2008 GSA ESA - should I notice it?

tornadof3

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Hi
Following TheMissendenFlyer's recent troubles with his rear ESA... I thought I'd look at the ESA on my 2008 GS Adventure. Bike rides nicely and feels comfy, no obvious problems but I was perturbed by the discussion of "hearing" the ESA adjust. When I press the ESA button tochange from the "1 helmet - 1 helmet + luggage - 2 helmets" and into the "1 mountain, 2 mountains" offroad stuff, I can neither hear nor see/feel any adjustment. This is with engine running and also engine off, ignition on on the side stand. Should I hear or see anything? I can feel no real difference to the riding or handling between the different settings.

So my worry is: is the ESA control actually doing any adjustment? Is it 'obvious' to others when the ESA is operated?
 
If I sit on mine and change to two helmets, my bike lifts an inch or so, I make sure I’m near the kerb before I do it, that’s how much difference there is for me, it is a 2017 Adv though.
 
I can't say I can hear it but it certainly does change.

Some years ago mine stopped adjusting but a trip to a dealer and some sort of diagnostic reset sorted it out.

Since then I've gone to ESA Wilbers.
 
Bend down and have a look while its adjusting. Movement is at the top so you need to be right down and looking up - from the RHS is best view. On two helmets at the rear you should be able to see a gap of about 10mm between the top of the spring and the flange at the top of the shock body. Same gap at the from on high mountains.

Or put your hand on the motor pump thing that hangs off the side of the shock while its adjusting. You should feel a slight buzz. Or place a long screwdriver on it and push the handle into your ear and listen.

Or put a GS911 on it. On of the real time values menus will tell you where the ESA is. You could also run the calibration process and it will tell you how it is adjusting for each setting.

My front preload motor went bust and I got an error message initially. Later the error went away even though the motor would no longer adjust.
 
The helmet settings change the ride height. The mountain settings soften the damping as well. I quite like floating along in full mountain mode though I can hardly reach the floor.

The three damping settings in the lower height modes should be noticeable. However I found Sport made the bike feel skittish with often worse road holding on all but billiard table smooth roads. Normal and Comfort are pretty much interchangeable so my bike spent most of it's life in one helmet comfort mode.

It's now on OEM non ESA shocks. The ride is harder and handling, while better than worn out ESA units, is nothing special. There is not enough compliance to properly deal with Britain's rough road surfaces. Ride height is the same BTW, though my non ESA units definitely came from a Mk 1 GS.

If you have the money fit Wilbers shocks using your original ESA equipment. Much better ride quality and a wider range of damping settings.
 
When I change the mountains setting, I can feel the bike raise and lower but when I'm riding and change the comfort/sport/normal, settings, to be honest, I cant say I notice any difference.
 
I think the gs911 diagnostic tool has a reset function for ESA.

It has a “calibrate” function that only works on slightly later models with a Hall Effect sensor on the shocks. Not sure when this came in but pretty sure 2008 has Hall effect.

What the calibrate function does is wind the shock from min preload to max preload and using the output from the Hall effect sensors counts the number of turns to do that. For the rear it’s something like 2000 turns. The front about 1100. Min preload: 1 helmet is set at 5% of the range, helmet + luggage at 50%; and 2 helmets 95%. For the front low mountains = 50% and high mountains 95%. These settings are hard coded into the cpu and afaik can’t be changed.

The whole lot is controlled by the Central CPU or ZFE unit - the big black box with two big connectors under the tank. This looks after the can-bus stuff that isn’t fuel, ignition and abs related.

If the preload isn’t working at all check the wiring connectors etcback from the shock to the cpu. Haynes manual wiring diagram tells you which terminals do what on the cpu connector which has the terminal numbers printed on.

I suspect the preload is working but if the spring and shock has gone “soggy” after nearly 10 years. Get it refurbed or or Wilbers once you are happy the preload (and damping) is functional. Wilbers just re-use your old motors.

The damper device is a stepper motor and works differently. As mine was working fine I didn’t go into it much.

More Info in my “can’t get it up” thread. http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/464228-Can-t-get-it-up
 
A bit more info. The front only adjusts when you select the "mountain" settings, up to that it's just the rear that is adjusting.
Sat on the bike engine running, going from one extreme to the other, it's very obvious to me it is changing correctly as i go from having my feet
almost flat on the ground to tip toes when going low to high.
As for the damping adjustment, with the bike stopped in a quiet environment (engine stopped) and listening carefully change the damping setting;
you should be able to hear a short buzzing type sound which are the stepper motors working; you will likely here two "buzzes" of different duration
indicating the front and rear damping being adjusted. If you can hear only one buz or none at all it's likely there is a fault.
A GS911 would be of assistance in determining if you have an ESA problem or not.
 
Mine is a 08 as well and I can definitely feel the diference, bike goes up for sure. Can't say that I hear any noises or anything like that though...

I always use the pillion mode when the wife is on the back and definitely makes a difference.

Should be easy to measure from the center of the wheel to a point straight up on the frame, if it doesn't change then definitely plug the computer and see what's up with it.

Do you feel any difference between soft, normal and sport? That also changes the feel of the bike a lot for me.
 
The front height adjustment tends to move all at once almost as if it has stuck. They all do that so its normal behaviour.
 
The front height adjustment tends to move all at once almost as if it has stuck. They all do that so its normal behaviour.

Mine dose that, thought it was a sticking adjuster. Rarely use the full mountain setting, once in Croatia about 5 years ago.. Got a buddy with a later TC and his is smooth. When I had the Wilbers done at Revs he said some do some dont. I dont worry about it.
 
I regularly "exercise" the ESA just to keep it moving and when going into the mountain
setting pull on the bars a bit which helps the motor/adjuster to do it's job.
 
I've had ESA on 2 previous RT's & my current GSA & I have never seen any discernible difference between any of the settings on any of the bikes.
 
A big thanks to all the people posting here. The great news for me is it turns out the bike is absolutely fine. The bad news is it turns out I'm a total idiot. For the benefit of future readers: to do the adjustment, hold the ESA button to change (eg 1 helmet to 1+luggage or 2 helmets), then WAIT..... the new setting then flashes for a few seconds and it is during this time that it becomes obvious the bike is moving. (engine on and stationary). I think I may have been too impatient and not waited for the flashing to even start, let alone complete.

Many thanks to all who responded.
 
To be fair it does take an inordinate amount of time before it starts to move.
Such a shame they did not go for a faster acting system that could raise and lower the bike quickly. It would be a great feature for short stress like me.
Before anyone accused me of criticising BMW, they started the ESA stuff and nobody else does an on-the-fly ride height system even now.
 


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