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HELP! trying to troubleshoot my 18 MT 07


Spm13

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Has about 8k miles of normal miles, I dont romp on it a lot, i was recently in a little accident.  Car in oncoming turned left right in front of me, so needless to say I went down on mostly the right side, most of the cosmetic damage to right side and plastics really, pretty easy fix... BUT!! I had to put a new exhaust so with the insurance money I got the akra carbon full system... installed it nice, everything went smooth, but now here is my major issue...

The left header (looking at the headlight from the front) is turning like MASSIVELY dark blue effin purple even, and my bike has always run nice and smooth soooo.... also I now notice a really strong smell everytime I'm sitting there in idle and sometimes when I'm riding.  It smells like a melting/ steamy smell, honestly I dunno if it's just me but when you start your bike up after it just rained when motor still wet, and you smell like the steam, that's what I'm smelling always now until the bike is turned back off... the header on the right seems to pretty much be okay for the most part. A little dark blueing at the gasket but that's prolly cuz I'm very lean, so for the most part I'm just concerned about this one side... also while riding and revving in neutral you can here a lot of whooshing and airflow like IN the actual motor... I have pinpointed it to pretty much where the injectors/ MAF/ throttle bottle/ intake manifold.... all around that area is where the loud whooshing is coming from but like inside the motor... and I know that's a usual sound but trust me, not this loud!!! I'm just concerned with my babys health, shes always run so clean so if any of you have any thoughts I would really really really appreciate it!!!  Thank you sooo much guys!!!

PS- also, I'm tuned for that specific exhaust, running with stock airbox and filter so it's not that either, and its still running crazy lean 😔😔😔

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Did I maybe knock a valve out of whack, or damage the spark plug on that side or maybe messed up the injector on that side??? Maybe a connector popped loose... I took all plastics back off and gonna take tank off later today, sooo I really just need help on what would be the best place to start

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Kinda hard to visualize damage without any pictures. But first things first, no MAF on the MT07 (easy mistake, not trying to be rude).

Im seeing two things: Smells like steam, air rushing noises.

Why do you think its running lean? The pipe color?

I thinking maybe a cracked airbox from the accident causing your air noises (which wont run as lean as your claiming it is).

Exhaust gasket leak?

Coolant some how getting into the cylinders? and causing the steam smell. Could explain the pipe color.

Go all over everything, double check connections, hoses and make sure everything looks in the right place.

Trying to help. Just going off what im reading in your post. 

BTW: You would really have to smash the living daylights outa that bike to "knock a valve loose"  or damage a spark plug in an accident.

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Could your throttle bodies be horribley out of sync?  Damaged injector/injector harness?  Check the ECU and harness, it's on the right side of the bike, maybe it took a hit?

Edited by paxx
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19 hours ago, geophb said:

Kinda hard to visualize damage without any pictures. But first things first, no MAF on the MT07 (easy mistake, not trying to be rude).

Im seeing two things: Smells like steam, air rushing noises.

Why do you think its running lean? The pipe color?

I thinking maybe a cracked airbox from the accident causing your air noises (which wont run as lean as your claiming it is).

Exhaust gasket leak?

Coolant some how getting into the cylinders? and causing the steam smell. Could explain the pipe color.

Go all over everything, double check connections, hoses and make sure everything looks in the right place.

Trying to help. Just going off what im reading in your post. 

BTW: You would really have to smash the living daylights outa that bike to "knock a valve loose"  or damage a spark plug in an accident.

Thank you brotha I appreciate a place to start at least, I'll upload some pics later on today... lol maf, oh well.... so yea basically the smell, the color and the sound is what I'm taking from whatever is going on, the airbox did move a tiny bit but it doesnt look like any cracks, and the throttle bodies look to have solid connections still... as far as the color, I'm just really concerned that it's only the one pipe, not the other, and why it turned so dark blue within like a week of light riding... the exhaust gaskets are solid as well, Ive constantly been testing for any leaks there and still nothing... my temp gauge reads fine and it doesnt feel like its overheating (the motor)... and the coolant leaking in, I mean maybe, the radiator did sustain a tiny bit of damage but it still runs fine and no leaks so I just negated anything to do with the radiator because like I said it seemed fine, and when I changed the oil it didnt appear to have any coolant in it, no milky or tainted colors... soon as I get off work I'll post some pics... again brotha I really appreciate it as I'm not really mechanically inclined when it comes to diagnosing things, but I'm usually always able to do everything myself so well see

Edited by Spm13
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  • 4 months later...

Did you ever get to the bottom of this? I ask because I've experienced an oddly similar situation with my '18 MT-07 and Akrapovic carbon... maybe we can help each other out. Soon after install I noticed one of the headers turning a deep blue (same one you describe) while the other showed only slight colour change. The sound you describe wasn't present, but I had some trouble with intermittent rough idling. I installed a Power Commander, DNA air filter and had it tuned on a dyno which I believe solved the idling issue (the issue disappeared a few hundred miles after tuning and hasn't returned a few thousand later). Over time the colour of the left header has 'caught up' a little with the right, although the right is still a much more vibrant blue. Again, no leaks at the headers with all bolts torqued to spec and new OEM gaskets installed correctly at the time the exhaust was put on.

I got somewhat obsessed over this for a while- got talking to a lot of people about it and always check the colour of the pipes on any MT07 I come across. Seen 2 now with the same display of colour i.e. much more bluing on the right cylinder exhaust header than the left- one was an '18 with stock exhaust and the other a tracer 700 of unknown year with stock exhaust. The colour of the right header on these bikes wasn't as pronounced or deep blue as on my bike, which I'm guessing is down to the width of pipe used on the OEM exhaust, however the difference was still clearly present. I asked the dyno technician who worked on my bike about it, he said it could be down to how the cylinders are mapped individually from factory (one possibly running leaner than the other). A Yamaha dealer mechanic said it could be how the air hits the bike, i.e. once pipe more than the other, keeping it cooler = less colour (if this was the case, surely all MT07's would develop this characteristic). I thought myself about it being a partially blocked injector, or bad seal/connection somewhere associated with air/fuel delivery to one of the cylinders etc. but could not for the life of me find any issues. Maybe throttle body sync is out? Either way, performance doesn't seem to have been affected by the phenomenon (68bhp on the dyno and regularly getting 55mpg+ based on calculations between fill ups) and my bike is in good health now at 5,000 miles.

I refrain from calling this an 'issue' at this stage, as I now understand it to likely be a harmless(?) innate characteristic present in some of these bikes or caused by something they're predisposed to developing. I understand that it isn't exclusively associated with the Akrapovic carbon, as I have seen it first had on stock bikes- the colour change is more noticeable on aftermarket pipes and so only becomes apparent as an 'issue' to the owner at this point.

In the end, with everything running fine I put my search for answers on hold and just started to ride and enjoy the bike again. The advice from a Yamaha mechanic "I think the blue looks pretty cool- chill out and ride it". Ultimately I would love to know the cause and effects of this "one blue header" characteristic, and how widespread it is amongst the MT07 population- for science and, you know, my own scathing pathological need for closure.

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