ESA - Hall Effect Sensor Error

[RoyF]

Evening All,

I know this is technically in the wrong section as it's on a K1600GT, but please bear with me. My rear ESA suspension has stopped working (can't change pre-load or damping settings on the rear), and the GS-911 says I have a 'Rear Hall Effect Sensor Error'. I've checked the wiring on the bike which meters out ok, so then I pulled the black 4 pin pre-load ESA plug on my 2013 GSA to compare. The outer two wires on both bikes that go to the motor are doing what they should, if I put 12v across the pins the preload winds all the way down and back up again if I reverse polarity, but the Hall Sensor which is on the centre two pins reads open circuit on the K1600, but on diode test gives a voltage drop of 0.8v one way and 1.9v the other way on my GSA as I would have ecpected, leading me to believe the Hall Sensor has failed.

Replacement part from BMW is £1,600, the whole shock as a unit !!, Wilbers etc is out of the question as it's the electronics that are gone not the shock.

Does anyone know who can repair the ESA unit of the shock? Or does anyone have a shot BMW ESA unit gathering dust somewhere ??, I'm hoping any ESA unit will have the same hall effect sensor (GSA, K1600GT etc) that I could maybe take apart and swap out the hall sensor to get my shock back up and running?

Other (helpful) suggestions also appreciated, but I do want to keep the factory standard ESA.

Many Thanks,

Roy.

 

[Pukmeister]

Engineer is the forum boffin on electronics, maybe PM him ??

 

[G5RJO]

Isn't the rear hall effect sensor a simple speed sensor?

You can't change preload etc if the bike is moving.

If the hall sensor has no signal the bike isn't sure if its moving or not... so... no preload changes.

I'd bet its the speed sensor and nothing to do with your ESA...

On a GS/GSA you can swap sensors over front to rear. I'd trace the wiring, swap them over and/or remove the rear one and give it a good clean.

Roger.

 

[APW]

Isn't the rear hall effect sensor a simple speed sensor?

You can't change preload etc if the bike is moving.

If the hall sensor has no signal the bike isn't sure if its moving or not... so... no preload changes.

I'd bet its the speed sensor and nothing to do with your ESA...

On a GS/GSA you can swap sensors over front to rear. I'd trace the wiring, swap them over and/or remove the rear one and give it a good clean.

Roger.

give it a good clean would be my bet too

 

[RoyF]

Thanks for the replies guys, good thiking with the rear speed sensor, however I get no errors at all from the ABS and everything else apart from the rear ESA works fine.

With the intenal Hall Efect sensor on the K1600 ESA reading open circuit, compared to my GSA, plus my GS-911 giving me the error "480DB6 - Hall Effect Sensor of Rear ESA", this was what was bringing me back to the hall effect position sensor within the ESA motor unless I'm missing something obvious? Wouldn't the rear speed sensor give me an ABS warning or error, and the ESA just not work rather than log an error code ?.

Cheers,

Roy.

 

[Roymondo]

Pretty sure you can discount the rear wheel speed sensor if the speedo and ABS both work normally.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

 

[RoyF]

Thanks Roymondo....

Guess that puts me back to the internal ESA hall sensor, although to be fair I never even gave the speed sensor a second thought when the preload wouldn't work. It was a good suggestion from GSRJO and APW though, that's what I like about this forum!!

I'll try our forum guru 'Engineer' to see if he has any bright ideas, but in the meantime if anyone has an old ESA shock (regardless of the actual shock condition) that they are looking to move on and I could try and take a sensor out of, then please let me know.

Many Thanks,

Roy.