Diagnose this ...

oblertone

oblertone

Strawberry fields ... forever
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... happily bowling along at (or near) the posted limit of 70mph and about 30 miles into my journey when the red warning lights for ABS and the one below it come on :eek:

ABS light is flashing at the slower speed, lower warning light is solid red.

No loss of power, or braking effect apparent; pull in & turn off, bike restarts as normal with no warning lights. Same thing happens 15 miles further down the road :blast

Bike is an '05 1150GSA-SE (with a working servo) that has been faultless for the last 33K miles.

Serviced 2000 miles ago, at which time a new OEM battery was fitted, along with new rear brake pads; it has an LED tail-light.

Plenty of oil, no apparent leaks, cables or leads loose :nenau

Answers on a postcard please :rolleyes:
 
oblertone said:
... happily bowling along at (or near) the posted limit of 70mph and about 30 miles into my journey when the red warning lights for ABS and the one below it come on :eek:

ABS light is flashing at the slower speed, lower warning light is solid red.

No loss of power, or braking effect apparent; pull in & turn off, bike restarts as normal with no warning lights. Same thing happens 15 miles further down the road :blast

Bike is an '05 1150GSA-SE (with a working servo) that has been faultless for the last 33K miles.

Serviced 2000 miles ago, at which time a new OEM battery was fitted, along with new rear brake pads; it has an LED tail-light.

Plenty of oil, no apparent leaks, cables or leads loose :nenau

Answers on a postcard please :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Not entirely sure but is this to do with a rear bulb failure? Might be grasping at straws.
I remember many moons ago I had a red warning light come on whilst on a ride out (might have been the ABS light). One of the group I was with told me my rear light had gone.


*Just re-ead (ALL of) your thread so ignore my thoughts on the matter. Don't think this affects LED's.
 
Last edited:
Strange one indeed!
Alternator output okay?
Rectifier okay?

Best of luck getting sorted, please let us know when you find the problem!
 
You'll end up with a brake failure, and you'll be able to blame someone else about it because you kept on riding while the warning light was on.

Go and get it checked by someone who has the kit,that's what warning lights are for.
 
Different bike (1100) so this may be absolutely useless but anyway...

I had something very similar happen a couple of years ago - riding along the motorway when all of a sudden the ABS lights start flashing. Braking was fine (but then it would be, it's non-servo) and it was ok after a restart but did it again the following day.

I asked similar questions on here as you've just done but no-one could really help. In the end I came to the conclusion that it must be a wiring problem leading to a momentary interruption of power or a sensor feed and went over all the electrical connections concerned with the ABS (disconnected, cleaned and remade all connectors, checked sensor gaps etc). It's not happened since :nenau
 
I'll put two quid on it being your ignition electrical switch wiring... I have the very same symptoms about 4 months after I cut the cable ties that were holding it to the forks. :nenau Oh, and wiggling the wire never seemed to replicate the problem. I bought a new one, replaced lead and bam... no more issues.
 
That combination of lights indicate that its P/ex time.

Just take it to a dealer and let them delve into your gold account:thumb2

Go on, you know it's time:D
 
First check that the ABS rings on the wheels are clean and undamaged. Then check that the clearance between the ABS sensors and the rings are within tolerance, Sensor gap:...... 0.45...0.55 mm (0.018 ... 0.022 in) from BMW workshop manual.

If it still doesn't work throw the whole heavy troublesome servo/ABS system away using this link and find a quiet bit of road to practise cadence braking.
 
Sorry peeps ...

... but there's no imminent trip to the stealer or servoectomy from this little episode, just a valuable lesson learned.

Close inspection after the 2nd time the lights came on found the right hand hand-guard had rotated and was ever-so-slightly fouling the brake lever; possibly due to the increased drag caused by the recently fitted touratwat extensions. A little muscle power and normal service was resumed, although I'll strip and refit them asap :thumb

As to why it started perfectly well after the first episode remains a bit of a mystery.
 
oblertone said:
... but there's no imminent trip to the stealer or servoectomy from this little episode, just a valuable lesson learned.

Close inspection after the 2nd time the lights came on found the right hand hand-guard had rotated and was ever-so-slightly fouling the brake lever; possibly due to the increased drag caused by the recently fitted touratwat extensions. A little muscle power and normal service was resumed, although I'll strip and refit them asap :thumb

As to why it started perfectly well after the first episode remains a bit of a mystery.
Click to expand...

My mate had a problem with his R1150R which sounds very similar, his abs lights came on randomly then turn the key off and reset it all was fine then it would do the same fault randomly but he lost all brakes when the fault occured. Trip to Ocean BMW and it was a new ABS pump at nearly £1200
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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