More Lifan x-pect breakdowns. Wow. New thread.

[Boatguy]

I put in the new instrument cluster. Worked great, just like it did with no cluster. Went on a 20 mile ride to test. I wanted to do more but it fn broke down AGAIN.

Somewhere along this ride the bike started behaving VERY strangely.

It was missing. A lot. Seemed like every 4 firings actually went off. It wanted to stall.

Only careful throttle massaging kept me on the road back to town where I could get help if it died. I kept the RPMs up through all the stop lights.

At 1/3 to 3/4 throttle it lagged bad. Enough to throw me forward with the compression.

At less than 1/3 if I was stopped, I could keep it running.

At full throttle it would misfire badly, but I could make enough speed to ride in regular traffic back to town.

In town, at a stoplight, it stalled. Then AGAIN everything died!

No power to anything. No starter, no instruments, no nothing.


Mind you I was riding off road and having lots of fun. And this all happened on smooth tar.

Not enjoying my Chinese bike anymore. 2000 miles. That’s what you get for $2000. I think the experiment is over. This is a major and difficult problem.

I thought I needed a valve adjustment as I was riding back to civilization. Until all electrical everything went poof again.

[DualSportDude]

It seems like maybe one or more wires in the harness have rubbed the cladding off and are grounding to the frame or to each other.

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by DualSportDude

It seems like maybe one or more wires in the harness have rubbed the cladding off and are grounding to the frame or to each other.

In addition to some other problem, right?

That type of mis-firing at certain throttle ranges points to an ECU problem.

The check engine light (which I’ve never seen before) was doing a lot of flashing.

[China Rider 27]

I agree checking the wiring, especially that neck area. Approach it systematically. What circuit blew? Whats on that circuit? Where is the wiring for that circuit? Can you get power up to get a read out for trouble codes.

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

I agree checking the wiring, especially that neck area. Approach it systematically. What circuit blew? Whats on that circuit? Where is the wiring for that circuit? Can you get power up to get a read out for trouble codes.

What are you guys using for a scanner on these bikes? The DTC will certainly help narrow things down.

Is there a chart of diagnostic codes for this bike?

Luckily I made it back to a town before it died completely. I returned by taxi. I have to go load it up and haul it back now.

[China Rider 27]

Look in the Owners Manual. There is a wiring diagram. List of fault codes. They are flashed out by number with time delay. There is a good troubleshooting section in the Owners Manual too.

[Boatguy]

Originally Posted by China Rider 27

Look in the Owners Manual. There is a wiring diagram. List of fault codes. They are flashed out by number with time delay. There is a good troubleshooting section in the Owners Manual too.

Flashed out? You have a gauge readout?? Ha ha ha.

Maybe I’ll have one too after I replace the fuses. I’ll give it a shot. Thanks for reminding me about the depth of information in the manual. It’s been a long time (and a heart attack) since I read it so I forgot.


The fault code should at least clue me in. Narrow things down hunting for the problem.

[david3921]

Try this; disconnect the battery cables (+,-) and connect them together. Maybe use a zip tie. This is called a hard reset. Let it sit for an hour or so. I'm not saying this as a cure, though it has cured wonky things, it's just as a staring point. I agree that your wiring may also suspect.

[Boatguy]

So I went and got the bike. Hauled it back here.

Losing power resets the MIL/check engine light.

All codes are gone. (So that’s the hard reset, right?)

The 2nd fuse in from the edge of the fuse panel is what blows. There are only 2 fuses. It was blown again. China bikes are about $1 per mile, plus gas in my experiment at this point. Not unlike the generators and other things I experimented with. Pretty discouraged here.

There is no way any new bike with 2000 miles on it should be having problems like this already. There is nowhere that there is any apparent wiring issue. All the looms and conduits are well covered and sealed.

Runs great on the stand/rack since I replaced the constantly blowing fuse. None of the misfires or shaky running. Purrs smoothly and normally.

I was really looking forward to riding, but after the breakdown was really looking forward to codes to help me find out what component has failed and is causing all these problems. But no. When it fails it takes the ECU and everything else with it

[Boatguy]

Some things have been determined.

This was NOT a new breakdown. Maybe I didn’t need a new thread.

It was a different behavior. I had made a tight turn and moved the handlebars almost all the way left. It was a surprise U turn I decided to take at extremely low speed. BUT I still had the throttle on pretty good for the turn and to accelerate out of it.

That was the first time I’ve had the bars hard over but had decent RPMs. I kept those RPMs as I battled the misfiring engine miles back to town.

Only when the RPMs got low enough to stall from the misfiring engine did it stall and pop the fuse. It popped AFTER (or during) the stall.

Just now, I put in another new fuse and test drove. Everything was perfect. Until I decided to do some testing.

Just sitting there idling are the top of a hill that ends at my house, I decided to shake the handlebars side to side from lock to lock.

It stalled the bike and blew the fuse. I didn’t have enough RPMs on to keep the engine running or the fuse from blowing.

That’s the behavior.

So you guys were right. It’s something in the wiring that is affected by moving the handlebars side to side all the way. It’s repeatable now.

[zero_dgz]

You are likely misfiring/the engine is dying due to either the ECU or CDI getting grounded out, thus either interrupting spark or interrupting fuel delivery. My money is on the CDI, but that may be academic. Spitzensparken and blowing fuses indicates an insulation break in a wire somewhere, most likely shorting to the frame or another wire.


I don't know how the brain box on the X-Pect works but a common cause of a flashing check engine light across various vehicles is the ECU detecting a misfire for one reason or another. Either no spark or no fuel. That would also line up with your observations.


If it were me I would start by pulling off the factory protective wrapping around the wiring harness around the steering head area and working backwards from there. It might look fine on the outside, but be jank on the inside. Also maybe look for obvious sources of rubbing or sharp bends against the frame, under the seat, etc. Don't worry about trashing the wire wrap. You can replace it with black electrical tape which won't be any better or worse than what these things come with from the factory.


Edit for staircase wit: It occurs to me that another possible cause could be the pickup or other wiring from the stator being fucked. This small handful of wires comes out of whichever side of the engine case the stator is on (the left, if it's like other Honda-alikes) and if they are chopped or otherwise stripped of insulation and touching something they shouldn't it'll cause you big time electrical problems. I recently fixed up a Shadow that someone "bobber converted" badly, which ended up in one of their redneck custom sheet metal body panels guillotining the stator wiring via vibration until it made it through the insulation. Blew up the voltage regulator and just about every single fuse on the bike when that happened. On a lot of bikes you can e.g. contrive to get this bunch of wires out of place so that they get eaten by the front sprocket.


If turning the handlebars recreates your symptom, though, I would suspect the wiring around the steering head first. Did you also check the various spade connectors, etc. going to the ignition cylinder, handlebar switches, etc. if present for corrosion and other gremlins?

[JFOlivier]

If you take a good look at the wiring harness that comes down the left side of the frame then through the forks on the left side you will see that if you move the handle bars right the loom tightens around the center of the forks and if you move left the loom actually comes into contact with the metal brace that the lower half of the head light bolt down on. I have checked my wiring at that point and can see that the tape on the loom is getting damaged at that point. If I were you I would remove the headlamp and the fuel tank and search for the damaged wiring in that area. If you are blowing a fuse that is when that hot conducter is against the frame or other damaged conducter for a long enough period to blow that fuse but with constant vibration it might not be enough to blow the fuse but enough todrop the voltage to the ICU and cause all the misfiring that you have. Perhaps when you ran over your tie down straps you could have started all this in motion. 1500 miles on my X-Pect and it runs great.

[Boatguy]

I hardly think a bike bending over in a rack (and not coming into contact with anything at all) could start a wiring problem into motion.

The result of the tipped bike in the rack was a warped rim that needed to be trued. That’s it.


I will follow all that wiring. If any more trouble after this, it’s a new bike. I ride in very remote areas and can’t have something unreliable that wasn’t wired properly at the factory. This should not be happening at 2000 miles.

[david3921]

To be sure you should check around the steering head. I would also follow up with checking around the switch gear at the bar ends. Both the clutch and brake levers should have switches on them. Sometimes the plugs get loose. Another thing to check (and maybe bypass) is the kick stand switch.

You said the 2nd fuse blows. What does the manual (or fuse box cover) say this fuse controls?

[Boatguy]

I have 2 threads going on what is a related topic.

I’m posting the conclusion in both.

The wiring in the Lifan is sus. There is no way around that. They are using 2 layers of electrical tape in spots where they should have a conduit.



If you look at this pic, above the rust spot, you can see a black, metal bar running across the pic. See the silver wear spot on the top of that bar?

That’s where the RED wire from the wiring harness was rubbing. In fact it wasn’t the red wire. It was an EXPOSED metal connector that was behind a single piece of electrical tape.

To be clear, it was the red wire that is in that wiring harness that is crimped with 3 other red wires. That connector is what wore through the single piece of electrical tape that was keeping it off the frame as you turn the handlebars.

If you look above the wear mark, you can see a beautiful conduit. That’s what I did to keep the wires safe. I put that conduit in. Just like the one that runs along the frame.

MY ADVICE: Dig into this area of your Lifan to correct the bad wiring before it strands you. Once fixed, it should eliminate a huge potential source of breaking down.