Why Does My Honda CRF250 Die After a Few Minutes?

If your Honda motorcycle keeps shutting off after a few minutes of riding it, as if the fuel valve has been shut off, see if the fuel cap has a check valve inside it you may have overlooked.

Partzilla’s Honda motorcycle expert John Talley hosts live Q&A sessions on our YouTube channel every Friday at 3pm Eastern. In this session, John was asked what could be causing a 2007 Honda CRF250R dirt bike to continually shut off after only a few minutes of riding. 

Honda CRF250 Shuts Off After a Few Minutes Q&A

I’m having a problem with my 2007 Honda CRF250R. It starts and runs very well, but after 3-5 minutes it shuts off, and the engine just dies as if the fuel valve was cut off. It’s exactly like when you forget to open the fuel valve when you go riding. It just dies after a few minutes. I think it’s a carburetor related thing, but I don’t know much about carbs. Any idea what it could be?

John Talley: Chances are that you’re building up a vacuum inside of the tank. There is a check valve in the gas cap, and more than likely that is hung up and it’s not letting air come in and replace the volume as the fuel goes down to the carburetor. And after a while it’s going to equalize on its own when the machine is just sitting there, but it’s not going to do it quickly enough because it’s starving the carburetor for fuel. That would be my best bet at this point. So it could be something as simple as the breather hose being stopped up, or that check valve that I just mentioned. Your problem is probably going to lie in one of those two areas.

Watch the video below to see how to clean the carburetor of a Honda CRF450R motorcycle.

Watch the video below to learn about reasons why a motorcycle only runs on choke.

Watch the video below to learn about whether you should clean, rebuild or replace a carburetor.

Want to see more live repair questions answered? See more motorcycle and ATV repair questions answered here.