Heated Grips intermittant Fault

[russ_fae_fyvie]

Recently the heated grips decided not to work, not just the RH one but both together. Initially I thought it was a fuse but then realised these bikes dont have fuses !

Seems to be if I don't feel them come on in the morning (now its cold!) I have to pull over, turn the bike off, turn the grips off, then restart the bike which I understand resets the electronic fuse ??

That is a bit of a pain to have to do as you can imagine.

Trouble is, why is it suddenly doing this, bike is exactly the same as its always been so any ideas why they should be doing this, anyone else had the same issue ?

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

I believe there is some clever system that recognises if there is insufficient charge in the electrical system, and cuts the power to the heated grips first. That is certainly the situation according to the handbook on my K1200 (though I've not had any issues with the grips being switched off on ether the K1200 of the F700).

Maybe starting first thing drops the voltage too much so the grips get the chop, but startign again after a few minutes is ok?

 

[adventuredon]

I have a 2010 GS and have exactly the same symptoms. In fact this morning I pulled over and restarted bike (without switching heated grips off) and it worked. I seem to have this a few times a year and its rings a bell that it happened last year just as we had the first cold spell! Switching bike off and on always resets it/ allows them to work.

I have been to BM and they say its the switch gear. Which does not make sense (and these were changed by me last time at my expense to prove the stealers wrong! Redhill were adamant it was a switch gear issue and its not covered under ext warranty). Trouble is, its intermittent so BMW never could replicate the problem). My bike is ridden 23 miles a day and battery shows a charge of over 12.4 ish v when off. It is the 2010 oem battery and bike has 30 000 miles. Maybe it is as you say the charge dropping and battery needs replacing soon?...but how then could I have made it a whole year through last winter and this year with a failing battery? BMW never mentioned a drop in charge thing to me cutting circuits although I have read it elsewhere before. Keep us posted if the battery replacement makes any difference. I don't see how it can be a failing heated grip as its on both sides and the retsart always makes it work - but as you say - thats a pain!

I believe there is some clever system that recognises if there is insufficient charge in the electrical system, and cuts the power to the heated grips first. That is certainly the situation according to the handbook on my K1200 (though I've not had any issues with the grips being switched off on ether the K1200 of the F700).

Maybe starting first thing drops the voltage too much so the grips get the chop, but startign again after a few minutes is ok?

 

[lukeeole]

I get the same problem now and again. Spoke with BMW in Cardiff, the lad there said it can be due to the crushing of the heating elements in the grips, when your hand grips in a certain place the circuit is broken stopping the elements from working properly.

 

[RSMike]

Me too! 2012 SE.

I have had it from almost day 1. Reading the manual, it seems it can decide to do this based on charge, as Robin indicated. Position 3 seems to be pretty much a no no. It's the only thing on the bike that I would say is a niggle. Electronics is too smart IMHO. Had a R1100RS for years and never had the grips not work. I often use the bike for a short (5 mile) commute and even though I generally put the battery on an optimate it still happens.

Now I try to remember to always switch them off before starting, and to only turn the grips on at higher revs, seems to work a bit more consistently, but still not sure. The pulling over, switching off and on is too much of a pain in the a@&se, so I have pretty much given up on the grips on short trips.

This bike is so rare at my stealership, I have not even mentioned it the few times I have been back to them. I don't have great confidence in stealers, especially for intermittent issues like this. My last bike was a Bonneville and it had a similar issue, again too smart electronics decided the brain could not function below 12.somethingV and would disable the starter! Triumph issued a "city tune" software version it was such an issue for short commuters. For that bike some claimed the "city tune" did cause some running issues, so I avoided it and always used the optimate overnight, which worked.

If anyone nails a proper fix for this please let us know, it's a bummer getting frostbite, when you paid for heated grips!

 

[earthmover]

Denise had this problem when we had a charging issue with her 650. The grips would fail halfway through the day, and eventually the bike wouldn't start after we stopped for fuel.
I believe it is correct that the system shuts down accessories when charge gets low.
Mark

 

[adventuredon]

fluffing...how can this even be possible? BUT. I just swapped in a brand new battery and the issue persists. It is can not be the cicrcuit protecting/charge thing. They are always off when bike started as well, and no other goodies to pull power. OEM battery showed 12.6 on the bike and 12.2 on start up...so I think the battery is okay ish. The new battery showed 13.8 and 13.4...BUT the heated grip issue remains. Happened on Fri morning. Today all good every time. I am convinced it is something besides this protecting circuit thing. Its been an issue since year 1 on mine - won't bore you with the return history etc - but just to say that I don't believe it is related to battery--and service guys at BMW cannot replicate it, so I got fobbed off a few times..

I get the same problem now and again. Spoke with BMW in Cardiff, the lad there said it can be due to the crushing of the heating elements in the grips, when your hand grips in a certain place the circuit is broken stopping the elements from working properly.

 

[motor_mad_man]

I too did have a fault my heated grips wouldn't work then would work if l stopped for fuel, it was very intermittent. After speaking to my friendly dealer they told me to put it on a optimate charger (even thought l ride it 4 times a week to work, didn't make sense) but it hasn't happen since putting it on charger once a week.

On Saturday it was in for its 6k service and l asked them to look at it and they said that there was a low voltage volt in the system which causes the heated grips not to work.

Hope this helps.


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[RSMike]

deleted duplicate


 

[RSMike]

I just got a gs911 as I am doing my own servicing from now on.

Anyway when I ran the full report, I noticed their were previous faults stored on the heated grips, it went like this when I drilled into the detail:

ZFE
41784: Right heated grip malfunction, short-circuit
The fault is not present now.
This fault occurred 81 times.
Logistic counter: 37
Symptom: Signal or value over threshold. MIL set: No
Fault code history:
Odometer
16816.0 km
Vehicle speed
0.00 km/h
Battery voltage
10.91 V

41786: Left heated grip malfunction, short-circuit
The fault is not present now.
This fault occurred 81 times.
Logistic counter: 37
Symptom: Signal or value over threshold. MIL set: No
Fault code history:
Odometer
16816.0 km
Vehicle speed
0.00 km/h
Battery voltage
10.91 V


81 times

This dealer never noticed / pointed any of this out to me when the bike was in for a service last year and the heated grips were definitely intermittent at that stage.

Voltage at 10.91 looks low at time of the last fault, but this may just be a symptom, I'll have to check wiring but could not see anything obvious,