New EU2000i surges at idle

TRIPLE8 wrote:

Wiley75 wrote:
I just bought a new Companion 2000 to parallel with my older EU2000. The new gen runs kinda weird at low loads as well. I wouldn't call it a surge, but it definately "bobbles" around. My older gen runs smooth as glass. I too have been trying to figure it out. It's definately not a gummed up carb since it did it right out of the box brand new. I think it's a setting on the carb

Hi,my new one is doing the same thing, not the companion but the reg 2000. Not a surging but (bobbling) as you say, also blows white smoke at startup. My old 2000 was still working great when I sold it.
(a few thousand hours later)

Definitely something wrong. Bad gas maybe? Choke stuck on? My 9 yr old EU2000 has never produced any smoke of any kind.

Wiley75 wrote:
I just bought a new Companion 2000 to parallel with my older EU2000. The new gen runs kinda weird at low loads as well. I wouldn't call it a surge, but it definately "bobbles" around. My older gen runs smooth as glass. I too have been trying to figure it out. It's definately not a gummed up carb since it did it right out of the box brand new. I think it's a setting on the carb

Hi,my new one is doing the same thing, not the companion but the reg 2000. Not a surging but (bobbling) as you say, also blows white smoke at startup. My old 2000 was still working great when I sold it.
(a few thousand hours later)

FYI, here's the link to find a Honda dealer anywhere in the USA; you can search by City/State or just ZIP code...be sure to select GENERATOR when searching:

Find a Honda Dealer



-Robert@Honda
Caveat: I work for Honda, but the preceding is my opinion alone.

mlts22 wrote:

Snowman9000 wrote:
I have had that problem. It was a dirty carb. Although I've had good luck with Seafoam, I've had even better results with Sta-Bil Marine treatment to clean up dirty carbs. Not the old pink Sta-Bil, this one is dark blue-green. It has a storage dosage and a clean up dosage. And it works! It fixed my 2000 right up.

PS: Yes, this could happen with 10 hours on it. If the gas sat it in for a month or so. It does not take long with these things.

Thanks for the advice. I have plenty of Sta-Bil, but use the red stuff, guess I'll try the marine bottle next time I do some generator running.

I can't say enough about the marine Sta-Bil. (And I hated the pink version with our ethanol gas.) I won't need to buy Seafoam again because the marine Sta-Bil works better than Seafoam. Just recently I've revived two lawn mowers that barely ran. Put in the clean up dosage of Marine Sta-Bil, run it, let it sit a couple of days, run it, let it sit, etc. In about 5 to 7 days, they ran like new.

FootSoldier wrote:
Is that normal for these generators? Mine starts easy, runs great under load, but sure seems to surge a lot at idle. It has less than 10 hrs on it now.

I did have one issue once when it would not rev up from eco-mode to pick up the load from fu-fu coffee maker. Only happened once and has worked every time since.

Maybe just a little more break-in time will help both issues?

Thanks!

I had that problem and cleaning the filter in the line from the tank solved it. These are very picky on clean unobstructed flow of fuel.

Larry

I used new/fresh gas without any Stabil the very first time I ran it with just a little fuel. Then I added the red Stabil to the 5 gal can about a week later.

I am going to drain it, get some more fresh fuel and give her another go. If no good, then I'll call the dealer. Right now, the idle is just too rough.

Oh, and the very first time I ran it, I did forget to open the tank vent, but not since then.

Thanks for the good info to all.

nbounder wrote:
OP said "new' (as noted by oldman). This needs to be addressed by Honda, not a forum. OP could easily void his warantee by following a bad set of instructions. Call Honda, Mr. foot soldier, or go back to the point of purchase.

While I agree with you for the most part, the first thing I would eliminate is old, bad gas. I'm talking about filling up your new Honda genny from that red plastic gas can that you used for the lawn mower about a year ago. Absent that, and the OP filled the genny up with fresh gas on the first pull, I'm with you 100% and say take it back to the dealer as something is wrong. This assumes the OP is not running the genny with the choke on or cap closed as noted above.

My 8 year old Honda 3000i did this not too long ago.. I've always kept gas in it and I do exercise it from time to time, but it was surging in eco mode with no load. Even with a little load, it still surged.

I turned off the eco and let it run full speed and put about 1500 watt load on it and ran it for about 4 hours (I plugged it into my house gen switch and flipped the switches).

It used about 2 gallons of gas during that time! I've ran it for 36 hours before (on eco) on the house and it only used 5 gallons of gas..

Anyway, after doing that, the next time I exercised it, it idled smooth as ever...

I think it just needed to run 'hard', kinda like "blowing out the carbon" on your vehicles engine every now and then... ;)

Dunno if that was it or not, but that's my story!

Mitch

OP said "new' (as noted by oldman). This needs to be addressed by Honda, not a forum. OP could easily void his warantee by following a bad set of instructions. Call Honda, Mr. foot soldier, or go back to the point of purchase.

JesLookin wrote:
I lent my 2000 to a neighbor whose power was out. He used it for a couple days & returned it after filling the gas tank. I use it a week later and it would surge. Drained the gas & filled it with fresh gas, now it works great.

I'm kinda thinking along the same lines. On a new Honda genny, Stabl, Seafoam, etc, won't do anything unless the first tank of gas was badly contaminated for some reason and threw a bunch of gum in the carb.

I'd try fresh gas from a new source and then try it out. Maybe the OP filled the genny from a gas can with old gas? That would do it. Bottom line is the EU2000 should not surge. Mine doesn't after 9 years. Other possibility is he's got something wrong with the new genny. Happens. That's what warranties are for. Take it back to the dealer you bought it from.