Return of the evo petrol fountain

[SunEye]

11 months and 3,500 miles after it last happened my evo's petrol fountain as mentioned in this thread http://www.ukmonster.co.uk/monster/showthread.php?t=45975 is back.

Today I rode to Ace Cafe from Bognor Regis, with a brief stop in Horsham. As last time my temperature gauge was one bar from the top (176 C to 190 C) for most of my South Circular and North Circular route, that was about 30 to 45 minutes. When I got to the Ace Cafe just for a joke I decided to open my fuel cap because the last time I rode there was when I experienced my last fuel fountain. Lo and behold it happened again. It was quite a fountain of fuel. It was so strong that I struggled to close the fuel cap on it. That was a lot of pressure that had built up in the tank. The marshalls at the Ace Cafe came to my assistance with a bowl of water and some paper napkins to clean the petrol from my bike.

I'll be speaking to Pro Twins tomorrow, but I have to say I am very unhappy about the situation. It is very very dangerous. If the spilt fuel had ignited I (and others close to me) could have been seriously injured. I don't think that I will be happy until the whole fuel tank, fuel pump and associated pipe work is replaced.

[Bonzo]

That's not right.

My evo's never done that.

[pompone]

my money would be on the pump, maybe the pressure release valve goes bananas with the heat. That said your bike seems to be running horfully hot. Have you fitted any guard to the oil cooler, extreme bellypans etc???

[Dukedesmo]

Blocked breather?...

[rollo22]

I would get Ducati UK in the loop
Probably a not fit for purpose thingy will spur Ducati along to find a fix.

[SunEye]

I do believe that my bike gets too hot too easily, although this does only happen when the bike has been ridden for a while and is nicely warm and then you sit in very slow moving traffic for over 30 minutes. 1 bar from the top of the gauge is hot, but there is still one bar to go and then the flashing bars before it's probably time to stop and let it cool down, so it is within its operating temperature range, just towards the top end of it. This may be partly due to the Evotech oil cooler guard that I have fitted.

Regardless of that it is still within the operating temperature range of the bike and it should function correctly.

The breather appears to be venting correctly. When the bike is running you can see fuel vapour at the end of the breather pipe. As the bike gets hot I suspect that the breather pipe may get blocked when the tank expands, which probably doesn't help the situation.

I agree with pompone. I suspect that the pump is causing the problem. It isn't liking the heat.

I'll be taking the bike to Pro Twins on Friday. They'll have it for a couple of weeks whilst I'm out of the country. Last time I was told that if the new filler cap assembly didn't fix the problem then they would replace the tank and fuel pump. So that is what I am expecting will happen. Fitting a fairly rigid breather pipe could possibly help this situation, but wouldn't resolve the cause of the issue.

Ducati UK were made aware of the problem when it last happened because Pro Twins had to liaise with them to ensure that it was repaired under warranty. It is not a fault that Ducati UK had ever heard of before. I am sure that Pro Twins will be talking to Ducati UK again and I'm sure that a satisfactory resolution will be arrived at.

[SunEye]

That's not right.

My evo's never done that.
I do believe that my evo is quite unique in this additional feature that it is has developed. I don't think it's anything for other evo owners to worry about.

[zhango]

There have been similar problems in the US - just as an example read THIS (http://www.ducatimonster.org/forums/accessories-mods/220289-1100-evo-gas-tank-problem.html) thread and there are others if you Google it. I think Ducati do know about it.

I had the same thing happen to me about a month ago. The pressure built up so much one time that I opened the tank to see what was going on and gas shot out. I closed the cap and kept riding and then a mile later the bike shut off in mid ride, in the middle of traffic. Terrifying!

I got it home and investigated a bit and noticed the vent hose coming from the ECU had a slight pinch in it. No idea how it happened but I straightened it out, and immediately I heard the gas tank de-pressurizing. From then on not a single problem.
He didn't mean the ECU - he meant the Evaporative Emissions Canister but there isn't one on UK bikes is there?

[Martin C]

" It is not a fault that Ducati UK had ever heard of before " That's what ALL factories say as a fob-off! In the car world, it cost Toyota lots of grief before they learnt to be truthful and fully pro-active about recalling faults to fix them - most other car makers (especially Germans) still haven't learnt this lesson.

[SunEye]

I was aware that some US owners have had similar issues. A fair few seem to be related to the Evaporative Emissions Canister or just a pinched breather pipe, but I have seen a few posts that seem to be similar to mine. As far as I can tell in most cases a replacement tank resolves the issue, although if the issue is due to the tank construction and that has not changed then it could happen again, but the statistical chance of that is very low.

As far as I am aware (according to Ducati UK one year ago) I am the only evo owner in the UK to have experienced this problem.