Info button and possible TPM issue?

[The_Veg]

2012 R1200GS, 22K miles.

About two weeks ago I noticed that the INFO button was not working. Press it all I want, nothing happens. First thought, get in there and see if there's some issue I can fix. I'm fairly handy with wrenching and electrical stuff.

Then after sleeping on it, I remembered that around the same time, I also got some TPM warnings that went away quickly, one for the front wheel and the other for the rear wheel. One warning was present on starting after up after parking for a few minutes, the other came mid-ride while the tires were good and warm. Since TPM readings are one of the things that the INFO button toggles through, it seems suspicious. That said, with the button not working, the display is showing the clock and not the TPM. Tire pressure checks good.

My gut says that these issues are unrelated and that for the INFO button I have about a 25% chance of being able to fix it without buying an expensive switch-assembly, and that for the TPM thing I probably just need new batteries in the sensors (and lots of tread-life left so no other need to pull the rubber off anytime soon).

Any thoughts or BTDT tales?

 

[lee]

Back 3 or 4 years there was a Technical Campaign were the left and right switchgear was replaced free.
The switches were replaced on our 2011 K bikes.
Was yours replaced?

At 7 years old the battery in the TPM units may be going bad.

 

[The_Veg]

Back 3 or 4 years there was a Technical Campaign were the left and right switchgear was replaced free.
The switches were replaced on our 2011 K bikes.
Was yours replaced?

I never heard about that, but then I'm not the original owner; I bought the bike in 2014. Thanks for the heads-up; will look into it.

 

[The_Veg]

Follow-up:

I never remembered to look into the switchgear replacement, but today I did remember to check the switch myself. The info switch closes the circuit between the two corresponding pins in the connector, so the switchgear isn't the problem. Sometime soon, maybe this weekend, I want to get the tupperware and tank off so I can swap some accessories, so at that time I'll check the cable- and in the meantime I'll hope like hell that it's not the expensive bits at the other end of the cable.

 

[Coma]

Corrosion can affect even simple switching like contacts, I’m sure you cleaned up contacts while you’re in there?

 

[The_Veg]

Nothing to clean. The ones in the actual switch under the button aren't accessible, and the pins in the cable-connection all looked immaculate because the rubber seal on the connector has been doing its job. The switch worked perfectly when connected to the ohmmeter on the bench, so it's not a suspect at this point.

 

[The_Veg]

"May you live in interesting times" -old Chinese curse, supposedly

Another update, and now it gets interesting.

So since I pretty much eliminated the switchgear assembly as the problem, I told myself that during some upcoming accessory-work I needed to, that I'd investigate further once the tupperware is off. So today I pulled the tupperware and tank to get at a bunch of old Motolight wiring that I wanted to remove, and after doing that I started looking into the switch wiring.

The switch wiring travels down into the heart of the bike via a loose-fitting plastic sleeve, which is cable-tied to the hydraulic hose from the clutch master cylinder. That sleeve then disappears into the big fat wiring harness that lives on the left side above the engine. Assuming that the switchgear wiring isn't a separable cable, this could potentially be expensive and very labor-intensive, although probably less expensive than an issue requiring replacement of any of the computerised bits that the wires may connect to.

So with the idea that the wiring could be at fault, I began to inspect the sleeve for anything that seemed like a source of physical damage.

It didn't take long to notice this kink in the sleeve:

Now some slack is necessary there to keep the wiring from being pulled too much when the handlebar is turned to the right. But the placement of the cable-ties doesn't allow for a very gentle curve when the handlebar is at centre or turned to the left.

In this next picture, the handlebar is turned to the right for easier access. I've got my thumb on the spot where the kink was and something inside the sleeve doesn't feel right.

Knowing that the sleeve can be easily patched-up, I decided that it was time to go in and have a look. I used a #11 blade and manipulated the sleeve to be sure to keep the wires out of the way of the blade, and made a very careful incision. Here's what I found inside:

You can see the sharp bends in the wires right by where they broke, which is a classic sign of a bending-failure. The placement of the breaks all even with each other also supports the kink as the culprit.

The bummer is that the bike is four years out of warranty. I'll check the right side for kinks too before formulating a plan. Whatever I do, this wiring clearly needs better protection against kinking. At the very least it's going to get some loom on it or something to prevent future kinks.

I wonder too if any other bikes are suffering the same fate. Check yours.

 

[jandhumphreyme]

Well the hardest part of the repair is behind you. Post some more pictures of the final repairs.

 

[omega man]

Nice job chasing the problem down
OM

 

[henzilla]

Good find
Yeah, a dreaded hinge effect break, glad you found it as quickly as you did. Too many ties, bad spacing,or routing the slack was missed there. Nice clean break to deal with though And of course past any warranty claim.


Was familiar with the 1150 models where your riding partner says "it dies when I turn full right" at least gave you a clue to look at steering neck... Of course it happened in the heart of Santa Fe trying to get around the parade route we stumbled into. Saying don't turn right that far was not a funny well taken response BTW