No spark, no fuel pump prime and no 12v to the black/white wire on the grey ECM connector SIXTH GEN

Discussion in 'Mechanics Garage' started by BrokeDownBikes, Nov 11, 2025.

  1. BrokeDownBikes

    BrokeDownBikes New Member

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    Hey this is my first post in this forum so sorry if I formatted this incorrectly. I bought a stolen recovery sixth gen VFR (2003) with the stated issues. I thought it was a relay issue because it was missing all of them, new relays didn't fix it. Some weird thing going on with the headlight sub harness (cut up and the relay plugs missing), so I "rewired" it and that didn't fix it. weird stuff going on with the FI light, so I thought maybe it was the ECM and picked one up for dirt cheap. That did stop the FI light stuff, but the bike still has the same status of no spark no fuel prime. My original pump was bad, but I know the new one is good. Does anybody know what could be causing the lack of 12vs to the black/white wire on ECM plug and if I missed something? already bypassed BAS and it looks like the ground recall was already done on this bike the green earth wire is not adjacent on the sub harness side of the blue connector.
     


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  2. BrokeDownBikes

    BrokeDownBikes New Member

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    Also not sure if this is relevant or not but the FI light switches on and off with the killswitch, and the FI light is constantly on whether you have the dealer check plug shorted or if it's turning over the light is consistent.
     


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  3. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    its possibly risky, buy who knows ?

    if that b/w wire is normally energized, you could try putting a 12v + wire from the battery to that terminal, see what haqppens. :rolleyes:


    check all the grounds u can find for corrosion or lose bolt.
     
    Last edited: Nov 15, 2025


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  4. BrokeDownBikes

    BrokeDownBikes New Member

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    Yeah I thought about the power but I don't wanna fry my ECU if I'm wrong and it's not supposed to have 12v. How many grounds do these have wanna make sure I haven't missed any.
     


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  5. squirrelman

    squirrelman Member

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    +12 is all through the system, never stepped down to lower. show the wiring schematic to someone who can read it, then ask ?????s.

    post it up here for info 411.

    i believe the sugestion above would not damage the ecu, but it might get you running, and there are fuses.

    unfortunately, we lost our #1 electrick expert, grum.
     
    Last edited: Nov 18, 2025


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  6. Terry Smith

    Terry Smith Member

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    And a great loss he was too.
     


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  7. BrokeDownBikes

    BrokeDownBikes New Member

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    Yeah I had seen the alot of his posts, one of them is why I thought that wire needed 12v. I learned alot about these bikes going through his responses and trying things out. Weird question, but If somebody has a sixth gen could they send me a picture of the ESR relay plug with the wires? Mines is cut at the plug and I'm not a hundred percent sure I connected them back correctly.
     


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  8. Baowow

    Baowow New Member

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    image.png.6ada9bbee838b112dfc0addcb9c530db.png
     


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  9. Dannoxyz

    Dannoxyz New Member

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    @BrokeDownBikes , how's progress? I'm going to start from very beginning and go over theory of operation as well as testing procedures of entire system as reference for anyone else having this issue. There are at least 37 areas that can cause your issues if they are not working properly, and often there's multiple faults. This testing procedure will verify every single one of these areas and find every single fault! This is guide for complete newbies to troubleshoot and fix this on their own. No need for "pro mechanics" to examine post and magically say, "do this, that, and other thing" to fix bike. You will test and measure yourself to find numbers which tells you exactly what's wrong and how to fix it.

    I. BACKGROUND PREREQUISITES

    a. measure battery power with everything OFF, volts = ???
    b.
    measure battery power during cranking, volts = ???
    c.
    connect multi-stage smart-charger to battery 24/7 until this bike is running. This is good unit: https://no.co/genius2

    This is modern EFI bike with computers. Modern electronics are digital with minimum trigger levels needed to function. Vast majority of no-start problems with EFI bikes are due to weak batteries. Effective troubleshooting requires measuring batteries under load. Bad batteries on their last legs may measure 13v with no load just like good ones. But during cranking, bad ones will drop to 10v or less while good batteries stay above 12v. Less than 12? Computer's not gonna work even if engine cranks fine. In fact starter circuit is completely independent and separate from EFI system. You can rip out entire EFI system: ECU, injectors, ign-coils, fuel-pump etc, and bike will still crank happily all day long. It'll just never start without EFI system on bike. Just like it won't start with weak battery, even if it cranks merrily along. So measuring battery during cranking is always 1st test whenever starting electrical troubleshooting. Post your numbers for tests above.

    I was stranded once when I started bike up and went to filling-station for petrol before group ride. After fill-up, hopped on bike, pushed button and >CLICK< nuthin'. After laborious and expensive tow home, I measured battery during cranking and it went from 13v down to 4v, nada! kaput! Fini! Having on-board voltmeter is incredibly convenient for troubleshooting. I can quickly inspect battery-power before hitting start-button, and see how much it drops during cranking. If it ever goes below 12v, I start looking for new battery before it leaves me stranded. Never again!

    VoltmeterVFRChargedCrankingS.jpg

    d. get Owner's Manual and factory Service Manual for your bike. Written by engineers that designed and built this bike, they know how it works. And how to fix it when it doesn't work. There's great troubleshooting flow-chart inside used by dealer mechanics to find exactly what's wrong with bike in order to fix it efficiently. Review both manuals and get familiar with bike and repair procedures before even touching bike.

    Which brings us to... Since you appear to be from UK, your bike has....

    HISSignitionS.jpg

    H.I.S.S. is anti-theft system with RF-ID key with embedded serial#. This serial# is stored in ECU and on power-up, ECU reads key and verify it matches. IF it doesn't, ECU will refuse to fire sparks! It will also refuse to run pump or squirt injectors. You cannot simply replace ECU with another one if it's defective, you must get matching ECU+key combination from dealer.

    This is as simple of repair as it gets. So we'll start here to get up to speed so it'll only take 10-20 minutes to find root-cause problem that's preventing your bike from running. It's exactly same issue that's preventing your headlights from working. Here's secret.... unless you're Superman and can see electrons moving inside wires, there's absolutely ZERO chance any human can just look at wiring and determine its ability to conduct electricity. Luckily, we have instruments that can!

    MeasuringWireResistance.jpg

    It's very simple matter to fix headlights, obviously power from battery isn't making it to globe right? So... IF you measure full battery-power at one end of blu/wht wire BUT you measure zero power at other end of same wire, THEN this wire's obviously broken in between two ends right? Simple matter at that point to find break in wire and repair it, or replace wire. PRESTO! Done! Light's working!!! But right now, you have absolutely ZERO idea if wire's transmitting power from one end to other.

    1st step in fixing your headlights in 5-min or less is:

    e. get mutlimeter, any basic £10 meter from DigiKey, Cricklewood or YESSS will do, this is as basic as it gets
    f. learn to use it to measure voltage and resistance https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-to-use-a-multimeter/all

    It's a doodle! Come back when you've done steps a-f and we'll get your headlights fixed in 5-minutes and be on to getting your bike running in no time!!! :)


    BTW - I've helped over 100 people via phone fix this exact no-start problem in far off remote parking lots in middle of night in 5-10 minutes. Longest time was however extra it took to run to auto-parts store to get multimeter.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2026 at 7:32 PM


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