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I thought the left and right bulbs on the 2014 and up RT's was high beam. The low beam is the center. Am I wrong?
Seems to come up regular. At the bottom of the page you will see some threads that will probably help.
OM
You are correct. (On a wet head) When a single high beam is on, it is because your low beam (center) bulb is what is blown. The bike switches to a single high beam so you can still see and so others can still see you.
I didn't find it necessary to remove the horn at all when I did my 2018 RT. I have a Denali Sound Bomb which I believe is even bigger than stock and it wasn't in the way at all. I changed mine by sitting on a stool in front of the bike and reaching up from the bottom. Took about 5 minutes.
After many bulbs in 3 years I went LED and haven't had to change it since.
I've had exactly one H7 burn out now in 3.5y and 39,555 miles. I religiously follow the internet rumor that letting the electronics FULLY boot up before hitting the start button helps reduce low beam burn out, and so far compared to similar stories like yours (many bulbs, and many similar stories) it seems to be holding up. Replacing the low beam is a simple matter once you understand how to do it which is mostly a case of understanding how to remove and replace the retention clips in their holds.
I religiously follow the internet rumor that letting the electronics FULLY boot up before hitting the start button helps reduce low beam burn out
Someone, in a previous discussion, suggested that not waiting for the bike's boot sequence to end, would cause a surge and weaken the low beam headlight causing premature failure.Pardon, can someone explain this?
You've been lucky Noel. I always let my electronics fully cycle and I lost my first H7 at 12K miles. It just so happens to have occurred as I was starting up the bike to ride it to the dealer for the 12K service, so I had them change the bulb while it was there.
Unless the rumor has merit
I actually removed the initial oem H7 which was still good at ~14K miles because I was leaving on a trip and wanted to know how to change it in the comfort of my garage having heard the tales of woe. I happened to have a new PIAA high output H7 so installed it and it only lasted 4K miles. So at 18K miles when it failed I installed that BMW H7 long life bulb and it's still going now at almost 40K miles. It's one of those rumors that is vaguely plausible if highly unlikely and frankly we can't even say for certain that all RTW's, depending on where various components involved were source from, might not behave differently so the rumor could apply for some and not others. In general though I agree I'm most likely....just lucky I do know one thing--it's a very minor issue one way or another once you learn how to change it as needed which is why I say why bother w/ an LED conversion just not worth cost nor hassle. And that the system employs an automatic backup using the 2nd high beam is a very thoughtful feature. Destroyed u-joints, stators and soft cam lobes are quite another matter though!
Your initial statement of "I've had exactly one H7 burn out now in 3.5y and 39,555 miles." sounded as if you had had the same bulb in the bike for all of that time. Since you've changed them out along the way, who knows how long the original would have lasted. 22K is pretty good on the second oem bulb, but I still think you've gotten lucky. Whether the full cycle rumor is true or not is pretty hard to tell.
I don't let my bike's electronics "fully boot" because of the light bulb rumor, I do it because I'm in the software business and figure that there's a reason for the self check and other things going on during that time, and it just makes sense to let that process complete before attempting to use the computer(s) embedded in your bike... its the equivalent of the old "Ready" prompt.
Your initial statement of "I've had exactly one H7 burn out now in 3.5y and 39,555 miles." sounded as if you had had the same bulb in the bike for all of that time. Since you've changed them out along the way, who knows how long the original would have lasted. 22K is pretty good on the second oem bulb, but I still think you've gotten lucky. Whether the full cycle rumor is true or not is pretty hard to tell.
I don't let my bike's electronics "fully boot" because of the light bulb rumor, I do it because I'm in the software business and figure that there's a reason for the self check and other things going on during that time, and it just makes sense to let that process complete before attempting to use the computer(s) embedded in your bike... its the equivalent of the old "Ready" prompt.
My 17 low beam just went while on a road trip. [emoji3]
Bought a replacement, down on on knee, cover off, pull and pry and can’t get the wire connector off the bulb, could pull bulb 1/2” out of housing but no success. Even wedged a tool between connector and bulb.
Any ideas out there?