Head Light trouble - High Beam light on . no headlights?

[davidcanning]

I have a 1998 R1100R and just turned the key and found my high beam light on and no headlight or taillight. Signals and instruments both light up and everything else runs. Just blue high beam light on and not headlight or running lights. Relay? I have turned the key multiple times and nothing changes. I have had the blue high beam light on in the past when first starting but eventually turns of in a few. Not sure what has happened. I will swap out a few relays with a spare i have tomorrow. will lwt youi know if that changes anything. Till then . . .any ideas?

 

[AntonLargiader]

Especially if you have been running a high wattage bulb you may have damage in one of two places:

1) The high-low switch. Usually this just results in the light not working, though. The contacts overheat and then the spring pressure makes them recess into the heat-softened plastic. Then they never have the correct pressure any more.

2) The headlight bulb socket. I have seen strange things happen when this gets burnt up.

If they check out OK, then I'd have to assume you have some wiring harness damage somewhere. The blue indicator turning itself on and off is definitely a warning sign, but it's the sort of thing I have seen happen from a burnt headlight connector (I suppose the low beam was backfeeding the high or something like that) so maybe it's a simple fix.

 

[davidcanning]

i previously installed an LED bulb. Would that have heated up the connection more than just a standard bulb?

 

[AntonLargiader]

A properly functioning LED bulb would be low-wattage, so probably not.

Do you have a right-side headlight switch next to the start button?

 

[davidcanning]

A properly functioning LED bulb would be low-wattage, so probably not.

Do you have a right-side headlight switch next to the start button?

No all headlight . . high and low beam . .switches are on the left handlebar. Start button is on the right side.

 

[AntonLargiader]

Have you inspected the headlight plug? While LEDs do draw less power, they also have heat sinks that can put the heat in the wrong place.

Did this problem start happening before, or after you changed the headlight bulb to LED?

 

[davidcanning]

replaced the LED bulb with a cheaper conventional bulb and now all is fine. LED didnt seem blown and resistance seemed ok too. I was informed by the person at the auto parts store that it seemed that LED's in older motorcycle headlights blew out more often and only lasted less than a year.

 

[pauls1150]

Regarding a LED's resistance - if you used a DVM, any reading is false, in either direction. With an analog (sweeping needle) ohmmeter, you can see anywhere from 20 to 70 ohms (depending on the diode and how well the ohmmeter's battery overcomes the LED's resistance) in the "Forward" direction (negative voltage to cathode) and at least 20K ohms in the Reverse direction.
I haven't heard that about LEDs and older bikes, but in a way, it makes some sense: older bikes didn't have voltage regulators that were as good as what we have now. They also vibrated more. But neither of these reasons should apply to an R1100...