I broke down on a recent trip to France. I won’t bore you with details of the saga. Suffice to say that eventually a garage (independent, not Guzzi franchise) agreed to look at the bike and found that the starter motor needed cleaning up and the earth connection needed attention. Otherwise the starter was fine and did not need to be replaced. Hats off to Dauphiné Moto in Sassenage, Grenoble. The guys there went above and beyond to help. The starter then worked perfectly for 600 miles over three days back to the UK.
Has anyone else suffered a similar problem? 2019 E4 bike, nearly 20k miles.
The second issue, which I noticed at the end of day two of my return journey, was an oil leak. At first I noticed streaks of oil on the rear wheel, so I suspected the final drive. Not seeing any apparent leaks from there I checked further and found oil on the inside of the bash plate and apparently dripping from the sump. I got home without attempting a fix, and have today tightened up the sump bolts. There’s also a leak from one of the rocker cover bolts, where I suspect a broken seal.
I’ve read that sump bolts often need tightening up. Again, anyone had similar?
You were fortunate to get a decent garage in France to get you going again. In respect of your oil leak I’ve never come across an oil sump drain plug coming loose. Did you use a fresh crush washer and torque it up? I know these bikes vibrate to some extent, and god knows I had some bits and bobs work loose on both my stelvios. I intend to gradually apply blue loctite about my V85TT as my ownership continues.
Have you had any other issues with the bike? I’m only at 500 miles but a heads up for any potential problems is always welcome.
it being fitted with a Valeo starter as used in pretty much every European car probably helped, they do seem prone to water ingestion for some reason
I am on my 5th I think in 20 years
Harry, the sump drain bolt seemed OK. It was other bolts holding the sump in place, including a single large bolt on the base of the sump and two or three of the small bolts that are at the side.
I’ve had no other problems in the 12 months and nearly 8k miles that I’ve owned the bike, apart from the pinking issue mentioned elsewhere on here, which was solved by an ECU re-map.
Sorry, I overlooked this post, Raphael. Interestingly, I was advised by the garage mechanic to fit a rubber flap to close the gap where water and dirt can get at the starter motor. I’d like to do that, although I can’t immediately see how to attach one.
I am afraid that I cheated, I got Tony Botto to do it for me when he overhauled the machine
its looks like he has used some soft rubber, and number plate screws
I am a bit bellow par at the moment, so cannot bend over to look at it
that was over the clutch arm
the starter motor, I reckon you could cut and mould some hard black plastic like a shield and locate it with a zip tie ?
might be worth checking online in case some one already makes one !!
Hi Simon, can I ask you what the symptoms were. Mine has just refused to start it turns over once then acts as if there is a dead short with the starter solenoid clicking and the battery starting to smell (Hydrogen Sulphide). The RAC man couldn’t resolve it so its parked up awaiting transfer to my local dealer.
For a while mine would start if I kicked up the side stand hard, then immediately pressed the starter button. Because of that, I thought it was a faulty side stand switch, but that proved to be a red herring. If it didn’t work I got a click from the relay, but no smell that I remember. If it worked it fired up the engine and kept going. All or nothing.
I’m no expert, but I’m wondering if your motor is OK but it’s trying to move too big a load, for some reason. HTH.
Thanks for getting back to me. Mine attempts to turn but then the solenoid rapidity goes into a series of clicks before you get the smell from the battery. I think something is causing a dead short in the starter circuit, pointing towards the starter motor. Hopefully my local MG dealer will be able to sort it.
Sorry I’m a bit late joining this post but I wondered if an experience I had could help someone with this problem. On my '96 California the starter motor developed the clicking habit, intermittently at first but gradually getting more frequent. After checking everything I could, battery, connections, earthing cables, switches, relays and fuses, I took the starter to a local, well respected auto electrician for examination. Nothing amiss was found but the clicking continued. So, in the end I dismantled the starter motor myself, behind the plastic end cover on the solenoid the main power cable connection ends in a square brass contact. This contact was burnt black, presumably from the solenoid making a connection with it. I removed the contract and polished it up in the lathe. After reassembly and refitting I never experienced any more problems.
This was a good few years ago now so my memory of it is slightly vague on detail but I do remember having to de-solder the two small wires that pass through the end cap and then re-solder them on rebuilding.
This is just an option if anyone gets as fed up of the problem as I did. Good luck.