rhs heated grip not working

darkhorse · Jan 5, 2010

as the title says, my right side heated grip stopped working. worked fine monday morning but not on way home from work in the evening. hands are now freezing.

connection seems ok.

how do you test to see if power is getting there?

any other pointers as what to look for?

cookie · Jan 5, 2010

i would have thought (not actually done it), unplugging it from the loom and measuring resistance across the wires with a multi meter is the way to go.

theop · Jan 5, 2010

darkhorse said:
as the title says, my right side heated grip stopped working. worked fine monday morning but not on way home from work in the evening. hands are now freezing.

connection seems ok.

how do you test to see if power is getting there?

any other pointers as what to look for?

how old is the bike? Its quite a common ailment albeit probably the only electrical glitch my bike never suffered..

Do a search here... there are millions of threads on electrical stuff failing...

Magnon · Jan 5, 2010

darkhorse said:
as the title says, my right side heated grip stopped working. worked fine monday morning but not on way home from work in the evening. hands are now freezing.

connection seems ok.

how do you test to see if power is getting there?

any other pointers as what to look for?

07 R1200GS
Mine stopped working last week, when I rang dealer to see if I was likely to get FOC fix under goodwill from bm they suggested I bring bike in so they could check wiring and heating element function which I guess is obvious way forward.

BTW they say foc is unlikely so I'll diy fix - anyone know where to buy one r/h heated grip at resonable cost ?

darkhorse · Jan 5, 2010

cookie said:
i would have thought (not actually done it), unplugging it from the loom and measuring resistance across the wires with a multi meter is the way to go.

What setting do you put the meter on?

darkhorse · Jan 5, 2010

theop said:
how old is the bike? Its quite a common ailment albeit probably the only electrical glitch my bike never suffered..

Do a search here... there are millions of threads on electrical stuff failing...

Nearly four years old.

darkhorse · Jan 5, 2010

Magnon said:
07 R1200GS
Mine stopped working last week, when I rang dealer to see if I was likely to get FOC fix under goodwill from bm they suggested I bring bike in so they could check wiring and heating element function which I guess is obvious way forward.

BTW they say foc is unlikely so I'll diy fix - anyone know where to buy one r/h heated grip at resonable cost ?

I have an extended warranty but couldn't be arsed taking it in / out if it is something I can sort.

Snoopy · Jan 5, 2010

The wire will have snapped happens throttle side. Ring motorworks they have loads spare in stock. Get them to multimeter the connection before sending though as they sent a duff one the first time. Also, ensure it's the right part # - it changed several times and not compatible.

cookie · Jan 5, 2010

darkhorse said:
What setting do you put the meter on?

resistance/ohms

doesn't really matter what the reading is as long it registers some resistance. if it's open circuit ie. the same as if you haven't connected the probes, it's fecked.

RickG · Jan 5, 2010

darkhorse said:
What setting do you put the meter on?

There should be one that makes the meter beep when the two probes are held together. If you put it on this setting and then connect the probes to the the handgrip wires it should go beep if the element is still ok. Just to check, put the meter on the resistance setting, depending on what sort of meter you have you may need to set it to read tens or hundreds of ohms. If you now connect the probes to the wires you should get a reading of, I'd guess, 20-30ohms or thereabouts. If it shows an apparently very, very high reading, the element or the connections to it are broken

darkhorse · Jan 5, 2010

Cheers, will investigate tomorrow night.

Only one warm hand on ride to work in the morning.

Pukmeister · Jan 5, 2010

darkhorse said:
Cheers, will investigate tomorrow night.

Only one warm hand on ride to work in the morning.

Get some handlebar muffs.

judge · Jan 5, 2010

Not usually so slow to dive in to some muff :augie

ktmmark · Jan 6, 2010

My old 1100 has failed several times over 100,000 miles i peal the rubber grip back twist a section of fuse wire in to replace burnt section refit grip,work's for several years.
I have seen the wire snap where the loom goes down the bars on a 650
All easy to repair

darkhorse · Jan 7, 2010

Well after a bit of testing, power getting to the grip etc, I established that a wire must be broken inside the grip.

After ktmmark's post I thought I would give a go at peeling back the grip, and as suspected broken wire was inside, shame it wasn't at the end I started from :blast

A quick solder with some extra wire to bridge the gap and we are up an running again :thumb2

Couple of photos to give you an idea whats inside

Photo 1 shows the broken wire loose end

Photo 2 shows wire rejoined with small piece bridging the gap

The heated wires are very fine and sit within groove

Snoopy · Jan 7, 2010

How do you solder?

You heat it up.

What does the wire in heated grips get very of?

Doh ! :blast

ktmmark · Jan 9, 2010

Solder may be above the heat threshold of the grips' But you dont need to anyway' just twist one end of the new section of wire then the other till its tight on the tube cut the tails back (not to close) thats it
My grips are the old ones on a flat tube and tape over the wire so i put masking tape over the repair then clear paint lacquer and put the grip back on the wet lacqure which bonds in on worked every time

I used fuse wire from a harware store if you wonder where to get the wire (think it was 30 amp)

ktmmark · Jan 9, 2010

Sorry it was 10 amp (packet had 5/10/15/30) but i used 10 amp :thumb2

Pukmeister · Jan 9, 2010

Not clear from your photos, but could you fit a whole new coil of heating wire instead of repairing the break?

My thought is that it would be better to rewind the entire grip with a new length of suitable wire if possible and solder onto the original connecting cable, proving a source of supply can be found (eg Ebay heated jacket DIY kit wire). If the heating wire has experienced a weak spot, maybe it will fail again soon?

Incidentally, how much is the price of a replacement grip from BWM ? I fitted my own heated grips a few years ago (bike not fitted as standard) but don't have my original invoice to hand but IIRC about £35 per grip. They are a doddle to fit/replace.

ktmmark · Jan 9, 2010

Yes no problem on the later ones, as the wire is in a groove and soldered onto the wire at the end easy to do.
On the older ones like mine the wire is not in a groove and tape hold's it to the plastic tube so it was easyer to put a link in

rhs heated grip not working

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