EWS Failure and Towing Nightmare (Merged multiple EWS threads)

Gringa said:

Thanks Don for the offer, I myself just got the Mac and was wondering if by just clearing the error code would help. Just the thought of carrying a spare antenna and sorts just makes you want to sell the bike and get an older one. I love my modern bikes and just don't like the idea of stupid errors leaving you stranded.

Cheers

Frank

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I think you're being scared by Internet Hysteria. I frequent a LOT of R1200 forums - not only here - but lots of other places. I've heard of about 4, perhaps 5, instances of an EWS error causing someone a problem. That's out of how many R1200 CANBUS bikes?

Could it happen? Sure. Could an alternator rotor on an airhead fail and leave you stranded - sure - it's happened to a LOT of people. Could a fuel pump fail on an early K bike and leave you stranded? Sure - happened to a LOT of people. Could a brit bike from the '70's just barf out a connecting rod - leaving you stranded? Sure could - happened more than once.

NO mechanical/electrical device is 100% reliable. IF they were there would be no need for mechanics or repair departments.

I don't find the few problems reported (and IMHO - intensified by people reporting the same incident to multiple Internet forums) troubling enough to keep me off my bike, or want any other bike - even if it's simpler. I haven't had to bring my R1200R home on a trailer - and that's more than I can say for the airhead I owned and either of the the K bikes I owned..

Best,

deilenberger said:

I think you're being scared by Internet Hysteria.

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What's Internet Hysteria?

Fred


MOA Forum members after hearing about the Ironbutt rear drive failures.

Don thanks for the input !!!
Fred thanks for the Humor!!!

Before the Internet Ignorance was not always bliss. I find these discussion so interesting.


Thanks Again

Plen Smith
Terre Haute, Indiana

EWS Failure

Today, I went for a ride in sunny south texas and took a little break.

Key ON, check EWS on the screen of the LCD.

I have an 07 RT, with 15K miles, and last night was the first time I put a battery tender on the battery ... for some unknown reason?? If it works don't fix it!!!

Well anyway, DEAD, 45 miles from home, lucky for me I was able to contact a buddy to drag a trailer out to pick me up.... I never seen my bike on a trailer.... It looks really nice, ... but better between my legs ... it just takes me where I want to go... anyway, I called a BMW SHOP, and when I told him what I had, "he said, bring it to the shop and we will replace it, under warranty." I asked isn't there anything, I can do out in the field to reset this.??? he replied... well sometimes, you can wiggle the wires under the key and It may come back.... I though "wiggle the wires, on $20Kplus of bike... ?? WOW, I feel like i'm in the 60's.

Well the shop is 325 miles away...

The main problem with me on all of this is ... the mystery of what may have caused this... its like your wife/kid telling a little lie.... not so sure anymore.

I really love my bike, and HOPE this is a one time thing.... anyone heard of repeats on the same bike?.... could the battery tender, made this happen?

Is it possible ... it go away.

Looks like I am loading up a BORROWED trailer and heading up to the BMWshop for some unscheduled Service....

mp

BeemerMike said:

As I said in another post to another thread . . . I hope my non-CANBUS, non-I-Drive, non-Chris Bangle BMW bikes and car (Z3) last a LONG time!

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Hate to break it to ya BeemerMike, but your Z3 has canbus as well as a few other networks. Depending on year it may even have EWS.

So are you going to sell it now?

Earl

mikeperez1 said:

Today, I went for a ride in sunny south texas and took a little break.

Key ON, check EWS on the screen of the LCD.

I have an 07 RT, with 15K miles, and last night was the first time I put a battery tender on the battery

mp

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Do you just clip the battery tender on the battery terminals? I'm curious, as that is what my salesman told me to do. I was ready to buy the $160 charger that connects to a powerlet (I think) when I picked up the bike. He asked if I had a battery tender, I said yes, he said don't bother with the BMW charger, just lift the seat and connect the battery tender. Makes sense to me. Then I'm diligently reading my owners manual where it says, on page 130, "Charging the connected battery directly at the battery terminals can damage the motorcycle electronics." Hmmm. Anyone else having EWS issues use a charger connected to the battery?

131114 said:

The Spare key was in my vest pocket or pant pocket. May have been to close when I was standing beside the bike after fueling. I put the bike on the center stand removed the tank bag and unlocked the fuel tank door, then re-inserted the key in the ignition switch. May need to avoid putting key into ignition until I am ready to go.

How would you handle this?

Plen

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I have had other BMW chipped keys in my tank bag about 6 inches from the EWS ring when traveling. Both for my bike and my wife's. No issues.
Because of the date of your RT, and the many ring failures from that period, I would err on the side of the EWS ring failing. I don't know just what QC problem these rings have had, but for one to be slightly intermittant would not be out of the question although most all have failed permanently. I would want to carry a new ring. Did you not notice the EWS until the third time, or did it in fact not appear the first two?

BigAdv said:

Hate to break it to ya BeemerMike, but your Z3 has canbus as well as a few other networks. Depending on year it may even have EWS.

So are you going to sell it now?

Earl

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Oops! Sorry. A little careless in transferring from my earlier note, which was only talking about my BMW bikes. Nothing inherently wrong with CANBUS, but then again, on my 2001 Z3 I don't try to charge up the battery through the 12v outlet plug on the console (f/k/a "cigarette lighter")!

My sailboat has a CANBUS system that ties all of the electronics together (chartplotter, depth, speed, etc.), and it works fine. But, I also don't try to charge up the boat's batteries through one of the 12v outlet plugs at the nav station, either!

And no, I'm not going to sell the Z3 now . . . I'm also not going to rush out and buy a Z4.

But, I do have to wonder if the BMW motorcycles are getting more complicated than motorcycles really need (or should) be, especially electronically. ABS? OK. EWS? Maybe not so much.

cjack said:

I have had other BMW chipped keys in my tank bag about 6 inches from the EWS ring when traveling. Both for my bike and my wife's. No issues.
Because of the date of your RT, and the many ring failures from that period, I would err on the side of the EWS ring failing. I don't know just what QC problem these rings have had, but for one to be slightly intermittant would not be out of the question although most all have failed permanently. I would want to carry a new ring. Did you not notice the EWS until the third time, or did it in fact not appear the first two?

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Sorry it took so long to respond. Out of the office today.

I did not notice the EWS on the screen untill I tried the third time. I was actually standing beside the bike when I tried it the first time. I wanted to start it up and warm up the seat and bar ends. It was a little cool. After It did not crank I mounted it on the center stand to see if I had it in gear or something. Thats when I noticed the EWS on the Screen.

I have wondered if removing the key from the ignition switch then reinserting the key might of helped, but from reading the other post it does seem like they just fail. I have not used a battery tender on my RT yet. I have a couple of them for the lawn mower, etc., but I will probably just start the bike up once a week to charge the battery and move the fluids around.
I have a jacket coming for my Bride and it should be in next week. I will talk to the shop about these suggestions. Thanks for the help.

Plen Smith

gadgetboy said:

For what it's worth, there's a new part number for the EWS ring antenna, does it mean improved reliability?

If you carry a spare, you can use it without removing the dead unit on the bike, you simply unplug the harness and plug in the spare, place it over the key hole, insert the plastic key and turn it on.

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What is the part number?

huddyk said:

What is the part number?

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61 35 7 696 463

kr70657 said:

Do you just clip the battery tender on the battery terminals? I'm curious, as that is what my salesman told me to do. I was ready to buy the $160 charger that connects to a powerlet (I think) when I picked up the bike. He asked if I had a battery tender, I said yes, he said don't bother with the BMW charger, just lift the seat and connect the battery tender. Makes sense to me. Then I'm diligently reading my owners manual where it says, on page 130, "Charging the connected battery directly at the battery terminals can damage the motorcycle electronics." Hmmm. Anyone else having EWS issues use a charger connected to the battery?

Click to expand...

The way it was explained to me, was the the ONLY charger to use is the BMW one, it is made to handle the electronic system in the BIKE, for the reasons on Page 130. I had an 2 year old HD tender, and I plugged in, WRONG thing to do, it did a great job on the battery, but trashed the "antenna ring sensor" which caused the EWS to fail.

Mine was under warranty, but it would have been a $200 fix. Suppose to not happen again with the new part, but ???

I have had it repaired already, seems to be working fine. I had the battery checked under a load as well, and she was not damaged. I say stick with the rules of the manual.

One thing I do recommend, is to ask multiple dealers about this if it happens to you. I called 4 shops, and got different answers from each, and only two of them were in the same ball park, the other two, you could tell, were part exchangers, and did not really know how to answer question. I think this is a good Mechanic test question.... if your trying to decide where to take your bike for service.

Good Luck
mike

mikeperez1 said:

The way it was explained to me, was the the ONLY charger to use is the BMW one, it is made to handle the electronic system in the BIKE, for the reasons on Page 130. I had an 2 year old HD tender, and I plugged in, WRONG thing to do, it did a great job on the battery, but trashed the "antenna ring sensor" which caused the EWS to fail.

Mine was under warranty, but it would have been a $200 fix. Suppose to not happen again with the new part, but ???

I have had it repaired already, seems to be working fine. I had the battery checked under a load as well, and she was not damaged. I say stick with the rules of the manual.

One thing I do recommend, is to ask multiple dealers about this if it happens to you. I called 4 shops, and got different answers from each, and only two of them were in the same ball park, the other two, you could tell, were part exchangers, and did not really know how to answer question. I think this is a good Mechanic test question.... if your trying to decide where to take your bike for service.

Good Luck
mike

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I doubt very much that you hurt the EWS ring. I am guessing that the HD tender was a smart charger like the Deltran ones and would work just fine. The EWS rings have been subject to failing in a wholesale way during most of this year. Bad batch or something. They were on backorder for a month.

thanks,

Thanks for the input, cjack.

I think your right...

mike

I started to get EWS errors at about 6,000 miles on my '07 RT. Fortunately, the bike did start each time by turning the key off and back on (never removed the key from the ignition nor did more than a couple seconds pass before turning it off and on).

The dealer confirmed the bike had 8 EWS failure codes in memory and replaced the antennae ring. They said they keep spare rings in stock as they've seen this problem "frequently of late".

BMW roadside assistance

A while back in 2007 I went down (with my bike and my wife) somewhere in New Mexico. I was riding my 2005 R1200RT. It was a minor crash and we were OK. However, I lost my ABS and power brakes. I called BMW roadside assistance. They claimed that I, and my bike, do not exist. I called again with the VIN number and even went to the bike and read it from the bike - no go, I did not exist.

When I called few days later to complain, the good folks at BMW roadside assistance could not recall the incident. Not only I do not exist, I never even called.

WOW.

Capt. Grudo

dorongrudo said:

A while back in 2007 I went down (with my bike and my wife) somewhere in New Mexico. I was riding my 2005 R1200RT. It was a minor crash and we were OK. However, I lost my ABS and power brakes. I called BMW roadside assistance. They claimed that I, and my bike, do not exist. I called again with the VIN number and even went to the bike and read it from the bike - no go, I did not exist.

When I called few days later to complain, the good folks at BMW roadside assistance could not recall the incident. Not only I do not exist, I never even called.

WOW.

Capt. Grudo

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Off topic I know, but there seem to be people in this world who believe that when they screw up the appropriate resonse, rather that to accept responsibility for the screw up, is to lie. You seem to have found one or two of those. Sad.

How big of a piece is the "antenna ring?" How well do you have to protect it if carried as a spare? How much disassembly is required to do the change out on the road?

swall said:

How big of a piece is the "antenna ring?" How well do you have to protect it if carried as a spare? How much disassembly is required to do the change out on the road?

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It, the box for it, is about 25% bigger than a boxed H4 headlight bulb. You can't replace it on the road because you would have to drill "one way" screws out of the upper triple clamp (after removing it from the bike's forks) to remove it. But you can unplug it and plug the new one in right next to the bad one and drive on.

I would think a more appropriate topic would be, "how do I disable EWS so it no longer poses a threat to the functioning of my bike." Don't get me started on CANBUS. Me, and the Internet mobs.