Has anyone enabled the Engine Idle Temperature Management on a 103" (stock pipes, etc.)? As summer approaches, I'm facing a daily commute through the DFW area where we have a TON of road construction and traffic gridlock. Aside from adding an oil cooler and running synth, would you recommend having the dealer turn this on?

The fact that this isn't enabled by default leads me to believe that there may be some drawbacks - so I'm interested in any feedback from those who've actually had this done.

thanks!

 

I don't have my manual in front of me but I believe you activate this, not the dealer. You rotate the throttle away from you and hold it there a couple of seconds when the engine is idling. Same way to disable it. There is a brief indicator I think, but remember that even when this is active it only kicks in if the engine gets too hot. I assume it is a wothwhile feature.

 

The dealer has to apply a firmware update to the BCM before this is enabled. The first time is free - and I *think* they will back it out at no charge if you decide later to disable it.

 

Perhaps it is always on for specific touring models. Your response made me curious so I got out my owners manual, and it makes no mention of opting for the dealer to enable the function before use. After a brief instruction of how to enable/disable the function ( I was incorrect, the engine does not need to be running) the manual states that : "The EITMS setting will remain in effect until it is changed by the rider or the dealer. It does not have to be reconfigured at each startup".

 

Unless its changed for the '13 bikes, the only way to enable it is via a SEPST if you have one or the dealer using the Harley diagnostics.

It has to be pretty hot for it to kick in, like 5 minutes with no movement.

I'm just wary of it for the long-term life of the engine. You are going to be running the engine on one cylinder and I just can't think that is going to do it a lot of good.

A better option would be to fit some Xieds (nightrider.com). This will drop the engine temperature quite a bit and make a really big difference to your daily commute.

 

It works fine on my Ultra Classic. It has only kicked on twice, both in Taos, NM while stuck in traffic. There are actually two stages to it: first it will richen up the fuel mixture in an attempt to cool and if that is not enough, the rear cylinder will be cut off and be turned into a fresh air pump. It works just fine for me.
As far as a Fly By Wire bike, enabling is a two stage process. The dealer (or anyone with access to the ECM) must enable it for the bike. The rider than enables it as he/she wishes through the above mentioned throttle forward/cruise control flashing lights procedure. Not sure how the rider option works or is even available for the Dyna models.
Bottom line is I see only benefits from enabling it.

 

i don't think you can turn it on yourself as our bikes don't have the throttle by wire system that the touring bikes got in '08

had them turn it on for me last summer here in NJ as the traffic at the shore can be horrendous.. personally I love it and the only NON issue i found is when it kicks in you need to blip the throttle before you pull away to reactivate that rear cylinder or the bike will lug and it seems to take longer for the cylinder to kick back in

 

I asked about it when I bought mine. Dealer said they could turn it on if I wanted them to, but didn't think it was really needed here in San Diego so I didn't do it.

One of the great things about a Power Vision tuner is you can enable this yourself and change the on and off temp. If you're planning on doing a stage 1 later, you might want to go with PV for that (and many other) reason.

According to my STK tune, the EITMS on temp is 347, off at 338.

On the touring models, it is activated by rolling forward on the throttle, but on our bikes, it has to be enable in the ECM. The it comes on based on temp.

 

Update for TowJam:

I just did a cam upgrade and the new map Dynojet sent me had EITMS enabled with the on temp set to 284*, which I was unaware of until yesterday.

It kicked on while I was waiting in line to get through the gate yesterday and at first I thought something bad happened to my exhaust. When I blipped the throttle, everything was fine, but then the odd sounding idle would return. It dawned on me that it was EITMS. When I got home last night I checked and there it was in the map, enabled at 284*.

Now that I know what it is, it doesn't bother me.

FWIW, if you plan on idling in traffic a lot, you may want to have it enabled. I doesn't affect the ride at all as far as I can tell.

 

Thanks for taking the time to follow-up. Based on your experience, I'll probably go ahead and pull the trigger. Worst case scenario, I go back and have the dealer disable it after these summer temps cool down.