alecmuffett
Guest
HI All,
I just got ferried home by BMW recovery's agent in Warwick; long story short I was riding from Preston (Lancs) to Farnborough, making fuel and rest stops as I felt necessary.
I pulled into Sandbach, stopped, fitted-up for rain gear, had a bite to eat and pulled off bound for the motorway. I got about 200 meters down the M6 when I suddenly lost power, freewheeling somewhat. I pulled in the clutch and tried a rolling restart, but the bike wasn't having it, the rear briefly locked (so grab the clutch in and roll!) and thus I pulled to stop on the shoulder.
I tried rebooting the bike - I am careful to go through the full self test each time, I'm nerdy like that - but it wasn't restarting; I sighed, and wheeled it back upstream to the services with the slight help of a traffic patrol who pulled-over to ensure I didn't get flattened.
Sat in Sandbach wondering what to do - checked everything, fuel (half full splosh splosh) , oil (within bounds), diagnostic lights (normal), turned the alarm on/off twice, checked the kickstand is strongly sprung, etc), whipped the terminals off the battery for 2 minutes to reset the bike [see why, below].
Nothing helped.
Hmmm... The display seemed to be telling me that I had no petrol at all...
Finally I read the manual. "Step 1: Check kill switch." Whoops! It was set to "dead". Ha ha, I can't believe I did that, but I must have knocked it, what a muppet, etc etc... or so I thought.
Got rolling once again, M6, M42, M40, and got as far as Warwick services when the engine cut once more. Once again roll to the side of the road. Once again check everything, this time starting with the kill switch, which is set to "alive".
I spent the next hour on the side of the road waiting for the recovery truck; the bike turned-over most merrily on the starter, but apart from the occasional mild splutter would refuse to start. All the fairy lights look fine. Perhaps after a couple of attempts to turn over, the normal "brake fault" light starts flashing at double speed, but that may be spurious, or it may indicate something I don't understand.
I now reckon that on the first occasion on the M6, I must have hit the killswitch when trying to do a rolling restart - a lot more plausible - in which case the M40 incident is the second time it happened today.
I have no idea what's wrong; I was wondering about blocked fuel lines (but how come it cleared in Sandbach?), the chap in the recovery truck reckoned it might be the immobiliser going wrong, a dodgy key or weak battery in keyfob (but in that case why does the starter turn over, and how come the alarm on/off flashes twice/once properly?)
The one thing that I really *am* wondering about, on the other hand, is the software update to the bike which was performed a couple of weeks ago with all the other recalls.
I am a computer programmer and so am particularly sensitive to things like the staff at SPC telling me that the firmware upgrade takes 2+ hours, quote: "especially when it keeps crashing".
Me: "The update process? It crashes?"
SPC: "Oh yes."
I spend my days reflashing the firmware and settings on workstations and network switches - Sun, Cisco, and the like - and the process takes seconds, perhaps minutes, not hours. And it if crashes, we get very very loud and pointed indeed with the people who create the hardware.
So a crashing firmware updater does not give me confidence, but the same chap also told me that it is not possible to have a 24hr clock readout on my display, however, which I gather from other threads may not be so?
Anyway... Further evidence: Not being the sort to muck about with my bike's electronics (I am a "software engineer") I had SPC install a front power socket shortly after I got the bike; I use this with a proper BMW-type plug to power my Garmin 2610 GPS.
Ever since the software got "upgraded", the GPS (ie: the front power socket) has been switching itself off pseudorandomly; sometimes it works for a whole trip, whilst others - generally those where I have been turning the bike on/off without starting it properly, eg: to check mileage at a service station - it's dead more than it is alive.
That a loose wire is not the problem is evidenced by the fact that turning the bike off-and-on (such a Microsoft thing to do) often causes the GPS to spring into life, although it is not guaranteed to stay alive very long.
Also the red lamp embedded in the hazard warning button has started to behave erratically. There was a time when it was illuminated whenever the ignition was on, plus a certain grace period after switchoff. Now it is both off, or occasionally on, whilst the bike is running. The lamp no longer seems to have any bearing upon bike operation, other than being the button to turn the hazard lights on.
As a programmer I wonder if the ECU schedules events to turn-off power-socket-power, and in the update is not flushing the old events upon bike restart; this could lead to:
...for instance.
In summary, atop all the other theories stated above, I also strongly suspect that I have a dodgy software update, or that the ECU is toast.
Does this sound like anybody else?
- alec
I just got ferried home by BMW recovery's agent in Warwick; long story short I was riding from Preston (Lancs) to Farnborough, making fuel and rest stops as I felt necessary.
I pulled into Sandbach, stopped, fitted-up for rain gear, had a bite to eat and pulled off bound for the motorway. I got about 200 meters down the M6 when I suddenly lost power, freewheeling somewhat. I pulled in the clutch and tried a rolling restart, but the bike wasn't having it, the rear briefly locked (so grab the clutch in and roll!) and thus I pulled to stop on the shoulder.
I tried rebooting the bike - I am careful to go through the full self test each time, I'm nerdy like that - but it wasn't restarting; I sighed, and wheeled it back upstream to the services with the slight help of a traffic patrol who pulled-over to ensure I didn't get flattened.
Sat in Sandbach wondering what to do - checked everything, fuel (half full splosh splosh) , oil (within bounds), diagnostic lights (normal), turned the alarm on/off twice, checked the kickstand is strongly sprung, etc), whipped the terminals off the battery for 2 minutes to reset the bike [see why, below].
Nothing helped.
Hmmm... The display seemed to be telling me that I had no petrol at all...
Finally I read the manual. "Step 1: Check kill switch." Whoops! It was set to "dead". Ha ha, I can't believe I did that, but I must have knocked it, what a muppet, etc etc... or so I thought.
Got rolling once again, M6, M42, M40, and got as far as Warwick services when the engine cut once more. Once again roll to the side of the road. Once again check everything, this time starting with the kill switch, which is set to "alive".
I spent the next hour on the side of the road waiting for the recovery truck; the bike turned-over most merrily on the starter, but apart from the occasional mild splutter would refuse to start. All the fairy lights look fine. Perhaps after a couple of attempts to turn over, the normal "brake fault" light starts flashing at double speed, but that may be spurious, or it may indicate something I don't understand.
I now reckon that on the first occasion on the M6, I must have hit the killswitch when trying to do a rolling restart - a lot more plausible - in which case the M40 incident is the second time it happened today.
I have no idea what's wrong; I was wondering about blocked fuel lines (but how come it cleared in Sandbach?), the chap in the recovery truck reckoned it might be the immobiliser going wrong, a dodgy key or weak battery in keyfob (but in that case why does the starter turn over, and how come the alarm on/off flashes twice/once properly?)
The one thing that I really *am* wondering about, on the other hand, is the software update to the bike which was performed a couple of weeks ago with all the other recalls.
I am a computer programmer and so am particularly sensitive to things like the staff at SPC telling me that the firmware upgrade takes 2+ hours, quote: "especially when it keeps crashing".
Me: "The update process? It crashes?"
SPC: "Oh yes."
I spend my days reflashing the firmware and settings on workstations and network switches - Sun, Cisco, and the like - and the process takes seconds, perhaps minutes, not hours. And it if crashes, we get very very loud and pointed indeed with the people who create the hardware.
So a crashing firmware updater does not give me confidence, but the same chap also told me that it is not possible to have a 24hr clock readout on my display, however, which I gather from other threads may not be so?
Anyway... Further evidence: Not being the sort to muck about with my bike's electronics (I am a "software engineer") I had SPC install a front power socket shortly after I got the bike; I use this with a proper BMW-type plug to power my Garmin 2610 GPS.
Ever since the software got "upgraded", the GPS (ie: the front power socket) has been switching itself off pseudorandomly; sometimes it works for a whole trip, whilst others - generally those where I have been turning the bike on/off without starting it properly, eg: to check mileage at a service station - it's dead more than it is alive.
That a loose wire is not the problem is evidenced by the fact that turning the bike off-and-on (such a Microsoft thing to do) often causes the GPS to spring into life, although it is not guaranteed to stay alive very long.
Also the red lamp embedded in the hazard warning button has started to behave erratically. There was a time when it was illuminated whenever the ignition was on, plus a certain grace period after switchoff. Now it is both off, or occasionally on, whilst the bike is running. The lamp no longer seems to have any bearing upon bike operation, other than being the button to turn the hazard lights on.
As a programmer I wonder if the ECU schedules events to turn-off power-socket-power, and in the update is not flushing the old events upon bike restart; this could lead to:
- turn bike on
- read mileage
- turn bike off, switch-off-event scheduled
- turn bike on, ride away
- previously scheduled switch-off event executed
- power to the aux power sockets gets switched off while the bike is moving
- ECU gets confused
- hilarity follows
...for instance.
In summary, atop all the other theories stated above, I also strongly suspect that I have a dodgy software update, or that the ECU is toast.
Does this sound like anybody else?
- alec