G650GS Switch Failures
F650GS then R1200GS and now the 'new' G650GS. After two weeks and 350 miles the G650GS developed a 'I am not going to start' syndrome. Went through the BMW Emergency Service, which is sub-contracted to Mondial who sub-contract to Motor Move, a move I will never do again, but that is another story. Back to my drealer who used the BMW diagnostics which found no irregularities even though the bike started for them every time. Returned bike to home, pressed the start button and nothing! Now getting really p!$$ed orf! Starter Motor, Solenoid both OK but no one thought of the push button starter switch. I monitored the voltage with a DVM across the primary of the solenoid and found a fluctuating voltage. Faulty switch!
I dismantled the switch down to its contact surfaces and from my electronics component background assess that this is the wrongly specified switch for this application for the following reasons. Firstly, it is not a water proof switch. Secondly, the return spring operates in the horizontal plane to the button, as expected, but there is no internal side pressure in the switch to keep the slide male and female contacts together. The contacts are free to float within the switch casing causing the intermittent operation of the switch . For a switch to be used many tens of thousands of times a single pole slide switch is not one of choice.
Has anyone else experienced this Starter Button failure? Why-o-Why could BMW could not have standardised the switches across the GS range and made the idiom of 'Unstoppable' true?
Ride Safe,
Mark