New bike been sent back

[NorthernBoy]

Well, my ex-demo bike lasted one day before it broke. I nursed it for another week, but gave up and sent it back in to battersea to be fettled.

It was indicating left on its own, at random intervals, which was proving a bit tricky. I squirted some WD40 into the switch housing, but that did not fix it, so it went in last Wednsday. It is sitting there waiting for a new switch to arrive at the moment.

I am a bit disappointed really at it failing so soon. Hopefully I will get it back by next week, though. I have not fitted any of the accessories on it yet, as I was a bit concerned that BMW might quibble about correcting electrical faults if I had done any wiring myself.

Actually, does anyone know how they are on this sort of stuff? If I wire in a fusebox for the optimate lead, extra socket, and so on, will they try to wriggle out of the warranty if an unrelated electrical fault comes up again?

 

[Wapping]

Well, my ex-demo bike lasted I have not fitted any of the accessories on it yet, as I was a bit concerned that BMW might quibble about correcting electrical faults if I had done any wiring myself.
Actually, does anyone know how they are on this sort of stuff? If I wire in a fusebox for the optimate lead, extra socket, and so on, will they try to wriggle out of the warranty if an unrelated electrical fault comes up again?

You do not need a 'fusebox' for an Optimate lead. Simply attach the flying lead (supplied by Optimate) directly to correct terminals of the battery. The flying lead has a suitable in-line fuse already. All will be well.

It is easy to connect an additional auxiliary socket to the front fairing (many have them on the nearside fairing, to the left of the instruments). The socket is shown as an optional extra in the Owner’s Handbook. The female socket plugs in (with a suitable lead) straight into a spur on the loom. This does not need an in-line fuse as the Can (bus) system will look after that side of things if the draw exceeds 10W.

It is dead easy to wire a suitable fuse box (NN, TT and I think the Dutchman do one) or you can get something suitable from BlueSea (I think they are called). These can be attached to the battery (always live) or to the battery and via a secondary lead to say the rear light feed, which will make them switched. Lots of posts on this topic and some useful pictures too here and elsewhere on the infernalnet.

It's hard to see how any of the above will:

(A) Damage anything

(B) Give you grief with the BMW warranty.

 

[NorthernBoy]

Thanks. I know I could wire the optimate straight in to the battery, I just want, though, to have only one extra set of leads to keep things neat. As I'd want to fuse the optimate lead anyway, I may as well put it through my new fusebox. The new socket is going on the cockpit tidy that I just got from Nippy Normans. I might see about putting it into the spur up front, as I am not using it for anything else.

I suppose I don't actually need the fusebox at all. I imagined I'd need a fused live and a relay for my stebel magnum, but as it can use the current horn wiring, I am only going to be putting one new thing onto the battery.

I suppose my charger for my GPS and phone can be my excuse for still putting my new fusebox on. This is the first bike I have had an urge to tinker with in a long time.

I was not sure how anal BMW are about non-bmw additions (I drive a 3 series, and know that they will wriggle as hard as they can to pretend your non-factory floor mats caused your electrical fire in the boot). An accessory being totally unrelated to a future fault seems not to be reason enough sometimes.