Engine cut out. Black dash. WTF is that all about?

Boxerboy55

Boxerboy55

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After replacing a dicky EWS during the week and happily riding around 300 trouble free miles on the new EWS, today for the first time ever the bike just cut out while accelerating and coasted to a stop with a totally black dash. No lights at all. Nothing. Zip.

At that point I thought it would be breakdown truck home, but I flicked the key a few time and it started up again and ran OK for the rest of the day. Home now in 1 piece. Can I trust this bike any more??

ps - 2006 GS12 11,333 miles.
 
I believe...but may be wrong of course...that some people have experienced this when the switch is faulty.

I'm sure somebody who's experienced this will be along soon....
:thumb2
 
Sounds like a total electrical failure, if it isn't the ignition switch check the battery supply/earth terminal is tight.
 
It does point to the ignition switch. As has been said, this has been reported before and in some cases may be due to too much extra junk on the key ring which causes it to rotate to 'off' while riding.

Might be worth trying to repeat the fault with the bike stationary by jiggling the key and also the wires going to it, especially as you have been in that area replacing the EWS
 
The cut wire (damaged by your assistant) when you replaced the EWS (see your thread) perhaps :nenau

Something has turned all the power off.

Start at the beginning of the chain:

(a) Battery terminals. Tight?

(b) Loose key / ignition assembly? Including the grubby / loose insides (see threads) and jingly keys (see threads)

(c) Damaged wiring? (See your thread)
 
Thanks for comments. I only run with single ignition key with a simple plastic tab so no bunch of keys jangling there.

Bike is starting and running normally now and all seems OK, so logic suggests that ignition system switched off.

Probability of key shaking itself into the OFF position seems very low, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen.
 
Same happened to me last week, turned out that I'd put the key in to unlock steering and move bike before starting and it just clicked on to ignition setting, but not with a positive click.

Time I'd put my gear on, I just started and rode off, 5 mins later while overtaking a car on a tight dual carrigeway bend, it clicked off.

I check it every time now! :augie
 
Total electrical failure on the move!

Hi All,

I know it's some time since this thread was started, but I thought I'd better post in case this happens to someone else.

I was riding along in the outside lane of the M6 when the bike died - no engine, no dash, no nothing. I won't bore you with the details of how I nearly got killed, but safe to say, I wasn't impressed!

After pulling over, the ignition key (no fob, just the key) was still facing vertically in the on poisition. I switched it off and then on, and everything was fine.

I left the bike with my local expert, and the computer diagnostics highlighted a power surge of greater than 13amps. As there are no fuses on the bike (2006 GS), the system cuts out completely. We isolated this to "component group 3". This group consists of:

  • Starter relay
  • EWS ring aerial
  • Ignition coils
  • Injection valves

Now, it's probably not the starter relay as I was riding in a straight line on a warm day and had been riding for about 2 hours. It's probably not the EWS, as there's no way that's going to spike at 13 amps! That leaves the injectors and the coil pack. Unfortunately it's hundreds of pounds to replace either, and no guarantee that it will solve the problem, so I've left it for the time being and am now practicing re-starting the bike on the move. . .

Obviously, my favourite culprit will be the coils, so once I've won the lottery I'll switch them out, but as other people have said previously, how can I trust the bike now? I'm not happy about chopping the bike in for an upgrade either - firstly I'm happy with the bike and don't want to change, secondly I can't afford to change, but thirdly, how am I going to feel passing on a bike that could kill it's next owner?

Oh well, I do ride because it's more interesting than driving a car. . .
 
Colin1958 said:
Hi All,

I left the bike with my local expert, and the computer diagnostics highlighted a power surge of greater than 13amps. As there are no fuses on the bike (2006 GS), the system cuts out completely. We isolated this to "component group 3". This group consists of:

  • Starter relay
  • EWS ring aerial
  • Ignition coils
  • Injection valves

Obviously, my favourite culprit will be the coils, so once I've won the lottery I'll switch them out...................
Click to expand...

Interesting symptoms, I had a few cut-outs similar to you recently, followed by a dead lower right-hand coil. Solved with a replacement item.
 
could also be a rubbed/frayed cable for one of the above arcing off the frame.
Click to expand...

Yes, it could be, but that's one of the things we looked for, and checked every wire on the bike and found nothing.
Another of my cunning theories was a wire broken inside the insulation that occasionally separates inside, but my expert dismissed that for reasons I forget.
We also checked loose wires into the ignition switch, battery terminals, water in anything but nothing was found, and we ran a multi-meter on every wire on the bike too.

I'm hoping it's the coil pack, because if so, it'll fail soon, and when it's replaced I'll know for sure that was the problem
 
Well, the coil pack didn't fail, and I haven't had any cut-outs since. On the other hand, constantly expecting a failure was spoiling my enjoyment of riding, so I forked out £305 to change all 4 coils on the principle that I had to try something based on the best information available.

If I should get another cut-out I'll be back on here.
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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