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03' RT Headlight Fuse?

bigbear

New member
Does the 03' RT headlights have fuse or circuit breaker protection? I've been looking at Doug Raymond's ladder wiring diagram and it appears the headlights are powered directly from the load relief relay.
 
Does the 03' RT headlights have fuse or circuit breaker protection? I've been looking at Doug Raymond's ladder wiring diagram and it appears the headlights are powered directly from the load relief relay.

no definitive answer, but I can not think of a bike that has the headlight on a fuse. it really does not make a lot of good sense to do so, unless you consider a headlight to be an "accessory".
 
No it is not.

No oilheads are.

Yes it is has caused many a melted harness.

The ignition switch circuit is also unfused.
Basically stupid design by BMW.
Years ago I confronted BMW Canada regarding this and initially they denied the fact, when I referred them to the factory OE wiring diagrams and walked them thru their comeback was "we have never had an issue"
History has proved them wrong.
The most common failure has been caused by sloppy wiring practices when inmates add HID lighting on their GS's - shorts inside the lampholder.
Others by chafing or poor accessory installation as well as upsizing to 100w lamps.
I have modified several bikes now (including mine years ago) by adding a 20A fuse to the Load relief circuit and a 10A fuse in the Ignition switch circuit.
There are several threads on how to do this mod. on this forum as well as ADV riders.


http://forums.bmwmoa.org/showthread.php?51581-Alert-All-Oilhead-owners-Electrical-issue
http://m583.photobucket.com/albums/GSAddict/Oilhead Fuse Mod/
http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=665648

FYI: the F650's have unfused circuits as well, I have redone & fused the harness on one of those as well.
 
no definitive answer, but I can not think of a bike that has the headlight on a fuse. it really does not make a lot of good sense to do so, unless you consider a headlight to be an "accessory".

Just about every Japanese bike I have worked on has had the headlights fused.
 
Just about every GERMAN vehicle you'll encounter--car or bike--will NOT have a fused headlight. Since Bosch essentially invented automotive electrics I'd vote posters here not qualified to call this stupid.
 
Just about every GERMAN vehicle you'll encounter--car or bike--will NOT have a fused headlight. Since Bosch essentially invented automotive electrics I'd vote posters here not qualified to call this stupid.

Perhaps so, but perfected by Lucas Electric.
 
Just about every GERMAN vehicle you'll encounter--car or bike--will NOT have a fused headlight. Since Bosch essentially invented automotive electrics I'd vote posters here not qualified to call this stupid.


I have 36 years in Industrial electrics and process controls with lots of marine and auto/motorcycle work.
Unfused wiring IS stupid.
I have seen the results time and time again.
Just to save $,02

BTW: Audi, BMW and VW DO fuse their headlight circuits. Newer models that don't show fuses have electronic circuit protection. This includes the R1200 hexhead bikes.
 
See the fuses for high and low beam circuit on the 2004 R1150RT.

http://www.mac-pac.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/R1150RT-2-Plug-Elec-Diagram-V1_1.pdf

Fuse 8 Low Beam
Fuse 9 High Beam

Test and confirmed on my motorcycle.

RB

Doug Raymond's schematics show F8 is for the radio. GSAddicts original OEM drawings (yes he bought them from BMW) show the same thing. The high and low beam are wired directly to the load relief relay. No fuses for the headlight are present on either set of drawings.

I don't think there is a fuse on the headlight. How did you test this Roger?

Pundit disclaimer: I'm not GERMAN but I am a certified electronics tech (amoungst other things) so don't bother with the what the heck do you know about anything stuff. Sheesh... :D
 
Please refer to the OE wiring detail, you will find it is indeed unfused like all the other models.
If you don't believe me pull out all the fuses. Turn on the ignition switch and you will have the headlight come on.

On the 2004 twin spark, the fuses are there and do just what it says on the schematic. I did check it before posting being untrusting as I am. ;)
 
I see what is going on here. Doug Raymond has released several versions of the 1150RT schematics.

R1150RT_Elec_Diagram-v1_1.pdf
R1150RT_Elec_Diagram-v2.pdf
R1150RT-Electric-Diagram-V3.1.pdf

and now

R1150RT-2-Plug-Elec-Diagram-V1_1.pdf
which is for the twin spark R1150RT

Now we all know the company line that there have "never been any issues" but even so, it seems BMW decided to fuse the headlights on the twin spark 1150 according to Doug Raymond's schematic for that model. Lucky you! You got fuses. :thumb
Not that you will _ever_ need them eh?
 
I see what is going on here. Doug Raymond has released several versions of the 1150RT schematics.

R1150RT_Elec_Diagram-v1_1.pdf
R1150RT_Elec_Diagram-v2.pdf
R1150RT-Electric-Diagram-V3.1.pdf

and now

R1150RT-2-Plug-Elec-Diagram-V1_1.pdf
which is for the twin spark R1150RT

Now we all know the company line that there have "never been any issues" but even so, it seems BMW decided to fuse the headlights on the twin spark 1150 according to Doug Raymond's schematic for that model.

Knowing that there was almost no documentation on the dual-spark schematic, I worked with Doug Raymond over the winter to get him the documentation to update both the single-spark, and then to create a dual-spark schematic. Doug put a lot of time and energy into the updates.
 
Turned the lights on, one at a time, pulled the fuses, one at a time ...

Edit: I provided Doug with the info to do the dual-spark schematic since I have the disks.

Wow, they actually changed in the end model run................I wonder if there are any other models where the same has happened....
I suspect the warranty issues got back to the fatherland.

Thanks for the info (as always)
 
Ve absolutely forbid zees fuzes to blow! Zey vill carry ze current und zey vill enjoy it!
 
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