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Centre panel electrical fault


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HI all 

I have a 2008 vfr800 non abs . i recently went to start teh bike and the speedo , the tacho,fuel gauge and temperature gauge stopped working . however i was able to start the bike .

 

Any help troule shooting this would be appreciated 

 

regards 

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1 hour ago, sunnersau said:

HI all 

I have a 2008 vfr800 non abs . i recently went to start teh bike and the speedo , the tacho,fuel gauge and temperature gauge stopped working . however i was able to start the bike .

 

Any help troule shooting this would be appreciated 

 

regards 

Hi sunnersau. Welcome to the forum, you'll have to post a picture of your bike.

 

You need to first check the state of Fuse E 10amp. Make sure this hasn't blown.

 

Failing that, you need to check at the connector of the Instrument Panel that the Green/Black and Green wires are properly Grounded. You need to be sure that these wires have zero ohms measured back to the battery Negative Terminal.

 

Do you have a multimeter? Also the full Service Manual for your bike can be downloaded from the forum if you don't already have one.

 

Are you able to do the above checks and get back to us?

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Grum 

thanks for getting back to me: 

I have checked the fuses on the right side of the cowling neat the handle bars and all seemed to be working order,

 

I have not checked the connector of the instrument panel as I am unsure how to access this, would thia involve removing the screen etc so ?

 

and yes I have a multimeter that I could use to check the connection once I have gained access .

 

so i will take a look at this at the weekend 

 

thanks 

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If you download the Service Manual from the forum it shows how to gain access to the instrument panel. Not too difficult.

Good luck.

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ok so update time. I have the panel off and found corrosion in the ignition switch which seems to have caused a short in the panel as the connections looked ok for the rest of the electirc s( indicator switched etc .

 

so i guess i will be looking for a replacement panel for a 2008 , any suggestions 

 

cheers 

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Strange assumption you are making here.

Firstly you are able to ride the bike and have no other issues other than the instrument not working! How can you be riding the bike if your switch is faulty?

Secondly I can't see how your Ignition Switch will create a short in the panel.

 

You haven't mentioned the Grounds Check suggested. 

You also need to confirm that you have 12v with Ignition on at the two Brown/Blue wires at the panel.

 

Saying "connections look ok" doesn't mean anything to me! Fuses can look ok when they are actually open circuit when measured for continuity or voltage across them!

 

My suggestion is stop "guessing" you need a new panel at least until you come back with results from what has been suggested.

Once you have confidently confirmed all voltages and grounds are present at the panel can you then say the panel has an internal fault.

 

Sorry, but my two pet hates in electrical fault finding is "looks ok" and "I'm guessing" , you can waste a lot of time and accumulate lots of expensive spare parts using these words!

 

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I had car come into my shoppe that wouldn't start.

 

Mechanic looked over it and concluded "bad ignition system". Then proceeded to change plugs and wires, nope. Changed distributor, ignition-coil, nope. Must be crank & cam sensors, nope...

 

Then pulled fuel-rail and cranked. AHAH! "bad fuel system" because injectors didn't squirt. Replaced all injectors and fuel-filter. Still no fuel, must be pump. Replaced pump and lines, still no fuel.  

 

Hmmm, what's common to both ignition and fuel? Ah, ECU's bad, let's replace that too! Still no go!

 

At this point, we've gone through over $1k in parts and over $1k in hourly-billing and I had to stop the insanity. Asked him if he measured all fuses and he said, "They looked OK". I fired him on spot (wasn't 1st time he's done this). If I had nickel for every time I've heard that.... Instead, I'm out thousands of $$$ I can't bill. Turned out EFI fuse was blown. Only way to determine if fuse is good or bad:

 

uc?export=download&id=1dhb408GneSUW3B-qf

 

 

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Switch has two states, open & closed. It connects 2-sides of wire, like draw-bridge. In case of ign-switch, this bridge carries +12v.

 

1. When draw-bridge is up/switch open, +12v can't get from one side to other.

2. When draw-bridge is down/switch closed, +12v goes from one side to other.

 

In worse case scenario, draw-bridge is stuck up/open. Or it has enough crap/corrosion, cow or horse stuck on ends such that bridge can't meet and it stays open. In which case, +12v can't get across from one side to other and switch is effectively OFF full-time.

 

There is no ground-connection on either side of switch. No short-cut way for +12v power to get around destination (load i.e. lights, ECU, dash-panel). So no way to have short-circuit. And even if someone was to wire ground wire to either side of switch to create short-circuit, what happens when you flip it? >PFFT< goes fuse that supplies power to ign-switch. Nothing would run, no dash, no ignition, no lights, no starter, complete death and darkness. Highly suspect short is even possible in this case since bike runs without dash.

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On 5/2/2021 at 6:56 PM, Grum said:

Failing that, you need to check at the connector of the Instrument Panel that the Green/Black and Green wires are properly Grounded. You need to be sure that these wires have zero ohms measured back to the battery Negative Terminal.

 

This has my vote, followed by the panel itself fails.  My instrument panel ground wires needed some clean-up when I took the bike apart last year.

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To add to Grum's reply, if Fuse E is indeed faulty then the tail lights and license light will no illuminate. And as DannoXYZ points out, you cannot tell by looking if a fuse is healthy.

 

If you don't have a test meter or a known good spare, you could swap it for Fuse A (clock) or Fuse B (turn signals & horn)

 

As many on the forum have been advised over the years, do the simple, inexpensive testing before dropping a bundle on pricey replacements.

 

Good luck

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I suppose the first thing to say is that I am not an auto electrician otherwise I would not have asked the question and therefore there is a high chance i mispoke when using the term short in the panel as clearly i have noidea, I do appreciate all the help and feed back I have been given.

 

The switch stopped working subsequently to the panel not working so I wasnt able to ride the bike, To that end I pulled the switch apart and cleaned the contacts and put back together as there was an amount of suface rust which seems to have sorted that issue.

 

After runing through the checks suggested by Grum I can report that I have ground from the connector back to the terminal and also have power coming into the panel, which means I was able to check the board in various locations and have deternined that the circuit completes (drawbridge closes) and allows the F1 ignition , indicators etc to work and thus allowing the bike to start. It seems that there is no power getting to the LCD screens. This appears to be a different circuit as all lights, horn indicators etc are working.

 

If i trace back from the LCD screens it would appear I only get power once I am on the other side of the processor , which leads me to think the problem is there.  am not sure if this can fixed. 

 

thanks again 

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7 hours ago, sunnersau said:

So I suppose the first thing to say is that I am not an auto electrician otherwise I would not have asked the question and therefore there is a high chance i mispoke when using the term short in the panel as clearly i have noidea, I do appreciate all the help and feed back I have been given.

 

The switch stopped working subsequently to the panel not working so I wasnt able to ride the bike, To that end I pulled the switch apart and cleaned the contacts and put back together as there was an amount of suface rust which seems to have sorted that issue.

 

After runing through the checks suggested by Grum I can report that I have ground from the connector back to the terminal and also have power coming into the panel, which means I was able to check the board in various locations and have deternined that the circuit completes (drawbridge closes) and allows the F1 ignition , indicators etc to work and thus allowing the bike to start. It seems that there is no power getting to the LCD screens. This appears to be a different circuit as all lights, horn indicators etc are working.

 

If i trace back from the LCD screens it would appear I only get power once I am on the other side of the processor , which leads me to think the problem is there.  am not sure if this can fixed. 

 

thanks again 

 

About the only thing you can do is check for bad connections, or damaged/corroded copper tracks which can be repaired by soldering a bridging wire. The LCD's will most likely be driven by a 5v supply coming from a 3 legged regulator chip that looks like a small power transistor, see if you can locate this, it will have 12v on one leg, Ground on another and 5v on the output leg, check for any cracked solder joints on the regulator. Sorry I can't offer too much more info as I've never had a 6gen panel apart, but failing that you're probably looking at a replacement panel.

Good Luck.

 

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In the end I brought the panel to an auto electrician and required a replacement panel which i sourced second hand from Spain (surprisingly very few out there). Thanks everyone for help 

 

cheers

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