1200 DVT Intermittent Cel, Throttle Cutout, And Dss Errors

Hey all,

First post here, trying to find an answer to an odd problem with my '15 S Touring. Since buying the bike in November, I've had an intermittent CEL that the dealer said was due to "low voltage codes," but didn't specify beyond that. Frankly, this has just never caused me too much heartburn because the CEL doesn't seem to be causing issues while riding....that is, except for one infrequent issue. The first time the CEL came on, I was sitting stopped at a red light on my way to work. When I tried to go after the light change, the throttle was very wonky and "delayed" and eventually cut out entirely. Engine stayed running just fine, but twist the throttle and...nothing. I turned the bike off and it fired right back up again and the throttle was fine. Before heading home from work, I noticed the CEL was still on and decided to try some troubleshooting...I changed the drive mode from Sport to Touring, turned the bike off and on, and voila, no CEL.

I thought maybe it was a software glitch, but the CEL eventually came back. When it did, I tried changing drive modes again...only this time, when I did that, it killed the throttle. Turning the bike off and on again immediately fixed the throttle problem, and after a day or two, the CEL went away. It was at this point that the dealer said it was a "low voltage" fault and they didn't see any other issues. Again, the bike rides perfectly and the throttle issue was only happening immediately after I changed drive modes when the CEL was on, but would go away after restarting the bike. Essentially, as long as I didn't change drive modes while the CEL was on, the throttle was never a problem.

But now, a new issue has arisen, and it seems related. Now, every few starts, I get ERR on the DTC and DWC on startup (along with a CEL). This is obviously concerning, but the ERR notification always goes away within a few seconds of starting up, or if I just turn off and restart the bike after letting it warm up. If I ride my bike on back-to-back days, these errors don't seem to happen, and they don't happen when I start my bike after being at work all day...it seems to pretty much only happen if the bike has sat for a few days.

Based on my research, it seems I can at least pull the codes by myself (I ordered an OBDII reader and adapter based on DVT owners' guidance), so I'm hoping that may provide some clues if I can get it to work, but right now my dealership is taking weeks to get basic repairs done because of COVID, and trying to communicate the issue with them previously has only gotten me a response of "we cleared the voltage codes and can't do anything else."

I have an extended warranty for the bike, so I'm not too concerned about the cost, but I'd really prefer to avoid the dealer for many reasons if this is something I might be able to fix myself.

Any ideas?

p.s. this bike also suffered from the fuel sender issue, which the dealer replaced under my extended warranty this winter...not sure if that would be related. Fuel gauge works fine now.

 

CEL = Check Engine Light.
ERR = ERRor message the screen shows when there's an issue with your DSS system (there's also an orange "DSS" light that flashes next to the "side stand" icon)

 

Yeah, just put a new one in a few weeks ago. The voltage on the old one was a little low but not bad, but since I didn't know how old it was I just bit the bullet. I thought maybe the DSS errors might be related to that, but they didn't start immediately after the battery replacement.

 

Melcodiag does not seem to want to work for me. I can connect to the ECU, but the info it gives is incomplete or incorrect (for example, the mileage it shows for the bike is way off, as is the fuel level). Also, I tried registering, hoping that might help, but never got an email reply after submitting the form.

And of course, when I started the bike up the other day to run the diagnostics, the CEL was gone and I got no DTC errors. Is it possible rain is an issue? I feel like every time I've had the DTC errors, it's after we've gotten heavy rain, which it hasn't done for a while now. I keep the bike outside under a cover at all times, but the lower part of the bike can still get a little wet.

 

Just an update...multiple attempts at getting the diagnostics to work failed, so I just went with my gut and ordered a new throttle control unit (sku 66020073D). By the time I got around to doing the work, the problem had devolved into a persistent CEL, and it took a few on/off cycles to clear out the DTC errors and get the throttle to work properly almost every time I'd ride the bike. Once I got the new throttle unit on, I turned the bike on and voila, no CEL, no DTC errors, no throttle cutout issues. Rode it to work today and it worked flawlessly! The work itself was pretty easy and the trickiest part was just figuring out how the heated grip wiring fit into the throttle unit.

 

For my 2015, Melcodiag was the only thing that would even talk to the bike, and the layout of the software did not match the descriptions online, similar to what you seem to be dealing with. Like, the list of bikes in the drop down menu was different in my software than the in the instructions on the Melcodiag website...

TBF, it seems like maybe it shouldn't work with my bike at all, but I couldn't find a conclusive yes or no. In any case, the software would show some indication of talking to the bike, and even allowed me to generate a code for the license, but when I submitted that code I never got a response. So I'm not sure if the software doesn't work because it's incompatible with my bike, or if it's just limited because of the lack of a license...