• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

2005 R1200GS heated grips not working?

M

MasterChiefmas

Guest
It's winter here where I am, so I can't ride, but I decided to test a suspicion. I started my bike up, and set the heated grips to the max setting and let it run that way for about 10 minutes. I went back out and checked it, and the grips don't feel any warmer.

So, is that a valid way to test my grips, and assuming it is, how do I go about tracking down if and where the problem is?

A side question, are the heating elements within the rubber grips themselves, or are they part of the handle bars? Because if they are in the grips themselves, that's likely the problem, as I need to get some replacement grips for the bike. Which reminds me, I should go order those up. :)

Thanks!
 
In the grips;

I think you buy these as a unit, grips and all, but have never had a set fail on my many beemers. I don't know if the grips may be in a fuse or similar breaker circuit, but you may research the fuse thing. On high setting, they should get hot, as I have to turn my grips back to low setting, they get "hot". I have CUT my rubber grips off before on previous bikes and seen the heating element underneath and its a pretty robust setup, as i changed out my rubber grips only. It is not part of the handlebars...My personal thought is its not likely to fail, so look for a fuse somewhere. The thought of a safety fuse inline in itself would indicate they could fail I guess! Good luck. Randy
 
Hmm well according to the manual, there are no fuses, so if there was one, it would have been added after the fact. I didn't see any obvious inline fuses at a cursor glance. I'll have to take the tank cover off and some of the fairing to see follow the wiring more.

The bike doesn't indicate any faults on the lcd, though I don't know if it would if there was a problem with the hand grips.

I'll keep looking.
Thanks!
 
Usually the wires break and go open. Most often on the throttle side where they move a lot. Failure at both grips should not be expected. So, you need to remove the fuel tank and then trace where the wires connect into the harness. Try tracing the wiring and see if you can find the connection before you pull the stuff/tank off. Probably not but worth a try.

Once you find the connection(s) test for +12v with the switch on. Since that is a resistive circuit I'm not sure what the high vs low readings are supposed to be but anything significantly above zero - say 8 or more volts - indicates power is getting that far (or not). If needed keep tracing till you find where it is lost.
 
Remember that this is a low wattage setup - a better check function test is to put it on high and keep your bare hand on the grips for a couple minutes. If it doesn't get warm/hot, its surely dead. Then its time for the VOM and wire tracing.

How often does this turn out to be a switch problem? Either that or a common connector would be in my thinking if both grips are dead.
 
Remember that this is a low wattage setup - a better check function test is to put it on high and keep your bare hand on the grips for a couple minutes. If it doesn't get warm/hot, its surely dead. Then its time for the VOM and wire tracing.

How often does this turn out to be a switch problem? Either that or a common connector would be in my thinking if both grips are dead.

His first test was "on" for about 10 minutes that didn't do anything. I think it is a tossup between the switch and the connector - or even upstream from the connector. The connections tend to be fragile. Two tiny two-wire connectors plugged into a equally tiny 4 pin connector. I had enough trouble with mine on a K bike that I cut the connectors off and soldered the connections.

A fairly easy way to test the switch is to try low looking for warm and then try high. A switch could be bad in both positions but I don't think that is very likely.
 
A fairly easy way to test the switch is to try low looking for warm and then try high. A switch could be bad in both positions but I don't think that is very likely.

Good call...it hadn't even occurred to me to try the test on warm. I'll do that now.
 
So also on the lower setting nothing seems to happen. So either the whole switch has failed or I've got a wiring issue?
 
Usually the wires break and go open. Most often on the throttle side where they move a lot.
That's what happened to my throttle grip last April. The bike had around 70,000 miles. Since it was getting warm I left it alone during the summer until my 78,000 mile service. The grip had to be replaced and the cost was around $125-$150 at the dealership including labor. Now it works like a charm, except the throttle grip is less worn than the other!

One side note... A good friend of mine is a dedicated Harley rider, member of HOG, etc... His bike is always spotless. He hasn't bought heated grips because he can't find grips that properly match his pegs! :laugh When I told him that I replaced my right grip he was shocked that I didn't replace both so they'd match! :D
 
Just a thought. My 08GS owners manual read that at a low speed (idle) the grips will shut OFF to enable the battery to be charged properly. I think before you go ripping the bike apart looking for bad wires and such. Take her for a ride and get the rev's up a bit. I know mine have shut OFF on a ride at lower city speeds then kicked back ON again. Good luck.
 
Have not pulled my 09 GS manual out...but I have an 05 K12S one here and it says the grips shut off if battery voltage is low to ensure starting capability on this model.
 
I think perhaps what's being missed here - this is a Canbus bike, meaning the heated grips are controlled by the ZFE module, the switch is a low-voltage device that sends a signal to the ZFE module, and the two temperature ranges are probably done the same way Heatroller does it - by switching the voltage on/off electronically. There is no longer the dropping resistive wire goober under the tank like K bikes (and I believe oilheads) used, and the controls don't carry the current the older bike controls did.

Analog troubleshooting will only go so far here.. Dunno what the GS-911 has for this function, but it would be interesting to hook it up and see if it can read the signals from the switch to the ZFE (it can on many other switches on the bike..) and it can read the output from the ZFE to the grip wiring.
 
Well, with re: to battery voltage, I have been keeping it topped off with a battery tender(came wired with quick connect, but I checked, its connected directly to the battery terminals), so it should have good voltage shouldn't it? Unless they are shut off if the alternator is also not putting out a lot of voltage?

So it may not be possible to verify if I don't have the engine revved a bit?
 
If they were working prior to you storing it, seems a good guess... I have to think the engine speed has to be higher than idle to have them switch on...if the computer is smart enough to shut them down at idle or low speed, has to work the opposite as well

The older 1100 we have gets hot just sitting there...My 09GS takes a few minutes after rollofff, I start and go...never sit and warm it up. I tried it this morning...but it was 70 degrees here:brow and I couldn't tell
 
If they were working prior to you storing it, seems a good guess... I have to think the engine speed has to be higher than idle to have them switch on...if the computer is smart enough to shut them down at idle or low speed, has to work the opposite as well
l

I don't know if they were. I only got the bike just before end of the riding season here and I didn't really try the hand warmers then.
 
o.k I'll go out and start my 08 gs and see if it works at idle. but you should (if you can before metering and checking) go for a ride and get her warmed up. I'll get back to you. (I can't ride mine, snowed in)


UPDATE o.k. so good and bad news, good news... my bike started and sounds great.......bad news (for you maybe) my grips took less than 2 mins. to warm up at less then 2k rpms. so there you go I have no more advise. at least I know my grips work and I had a good time chatting. good luck and come on spring.
 
The throttle side heated grip on my 06 R1200 RT went out at just over 36,000. Durn,
Reportedly a wire broke due to the flexing of the throttle.
The left grip continued to function.
Replaced the right grip, ouch, and function returned to normal.
PS: I'm a devoted throttle blipper, when downshifting in the twistees
 
I own an 08 RT, not a hexhead GS but if there is any load shedding designed in a normal operating condition, it doesn't appear on my RT.

I checked in two outdoor starts in low 20s temps after an overnight sit. Immediately fired up all electric loads on the bike while it was idling/warming up. Those include 325 watts of H-7 bulbs, a pair of 30W HIDs, the added led lights front and back, electric seat on high, grips on high, etc. Bike maintains adequate voltages at idle as expected and the grips heat up normally at idle under those conditions. And that with a bike where the battery won't make another winter if I believe what my Battery Bug is telling me.
 
Back
Top