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Ducati 749S ECU reboot

By 14th March 2011Ducati, Road Bikes

This was one dead 2002 Ducati 749S that was wheeled into the workshop last week; the owner, on the way here to drop the bike off for a routine service had to stop hard to avoid a car that’d pulled out on him. The bike then fully stopped – nothing. We plugged into the ECU with our magic box to have a look at the fault codes and it was full of ‘em… the main one though was that the ECU was no longer ‘seeing’ the ignition key. With the red key (that comes with the bike for just this purpose) we re-programmed the ECU and sorted out all the fault codes.

We could then get on with what it came in for, the service! The bike had been stood awhile so the air filter was replaced, along with the belts, and the TPS was reset; this is important on a Ducati because it will go out over time. You’re relying on a rod between the two throttle bodies and, to be fair, it’s not the most robust set-up. The stop, too needs looking at – overall, the whole thing has a habit of settling in use and therefore needs periodic adjustment.

Most important on any Ducati that’s gone nowhere for a time is the belts; they will need changing.  Ducati say 2 years/12,000 miles and we’d go along with the time if the bike’s used regularly. The mileage you could push a bit, if you did 8,000 miles a year you should have no problems. But, and this is a big but, if the bike’s stood for a couple of winters, the belts WILL need doing. We’ve seen 5 engines at least that have snapped belts, with the resulting valve/piston interface (expensive) disaster.

One very sorry 749S prior to getting the BSD treatment...

...and just after finishing its roadtest. Running sweetly, serviced and good to go.