When Kawasaki introduced their new Ninja 300 last year, it also came with a new fuel injection system – the previous Ninja 250 had run carburetors.
But now the US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into reported stalling issues with the Ninja 300.
You can read about the stalling issues here; supposedly, some owners are finding their Ninjas will stall if they reduce throttle input. A NHTSA document found here says the root cause is not known, but that dealers have identified the fuel injection system as being the problem.
Also, note the document says the issue hasn’t been blamed for any accidents, and only 18 owners have contacted the feds about the problem. According to the Ninja 300 forum, the glitch is more widespread than that, but if that’s the case, the owners who are experiencing the issues aren’t reporting them, only complaining on the internet – for whatever that is worth.
[…] is currently investigating a stalling engine problem reported by several Kawasaki Ninja 300 owners, CMG informs us. It appears that in some cases, reducing the throttle would cause the engine to stall, […]
One of the theories being presented is that the factory idle setting is too low (1350 rpm). By merely turning the idle up to around 1750, the issue seems to go away. Not unusual on small displacement engines.
Idle speed probably has an impact on emissions.