2009 Road Glide Excessive High Idle

My wife rides a 2009 Road Glide, which for the most part she loves. But we have been having a problem with excessive RPMs. She can for example turn into a gas station and all of a sudden the bike goes to 4,000 RPM and can not be slowed down, she pulls the clutch in and you can twist the throttle back and forth, it will speed up some but not slow down, you have to shut it down then it goes back to normal. We took it to our dealer and they said it was her making it happen. They reset the ECM and gave it back to us. Well it has happened several times since, we took it back and they re flashed the ECM with a new calibration. It went a month and the yesterday the same thing. She was moving it from a packing spot to get in line for a HOG Chapter ride and bang 4,000 RPM. So it's back at the dealer, I need to get this fixed.

 

Welcome,

That problem sounds incredibly dangerous, your dealer needs to ensure it's fixed before they give it back to you. Is the ECM stock? I'd insist that they replace the ECM as an absolute minimum. Let us know what you find out.

 

Is this a throttle by wire problem

 

I believe it is.

My service manual shows some 2009 touring equipped with drive by wire. The twist grip does seem to show double redundancy potentiometers.

I am amazed they gave that bike back to you without changing at least 1 part. Very foolish move on their part.

 

I have a bad feeling about this throttle by wire, I am seeing alot of cars in the shop with this problem. We are starting to think it may be a radio wave or frequency problem no one can understand, happening way too much. May have to look at the airline industry for an answer they have had fly by wire for years with few problems JMO

 

I agree with you Jack. Don't care for drive by wire at all.
If I was Scsharp, I would document every date, persons name and what was said with every person I spoke to while fixing this issue. Try a different dealer.

I would not take a problem like this lightly.

 

Yes this is a wired system, and trust me I am vary worried about this. We joke that it thinks it is a Toyota. Wife has a friend who works for Harley corporate, she is going to talk to him on Monday. I have been riding for 40 years and this is the worst problem I've come across.

 

There is 1 thing we can thank the Lord for. To date all the epidemic cases of run away drive by wire systems have Not been with Delphi ECM's. At least I am aware of none.

If you look deep into the Delphi company, you will see a company that truly understands what they are doing. The insides of their ECM's are built to the best possible standards.
I trust them way way more than the import counterparts. Way Way more.

I am so happy HD selected Delphi for their ECM's.

 

When I got my 2009 several years ago, I was bothered by the same problem. I never saw 4000 rpms but I did see 2000 rpms fairly regularly. It was dangerous! When I complained to the service manager he said he was stumped, didn't understand at all. Then I discovered the service bulletin released by the MOCO which addressed the problem of high idle on 2008 and 2009 bikes. They knew about it and issued a service bulletin to address it. Unfortunately most technitians don't take the time to review the bulletins which are posted on their private website. They no longer send them a paper copy, they have to look them up on their own.
Anyway, the problem stems from the fact that the ECM remembers the last 4 times that the bike was turned off. If at any occassion the bike was not idled down to normal idle of 1000 RPMs +-50 it remembers this and is buffered into the memory. Not only will it do a fast idle at startup, but sometimes it does a fast idle long after it has been running, as in the case of your wife. The fast idle situation only manifests itself when slowing down, never at speed. It might be doing it but you are not aware of it until you slow down.
The fix for this is to perform a "reset". With the "kill switch" on the handlebars set to the run position turn the big ignition switch to the run position for 10 seconds and then turn it off and count for another 10 seconds. Do this for a total of 4 times to reset the systems memory. Then in the future do not blip the throttle before shutting the bike off and be real cautious that you do not twist the throttle when making a turn at slow speed (like turning into a gas pump). For what it is worth I always let the bike return to a normal idle for about 15 seconds before shutting it off. This allows the bikes computer to clean up any housekeeping before it shuts off. Sometime this reset will work for 6 months and then all of a sudden you have to do it again. Luckily the fix is easy and cheap.

 

The above exactly matches my experience with my 09 Road Glide. I didn't need it but I have heard that in some cases the bike may need to have the positional cams in the handgrip adjusted.