G'day all, I did a long ride today, and when I got to about 10km from home my bike lost it's mind a little... I have no idea what's caused it, but it seemed to occur just a few seconds after I swapped from Sport, to Touring mode (whilst on the move). Basically the "DTC OFF" caution sign came on, along with the EOBD/ABS lights. Rest of the problems as below... Symptoms: - Error for messages "ABS" & "Speed Sensor" - "DTC OFF" warning triangle - Bike electrics will not turn off with the handlebar switch like normal. I can turn the engine off, but the usual button does nothing to turn off the fan/dash/electrics - Only way to turn the bike off is with the button in front of the tank under the little cover - Speedometer is reading 0kph at all times - Otherwise seems to be running and functioning as normal What I've checked/tried: - Turning it off/on, starting it/stopping it, changing riding modes, disconnecting the battery - Both front and rear ABS sensors. Both seem fine, and I've cleaned them off - no fix... - EVERY fuse. Not just for the ABS, but for everything - no blows anywhere - ABS sensor connections for the front under the beak, and the rear under the riders seat. Both seemed fine externally. Does anyone have ANY idea what the hell might be going on here? I am at a total loss. I've read some things about the sensor wires snapping on both the front and the rear, anyone know a way to check if that's occurred short of taking off the whole wire? I'd read something about checking the resistance, but haven't done that as yet because my multimeter seems to have given up the ghost too! If anyone has seen something like this before, or can point me in the direction of some more things to fault find it would be a huge help! Italian Electronics Cheers, Tom
What a to do! I haven't had a failure like that, so can't tell you what has gone wrong. I have, on my 2013 Skyhook, had the rear sensor wire fail whilst riding. It was a few years ago but all I remember resulting from that was a dash warning of some kind and the rear suspension firming up. It was a recall item and was fixed by the nearest Ducati dealer. So I think you can probably eliminate a Skyhook fault. From what you describe I'd concentrate on the handlebar switch(s). On early bikes there was a regular fault in the kill switch, and though that no longer occurs I think the same switch cluster could be at fault. Is the bike still in warranty? In any event a (slow) trip to the dealer to get the fault codes analysed would be my next move after inspecting the RH switchgear. Good luck!
Check and clean both LH and RH bar switches, the mode switch can stick down or not make a good connection and that could have confused the system.
I always suspect a dead or dying battery whenever odd electrical gremlins pop up, though this does sound more switch related.
Thanks for all the helpful replies guys; and the warm welcome I had suspected the battery too, so this morning I dug out the multimeter and checked it. It was reading 13.2V cold, and 14.05 @ idle RPM, so I think it's probably all good. I did try a spare battery (which had a lower voltage...), but there was no change. I guess I can probably rule out that easy fix! I haven't yet pulled apart the switches, but I guess I could give that I go. The only reason I thought not to do that was due the fact that the RH switch will turn the bike on just fine, and the LH switch is still changing riding modes etc as normal, so the actual microswitches seem to be working. It is a bit perplexing... If it were just the ABS/Speed Sensor error I'd be sure it was a sensor cable or something, but considering the electrics wont turn off I'm a little more puzzled... Maybe it's time to take it to a shop and pay the $$$... Thanks again for the help! Any other advice, I'd love to hear it
I've had the speed sensor error occur and while the first thing to replace was the front sensor and cable, it actually turned out to be a break in the wiring closer to the ECU. That said this problem was never combined with being unable to turn the bike off. I'd give the switches a clean as it should be easy to rule out but it does sound like something more.
Thanks for that info mate. Checking the sensors fully is my next (and last) port of call. I am at a bit of a loss regarding the handlebar switch. I haven't yet tried cleaning that out, but to be honest it seems hard to believe the switch is broken, because it works to turn the bike on without fault every time. It sort of seems more like an electrical issue than something like a dirty microswitch. I wondered, does anyone know how I might be able to check these sensors out with a multimeter? I figured perhaps if I disconnect the front/rear sensor connector and test the resistance of the actual sensors "downstream" of the connection, and perhaps turn power on an test the voltage coming to the connector from "upstream" it might tell me if the cables are intact or not? Then again, I'm no electrical wizard so that idea probably works in my head, but not in reality Any advice would be much appreciated! Failing everything else my last ditch effort will be to take it to the shop on Friday and concede defeat. I'm not sure what detail the diagnostic machines they use can actually provide, but I figure perhaps it'll be more than what I get on the dash... Cheers all. Tom
I recall another member had an issue which was traced to broken wire(s) under the tank panel, left side, where the main loom is affixed to the frame tube. I took a look at my own wiring when I had my tank off and noticed some wear on the loom wrapping and covered the area with a piece of cycle inner tube. If you remove the panels and whilst running, move the loom, see if something occurs (flashing lights, no lights, explosions.!) Good luck hunting it down. Hope it's something simple..
Well I may have made headway in narrowing down the problem... I unclipped both the front and rear ABS sensors and tested the resistance on both of them at the connection. There's a picture of the connection below. Now, I'll be the first to admit I know very little about electrics... But my process was this. 1. Set the multimeter to 2000 Ω 2. Put the negative probe on the terminal post #2 in the picture below, put the positive probe on the terminal post #1 in the picture below. 3. Swear and carry on whilst trying to hold the probes on the tiny little contacts and get a reading... On the front sensor I was able to consistently get a reading of ~ 820 Ω, on the rear the resistance read >1 on every scale. Now with my limited understanding this would seem to mean that probably the sensor wire is indeed snapped and the thus the circuit is not continuous. I wondered if anyone could perhaps confirm this thought process for me? Assuming that is indeed the case I might even go ahead and buy a new sensor and hope the plug and play fixes it all. Fingers crossed this is the issue, it'd be a cheap(ish) and easy(ish) fix compared to some... Any more help would be appreciated! Cheers, Tom
As fas as I know these sensors are hall-effect, not inductive, and I have never managed to get a resistance reading from one. I had a similar problem to messes above and the fault also turned out to be a break in the loom near the steering head. Further, if the rear sensor is faulty you will not get a speed reading in the dash. So I think the sensor fault is more likely to be with the front one. It's possible the failure to turn off fault is stuck contacts in the hands free relay but more likely it is the LH switch, which has one set of contacts for "Unlock"and another set for "Engine stop" The ABS, DTC and speed sensor error and the inability to switch off may be unrelated. So you could have two faults which just happened to occur simultaneously.
Thanks for that reply mate. That's a little confusing about the hall effect sensor, as I had a consistent reading from the front one. One thing I did entirely forget to add initially is that I was getting a 0kph reading at all times as soon as this problem appeared. Hmmmm.
Ah, well you might be right then. No speed reading would indicate a faulty rear sensor. It shouldn't prevent the bike from switching off though.
Yeah, that is the thing that's tricking me up. I would have ordered a new sensor already if the on off problem didn't exist. Only thing which has made me consider the sensor as the sole perpetrator is that someone on a forum elsewhere has told me they had the exact same problem and that replacing the rear sensor sorted all the symptoms. That, and the fact that the thing has more electronics than most satellites and is made by Italians, so who knows how the bloody thing works! I'd love to find a spare sensor somewhere so I could plug it in and try it out, but it's proving difficult to even find one new so I think that will be a struggle!
Well, it's fixed! I did try to find the damaged part of the old cable, but I'm very pressed for time at the moment, so rather than fiddle around for hours I bit the bullet and bought a new one. Ducati were great. I ordered it at 9am today and it was shipped to my local dealer from the Sydney factory by 4pm. Fitted it by 6pm and it's back in action! I had a moment of despair when I first hooked up the new sensor and turned the bike on. First thing to come up was "Error - ABS, Error - Speed Sensor". I was pretty gutted until I realised the front wheel sensor was still unplugged from when I had been testing it's resistance! Plugged that back in and all the errors disappeared. Bike electrics turning off/on as normal with the RH switch too. I'm still confused as to how a faulty sensor stops a seemingly unrelated switch from operating correctly, but I'll try to ignore that and hope it never happens again! Anyway, thanks to all of you for the help. It's great to have such a responsive group to bounce questions to.
If a wire is broken and it’s feeding power where it shouldn’t, it can create weird issues. A year or so ago, I had a sensor get ripped off. All I knew was the screen kept going ‘funny’, random errors and random reboots. All of this was accompanied by a little, odd sound. This odd sound turned out to be the sensors bare contacts arcing on the frame. The introduction of 5v to the frame made it do right odd things. New sensor and all was well.
