How many vipers with starters going bad?

[yzf1999]

I asked my dealer and he says he sales the bulk of the vipers in Illinois and he's seen the problem a few times and knows it's out there. He also says their is no rhyme or reason for the problem and the vast number of vipers have never experienced the starter failure problem. Also said there is no other flash on the way.

 

[pjabas]

2014 xtx, 1600 miles one reflash, took starter out last week moving sled out of storage

 

[new rob]

I think it's a bigger problem than some dealers let on it to be . And the problem is ecu before the new flash I had a couple not start issues no big deal but after the kick backs started big problem ?? Reliability sets Yamaha above the rest if they don't have that ???

 

[shagman]

I asked my dealer and he says he sales the bulk of the vipers in Illinois and he's seen the problem a few times and knows it's out there. He also says their is no rhyme or reason for the problem and the vast number of vipers have never experienced the starter failure problem. Also said there is no other flash on the way.

We will soon know about another reflash, it is needed and can be fixed.

 

[trevorl1]

I got in touch with Yamaha today they are not going to do anything.
They said I'd the dealer would of disassembled it they would of considered it, the fuckers should of told me that when I called the dealer this spring.

 

[Dirtbikekid1998]

I dont know if this has been asked in 22 pages but has anyone with a turbo had a starter go bad? I wonder if the programmer helps it out any?

 

[Byam]

Not it all!! I had a lot of "hot start "issue last year for me! waiting waiting,WAITING the new RE -re-re-flash. I think its almost imposible i did a full year whit this starter ang gear! I did not open this wet, butt i am pretty sure it will miss a couple gear already.

FOR now i am covering my YAMAHA tatoo;-) and HOPE THEY solve the BIG CANCER problem SOOOON!!!!!!!!!!

Its starting to looks like a real UNSERIOUS Company ........ And its pisting me off!!!

 

[yamahaguy]

Both of our 2015's start great no issues hot or cold issues and they're both MPI turbo. We Boondock mostly and our sleds are on/off 25+ times at least in a day's ride so they get started a lot. Funny that dirtbikekid asked about turbo sleds because one thing I noticed after we put our MPI kits on our sleds seem to start quicker/easier than they did before the turbo. Im not sure why? I'm sure our starters will fail someday due to the frequent use that they get. Im not to worried about kickback issue since our sleds don't seam to do that. Some do and some don't ? Not sure why again?

 

[Byam]

How many miles or hour you have on both turbo mpi sled? Just curious!

 

[yamahaguy]

1200ish miles. Before the turbos were installed they would always start but would definitely crank alot longer than you would think to start.

 

[cannondale27]

I still think should be a starter clutch in every electric start motor but that being said I think its just a metal issue. If you look how the gear chipped off its not like it was smeared off. It just cracked off. On a angle also. Thats a big wide gear compared to others. Shouldnt happen. Kickback or not. Something should just stop or slip. Thats all. Maybe different suppliers? Who knows. We may never know. Nobody ever found out why some Phazers had gear reduction teeth fall off. Yamaha just covered it and gradually the problem just went away.

 

[RTX]

I still think should be a starter clutch in every electric start motor but that being said I think its just a metal issue. If you look how the gear chipped off its not like it was smeared off. It just cracked off. On a angle also. Thats a big wide gear compared to others. Shouldnt happen. Kickback or not. Something should just stop or slip. Thats all. Maybe different suppliers? Who knows. We may never know. Nobody ever found out why some Phazers had gear reduction teeth fall off. Yamaha just covered it and gradually the problem just went away.

I am not familiar with the phaser starter issue so i cant comment on it.
I really hope this issue just goes away but something tells me its not going to without some sort of intervention by yamaha or cat (reflash)
I purchased the extended warranty specifically because of this issue. Its cheap insurance and already payed for itself when my muffler blew out and was covered by YES.

My feeling is that further down the line cat will reprogram the ecu for these motors and apply those changes/fixes to the new models and leave us old owners out in the cold.
I am going to watch what evo does with their flashes and how the flashes hold up this season.
if i loose a starter i will let warranty cover it then get the evo reflash next season if it appears to be resolving the issue

 

[Studroes144]

Starter went bad on mine with the mpi turbo, mine has always started a bit hard whether it's hot or cold but no kick backs, so the turbo didn't help the cause but it definitely wasn't a factor in it either in my opinion.

 

[cannondale27]

I am not familiar with the phaser starter issue so i cant comment on it.
I really hope this issue just goes away but something tells me its not going to without some sort of intervention by yamaha or cat (reflash)
I purchased the extended warranty specifically because of this issue. Its cheap insurance and already payed for itself when my muffler blew out and was covered by YES.

My feeling is that further down the line cat will reprogram the ecu for these motors and apply those changes/fixes to the new models and leave us old owners out in the cold.
I am going to watch what evo does with their flashes and how the flashes hold up this season.
if i loose a starter i will let warranty cover it then get the evo reflash next season if it appears to be resolving the issue

Reason I said I hope it just goes away is because as in Phazers case the bad ones failed and were fixed all within about a year. Hoping the gears that are bad have failed already and this season we won't see it anymore. Have to stay positive.

A ecu reprogram is a relatively cheap fix for Yamaha. I highly doubt they would leave us high and dry knowing that most people are blaming kickback on the flash. I and many others would switch brands within a year and they know that. Not going to happen.

As far as I know the only reason the Evo flash is said to eliminate kickback is because it uses tha 2014 flash because it was thought that only reflashed or 15 sleds had starter fail. That is not correct. 14's with original flash have failed also.
I hope there is more to it than that. Ignition timing is huge on how a motor cranks over. Maybe Evo adjusted it at cranking rpm?

 

[Sasquatch]

I still think should be a starter clutch in every electric start motor but that being said I think its just a metal issue. If you look how the gear chipped off its not like it was smeared off. It just cracked off. On a angle also. Thats a big wide gear compared to others. Shouldnt happen. Kickback or not. Something should just stop or slip. Thats all. Maybe different suppliers? Who knows. We may never know. Nobody ever found out why some Phazers had gear reduction teeth fall off. Yamaha just covered it and gradually the problem just went away.

Not sure how a clutch would fix a forward, backward lash of the gears caused by a crap ECU/injector ect setup. There are a pile of gears and gears have lash all the gears going the same way takes out all the lash. The minute the motor kicks back and forward it rocks the lash back and forth from the crank all the way to the starter. The starter has a one way clutch and when the motor starts it releases its grip. To have a clutch that would release when the motor kicks back would mean that the starter would never engage because it would be a two way clutch or ie non engage able.

Motor tries to start opening up the lash then kicks back and slams the gears back together, hard! Gears are not soft (although maybe rubber gears would work LOL) so they fracture and crack off they never smear because they are too hard and have to be to work as gears. As far as parts vendor as in supplied gears it would be funny how it just effects the Catamahas while the rest of the Yamaha three holes are not having the problem. The problem is a Catamaha one caused by a marriage of two technology's and for some reason they can't make it work 100% of the time. If it was a Yamaha full electrics and fuel in a Cat chassis there would be no problem. Or no more problem then Yami ever had. Yamaha is getting a bad rep from this as they are starting to be know for failed starter gears and the occasional wiped motor.

Then the bad gears rumor starts and the loss of reliability ect. The fav I heard was the Viper has a new motor and its too fragile! Thing is its just bad computer programming in a hybrid marriage.