NHTSA Complaint #10245718 — 2008 DUCATI HYPERMOTARD

ON JULY 11, 2008 I PURCHASED A NEW DUCATI HYPERMOTARD 1100 MOTORCYLE. APPROXIMATELY 2 DAYS LATER IT STARTED STALLING UPON INITIAL START UP. IT WOULD RESTART AND IDLE ROUGH. THEN AFTER MOVING OFF TO MY FIRST STOP (INTERSECTION ,LIGHT ETC.) IT WOULD STALL AGAIN. ONCE MOTORCYCLE WAS FULLY WARMED UP IT WOULDN'T STALL AS MUCH. I TOOK THE MOTORCYCLE TO DEALER WHERE PURCHASED AND THEY RESET THE TPS(THROTTLE POSITION SENSOR) AND RAISED THE IDLE. THE BIKE WOULD STILL STALL OUT ESPECIALLY THE WARMER THE OUTSIDE TEMPERATURE WAS. I BROUGHT BIKE BACK TO DEALER AND THEY REPLACED THE OXYGEN SENSOR AND OIL TEMPERATURE SENSOR. THE BIKE STILL STALLS . IT SEEMS TO STALL MORE FREQUENTLY WHEN IT IS WARM OUT. THE WARMER IT IS THE WORSE IT IS. IT WILL STALL UPON START UP AND THEN AT THE NEXT FEW STOPS (INTERSECTION, LIGHT, ETC.). MOST TIMES IT WILL STALL WITH NO WARNING. UPON SOME RESEARCH OF MY OWN I AM NOT THE ONLY ONE WITH THIS PROBLEM. MOST PEOPLE ARE EITHER LIVING WITH IT; OR REPLACING THE EXHAUST AND PUTTING ON A PERFORMANCE ECU (ELECTRONIC CONTROL UNIT) THAT COMES WITH THE EXHAUST. AFTER SPEAKING TO ANOTHER LOCAL DEALER THEY TOLD ME THE SAME THING. THE ONLY WAY TO FIX THE STALLING IS REPLACING THE ECU WITH A PERFORMANCE ONE. WHICH MAKES THE MOTORCYCLE EMISSION ILLEGAL. DUCATI SEEMS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS PROBLEM; BECAUSE THEY HAVE ALL SORTS OF TEST AND FORMS FOR THE DEALERS TO FILL OUT AND DO. BUT NO REMEDY TO THE STALLING. AS OF TODAY OCTOBER 16, 2008 THE MOTORCYCLE STILL STALLS OUT. *TR