let y'all know how it works... Thanks to whoever came up with this
Good job, it's a good idea to check the thermistors resistance before the build to make sure they're all the same, the concern being someone will get a wrong thermistor shipped. After the build if you have a VOM you can compare your resistance with the example build in the table. Don't need to compare at every temperature, just one or two. Hair dryer works well checking warmer temps.
