Keyless Ride interference?

[JerseyNeil]

I have just returned from a few days blast around Brittany on my 2017 GS Rallye. After lunch today I returned to my bike which was parked in a busy carpark.

I pressed and held the ignition button and successfully unlocked the steering but when I pressed the button again to fire up the bike nothing happened. The red flashing symbol was flashing indicating that the fob was out of range. It wasn't. I tried several times.....Dead!

I had my small grey key which I offered up to the panel above the rear wheel. Nothing! Tried both methods about 10 times. Nowt! A few minutes later I tried again and everything was fine. Since then it has worked flawlessly and has always been fine before. On reflection, at the time the bike came to life a lady approached her Peugeot which was parked alongside my bike and unlocked it before getting in. This is the only thing that changed during this issue.

Has anyone heard of anything like this? I can only assume (on the information before me) that her car's locking system was interfering with mine.

Any enlightening info would be gratefully appreciated.

Neil

 

[Phill Elston]

Something similar happened to my two compatriots during our April run to/from and round the NC500. On day 4 we had ridden from Ullapool to Durness and then on to John O'Groats. We did the obligatory stop under the signpost pointing to various place ant then - because we were cold, went to have an overpriced cup of tea at the cafe. We parked up and switched off. Bikes had been performing flawlessly up till then. Had our cuppa and went back to the bikes. Mine - like theirs, a 2017 LC Adventure - flashed up and started first time. Fletch & John had next to nowt. A bit of head scratching and worry (because none of us had our plastic keys) when Fletch says "Lets try using our folding keys on the point under the rear mudguard" Bingo! It worked on both bikes. Neither bike - to the best of my knowledge - has since suffered this problem and the techs at the dealership (we all bought from the same place) haven't got a scooby either!

 

[JerseyNeil]

Thanks for that Phill.
Interesting. I would not waste my breath talking to my dealer. They wouldn't spot a missing wheel on my bike unless I pointed it out to them. Feckin useless.

Any more experiences like this? I hope it was some sort of interference. If I can satisfy myself that this was indeed the case then such issues can easily be resolved by pushing the bike a few metres away from any perceived radio signal.

Phill can I assume you and your mates had parked this close to each other before and since without issue (maybe the bikes frequencies were conflicting)?

 

[knutk]

Thanks for that Phill.
Interesting. I would not waste my breath talking to my dealer. They wouldn't spot a missing wheel on my bike unless I pointed it out to them. Feckin useless.

Any more experiences like this? I hope it was some sort of interference. If I can satisfy myself that this was indeed the case then such issues can easily be resolved by pushing the bike a few metres away from any perceived radio signal.

Phill can I assume you and your mates had parked this close to each other before and since without issue (maybe the bikes frequencies were conflicting)?

Never thought about the interference issue, but I guess new technology brings new problems.

Anyway, thank you for sharing. May be some day this new learned knowledge may make my day.

 

[DR650s]

There used to be lots of reports of Car immobilisers failing to communicate with the keys near airports of mobile phone masts. As I assume the key fob communicates via a radio wave, then other signals could interfere. I doubt a car would but its possible if its key less and using the same frequency, more likely you were near a mobile phone mast.

Also I have heard that thieves sometimes use jammers to stop people locking there cars in busy carparks, these devices interfere with the keys signal and unwaring car owners walk aware from there car thinking they have central locked them when they have not and the scrotes move in and clear the car out.

It could also be the bike throwing a wobbly of course.

 

[JerseyNeil]

Thanks DR650s I do recall issues with car fobs in the past. Not a lot I can do unless it happens again so fingers crossed it was a chance in a million event that won't happen again.

 

[dazcall]

Mine has done it twice. Walked away and came back to bike and it started both times. Bloody annoying.


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[Neil W]

If it soes it again push it 10 yards up the road and try again ,if it then starts it is radio interference

 

[Phill Elston]

Phill can I assume you and your mates had parked this close to each other before and since without issue (maybe the bikes frequencies were conflicting)?

Totally. We'd been parked together just as closely on several occasions... There was nothing nearby that we could think of that would screw with any of the bikes... And why just the two of them? Baffling.

 

[daviedevs]

Off the subject a bit. My Yamaha S10 had a datatool alarm and it refused point blank to disarm if our blue tooth comms on our helmets were switched on and were within a few feet.

 

[harryweld]

I've had this happen several times on both my GSA and Multistrada. Every time it happens I've had my mobile phone in the same pocket as the key. I also prefer the the ducati system if key fails to work, it simply involved entering pin number. i say simply you had to navigate through about 10 menu pages to get to the point you could enter the pin. but at least you don't have to carry a second key with you all the time.

 

[Wobbly65]

Why not try the simple and easy thing first, change the battery in the fob ?

 

[®win]

I had my small grey key which I offered up to the panel above the rear wheel. Nothing!

How can there be any interference here, with only a thin piece of plastic between transponder and antenna? You may want to have it checked by the dealer...

 

[JerseyNeil]

Changing the battery is a fair point however since that moment the fob has worked perfectly and there is no warning on the screen advising of low battery. I carry a spare battery and if the fault occurs again I will try changing it.

Win, I accept the range between the receiver and the small grey key is extremely small however that does not mean that a strong radio signal in the area could not cause interference or 'defeat' the bikes signal.

Neil

 

[the woodster]

Yep, it's happened to me a few times but never failed to start via the two emergency starting procedures after a few tries. It was a bit of a faff on one occasion because I couldn't open the petrol tank either but hey ho.

It's easy to get cross about this and God knows, I do but it's almost inevitable with all the electronics on board.

I've just had some warranty work done because my ABS lights wouldn't go off (and the ABS wasn't working) and I lost the speedo and odometer on three occasions. The culprit? apparently, the LCD headlight control unit.

I didn't bother asking.

Keep it shiny side up.

 

[JerseyNeil]

Cheers for the info TheWoodster. You mention two emergency start up procedures. One is obviously using the spare grey key under the seat. What’s the second one?

 

[®win]

You can use both the grey spare key as well as the remote key (for instance when the battery is empty) under the rear mudguard.

 

[Stahlgewittern]

If it soes it again push it 10 yards up the road and try again ,if it then starts it is radio interference

Had that problem at the cafe at Olivers mount, the lady came over and told me to move down the road a few yards,, the bike started first time.
it was interference from the phone mast.

 

[JerseyNeil]

Thanks everyone for your replies. This does generally support my suspicion that the issue was interference rather than a fault (fingers crossed).

Bike behaved perfectly for 18 months/8,000 miles before and since this incident.

Neil

 

[littleade]

I had a similar thing a couple of weeks ago, but when I was riding. I was on a local road I use often and had a notification come up on the TFT screen to say my key was out of range-it was in my pocket. I stopped about a mile later and switched the bike off to check and it started again no probs. It's not done it again since so I'm assuming it's RF interference of some sort. Maybe it's there all the time at that location but on that day the signal was stronger due to atmospheric conditions. I did ask at the dealers lst week when I had the TFT software update and they said it was likely to have been RF interference.