Follow up on burned harness story

Dealer called today with the bad news. The Roadster needs a new , complete wiring harness. $1800.00 for harness and the rest of the $2500. estimate is made up of 9.5 hours of labor. Dealer sent fax to insurance co with estimate and the , according to them, cause of the complete meltdown of the harness. It is the installation of auxillery driving lights. I put them on , as I have on the last 5 or 6 bikes i've owned. No probs till now. The lights , Moto Lights have theilr own fuze and relay. The only tap in to the bikes electrical sys is for a source of 12v swithched power to energize the relay. The lights worked for 6 week prior to the meltdown.Real hard for me to swallow their opinion that the lights are to blame. There is a service bulletin on early 2002 Roadsters concerning a wire tie in the area of the top triple clamp. The bulletin called for the removal of said tie to prevent chaffing on the wires running throuth it. Would like the dealer to look at this area. Does anyone know of this bulletin? I hav serched the web and cannot find this bulletin.

Blamming the meltdown on your work sure was nice of them. Can they explain to you how they arrived at that conclusion?

Not surprised in the least that they are taking this stance. Anything to deny a claim merely protects them. They do have a point in that the lights may have worked just fine for some time and that does not negate that the wires could have finally gotten hot enough to melt the insulation or just chafed at a spot. Had there been no optional wiring done or at least done by them, there would be no room to wriggle out of the situation. At this point unless you are going to get a couple independent examinations of the bike that are willing to go to court and testify over it I doubt you have much hope here. You'll likely spend that much in court costs as well with no guarantee of winning.

Since you say you only tapped into the harness for control power on the relay if the relay caused the problem the wire that you added going to the relay should be burnt. If it is not burnt I'd say they just took the easy way out when they blamed it on your wiring.

I have a set of Motolights on my RT and mine are connected to the battery with the relay being connected to the windshield motor...

If your system was wired like mine, I do not see how it could have been its fault. Also if there was a short or an open shouldn't a fuse have tripped

b52g said:

There is a service bulletin on early 2002 Roadsters concerning a wire tie in the area of the top triple clamp. The bulletin called for the removal of said tie to prevent chaffing on the wires running throuth it. Would like the dealer to look at this area. Does anyone know of this bulletin? I hav serched the web and cannot find this bulletin.

Click to expand...

I have a vague recollection of such a notice. You might start by checking Motor Cycle Consumer NewsÔÇÖs site at www.mcnews.com. They may have an archive of the bulletin, recall if it was one or in their letters section. No promises but I will look and see if I can find what is sparking my dim memory. DonÔÇÖt hold your breath but I will PM you if I find it.

Juat my $.02 worth ..I bought a 04 R1150ra this spring , my second rdstr. while installing accesories I had the tank off & noticed the wiring harness was rubbing the bottom of the tank to the point it had taken the paint off!!!T'was only a matter of time till it shorted!!Soooo after instaling lights,headlight relay kit,real horns & extra tail light , I routed & zip-tied their harnesses in a safe manner..all my sub-harnesses are double wraped w/elect tape then covered w/self-extinguishing wire loom ,circuit breakerd & fusable linked ..