Intermittent electrical fault

Hi,

Been trawling through previous posts before raising this one, I am unsure if the intermittent fault I have is connected with battery issues or not.

Was out the other week in the rain, I mean a deluge, the bike seemed to die on me but recovered, each time the F1 light came on along with the HISS light, got home ok.

Been a week ( due to hols) fired up the bike (2003 VFR800), no issue, went for a good ride ( 30-40 mins) all worked as you would expect, then I went to start it and all I got was a "buzzing", headlights not coming on just side lights.

I stripped down the LHS fairing to check all the connectors as I had read some earthing issues with BLUE connector, all seems fine, shoved the bike back on the ramp overnight.

Next day bike started fine ( has been on a trickle charger), thought I might run the bike and check if all is charging as it should....half hour later bike wouldn't start, back to the buzzing!

So my issue is do I have a earthing problem as the rainy day seem to indicate, whats the usual culprits ( as I have inspected all that I can get to), second being if I can crank the bike over and it kicks in for a second or two, is the battery fine? Thirdly ( as I still waiting for my manual to arrive) whats the start up sequence on the electrical front cos I am sure its electrical.

Bikes under warranty so its going in the workshop, intermittent faults are a pain to track down.

I have checked the battery (stand alone) it sits at 13.5v steady.

When riding lights inc dash lights are fine, no dimming so I assume its charging ok....

Sorry to waffle on but don't you just hate it when you haven't got all the aces to diagnose such faults.

cheers for any feedback in advance.

 

Welcome Terry H. Do you have the factory service manual? You will find it here, and I've linked to an electrical diagram in this section as well:

http://www.vfrdiscussion.com/index....2002-2007-standard-type-electrical-schematic/

 

This sounds a lot like what AM was experiencing.

First of all - verify if the recall was done on your bike for the wiring harness.

Then do "The Drill"

Then check / clean the grounds under the back of the fuel tank. Then check the ground connector under the left hand fairing for oxidization.

 

Hi Terry and welcome to the MadHouse:welcome:

When you get time please drop into the "Introductions" part of the forum and say Hi to the rest of the folks on here - don't forget to add a photo of your VFR or you may get folks raggin on you.

You may want to edit your forum profile (Forum Actions+Edit Profile) to include the year/specs of your bike and an approximate location (city/town) is fine - that way they will appear automatically alongside your posts and if you need help with a problem you may find someone living nearby is willing to swing by and advise especially if you have a well stocked beer fridge.

:focus:

Without some simple Multi-meter testing it is really guess work what may be wrong with your bike.

However it rather sounds like you are the latest to suffer from the poor charging system fitted to these bikes. All four elements of the charging system (Battery, Loom, RR and Stator) need to be in good order and a fault in one can damage some or all of the others.

The battery standing volts sounds OK - but its easy to overlook the obvious - loose battery terminals - that clicking noise near the headlights - is probably relays trying to close but not receiving enough power to operate correctly.

So if the bike is still under warranty - take it back - describe the fault and leave it to the garage/seller to sort out - you don't want to do anything which would allow them to shift the blame to you.

The basic tests which need to be done are described in a thing called "the drill" you will find the basics in post #9 here

http://vfrworld.com/forums/showthread.php/39277-How-to-fix-common-regulator-Stator-failures

Please note the tests need to be done TWICE - once with the bike cold and then again after the bike has been for a decent 30 minute plus ride - as stuff like the insulation inside the stator windings may test OK when cold but can fail when hot.

Good luck let us know how you get on.



SkiMad

 

Terry

I am sorry it has taken so long to follow-up - but there was something about the symptoms you described that annoyingly I had come across before but could not recall where or when?

Anyway whilst looking for something else I have just come across it again... Does this help you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUVp6gdn7KU

Watch the whole video as he does eventually solve it!!!


PS Jen (Anne Marie) was this something like was happening to your bike?????



SkiMad

 

I love how at the end of the video he says "I really got to get that recall done". As my friend would say, "Do ya think?!"

Nice find Skimad.

 

Fair point - I think the recall entailed swapping out the front wiring harness (mostly lighting) and only applied to North American models - as there was a different lighting loom used in Europe to meet different standards.

So Jen before attacking the wiring loom - perhaps you should contact Honda and check in case your bike has missed out on a recall.

It would be a shame if all the grief on your recent trip should have been avoided, but hey ho it did mean you got to see that there are plenty of folks on the Forum who are willing to help if things go wrong. Fingers crossed you can now get those gremlins back in their box - but if you ever decide to head over to R3 please remember "don't feed them after Midnight"!



SkiMad

 

AMs bike is outside the recall models. Its a 2006.

So far no issues since I got in there. I suspect she was having 2 separate issues, one was fixed by replacing the battery, which created the new issue with a battery post connection being loose.

I made her one of my wiring harnesses as well that we'll install to her bike.

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