Hi All, Any insight anyone can give me here would be massively appreciated! 2010 Multi 1200S, been happy as a clam for 20K miles. All factory recalls taken care of etc. Riding today on tour near Hamburg when dash lights up like Xmas tree, flashing indicators etc. Message saying "Errors: Can Line" flashing. Pulled over, disconnected battery to clear error etc. Seems to work but same thing happens after 5 mins. Limp to nearest Ducati dealer who diagnoses defective BBS ECU AND Loom!! Loom is prices at 979 Euro plus 7 hours labour to replace. Or about £1000 all in. F**K!! Stuck in Germany, I didn't have much option but to leave bike with him to get bits but I'm wondering if anyone on the forum has experienced anything like this or heard of it? Is a new loom the only cure?? Pretty ridiculous that electronics totaling 800 quid or so should just fail on a well looked after 3.5 year old bike! Thanks in advance, FBB
Will ride but does VERY odd things, like being unable to turn ignition off occasionally. Hazards flashing, no speed, rev-counter or fuel indication. Bear in mind I'm 800 miles or so from home. Ducati dealer here said likelihood of complete failure is high meaning I could get stranded with it en-route…. I was just wondering if same problem has happened to anyone else and what solution was - hopefully NOT complete new Loom and BBS!
Lol. Got to hold my hands up on this one. After YEARS of paying for international breakdown cover and not needing it, I've skipped it the past few years. I know, I know…… But to be honest, it'd be difficult to ride any distance with no fuel gauge, no indicators, no speedo etc. I'm also a bit concerned that the fly-by-wire throttle might go nuts!
Worth discussing with your regular Ducati dealer over here first. Many years ago I had a similar story with a Ford Granada, when the brakes failed.AA recovered me to his local garage in Doncaster, who wanted £1200 to replace something, but strangely the brakes were working again. I signed a disclaimer and drove home. My local garage quickly diagnosed a wire was chafed, taped up and charged me nothing. Anyway your in a dilemma
classic symptoms of water ingress in a ecu if you knew which one you could probably dry out. seen it many times on one particular model of vehicle
Excuse my ignorance on this as I dont have a Multistrada and have no idea where the ecu is and how easy it is to swap but many years ago I had something similar in a car, the ecu was replaced and nothing else touched, this cured all the problems. If there is easy access maybe ask the dealer in Germany if they have one they can fit and let you ride around for an hour or so and see how the bike behaves. Good luck.
Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. As you can imagine though, on the road, I'm a bit screwed. We HAVE been riding through some quite heavy downpours the last few days, though I've ridden through worse in the past with no problems. I can see water screwing the ECU but the Loom?? Unless it caused a short and a burnout I guess. Anyway, I'll update everyone with the results when I get them, likely next Tuesday.
doubt it's the loom. does it have some form of active suspension (forgive my ignorance) my bet it's that.
I'd also be surprised if it was the loom but another MTS owner was stuck in France a couple of years ago with a massive electrical failure that turned out to be a faulty loom. On my own bike I found a potential failure where the loom had been incorrectly routed under the seat around the battery and was being abraded by the seat flexing against it. Careful adjustment of it's position fixed a future problem. Another issue I had, twice enroute to Belgium, was at start the dash showed no rpm, no speed, the clock was frozen as was the mileometer. The fuel showed full although it wasn't and the gear indicator showed '1' irrespective of which gear it was in. Both times powering off and on again fixed it and I think it came about by hitting the start button before the dash had completed it's boot sequence, water was not an issue. I'd therefore agree with the others that it's more likely to be an issue with the BBS. Which reminds me that on the Belgium trip another guy had to have the BBS replaced on his way there because of failure which stopped the bike.
I am surprised they have diagnosed both an ECU and a loom. Did they plug it into their diagnostics kit ? Take out breakdown cover asap, and then start your journey. Check the small print to see what it says regarding how soon you can claim should you need to. If you dont need it, it is a bonus. I too would rather ride the bike home. If it breaks down on the way use the insurance. If you don't have any paying someone to come collect you in a van is a hell of a lot less than a grand on parts you might not need. Even booking for the same day at short notice is only around 100 quid for a tunnel crossing for a van. Regarding fuel range, fill the bike up and use your satnav (or phone satnav) to pick a place in 120 miles to fill again. Simple. I once rode my 996 home from the ring with a hole in the oil cooler spraying oil on the rear tyre. A puncture repair plug stemmed the flow to a minor dribble We just stopped every 50 miles to check the oil, and I tried not to lean over too much
It does sound very much like water ingress into a connector is sending the ECU bonkers and causing mayhem with the electronics. I would be tempted to leave it to dry in a hot place and see if it runs after a day or so - and in the mean time get yourself some breakdown cover sorted for the rest of the trip! My Hyper often spits the dummy after a wash and refuses to start with Immobiliser errors. I normally leave it overnight and it's fine in the morning once it's dried out. I also keep the immo code in my phone so I can bypass it and start the bike so I don't get stranded.
Can Line - controller area network line runs through various devices sending digital signals to control said devices. Water ingress would definitely screw it up causing the symptoms you describe. Definitely leave it to dry before proceeding. No doubt a new loom and ECU would fix it,with a big bill, but it might be completely unnecessary.
FBB this sounds exactly like the BBS fault I broke down with in Belgium back in May and although I am not a Ducati Multi expert, simply hooking up the diagnostic system will absolutely take away any doubt. The symptoms you describe are virtually the same as those which were evident when my bike failed and it is a really easy fix once diagnosed and certainly won't cost the earth. A BBS unit fitted on my 10 plate bike was £240 all-in. I'd get the BBS unit replaced and then checked again before taking any further rectification steps. Good luck my friend, my bike is as good as ever after this fix, so fingers crossed with getting it resolved and as others have said, get the warranty cover sorted promptly and renew the breakdown cover, taking very close note of the small print to make sure you are really covered in Euroland.
Tony, you're the guy I was remembering about who's BBS packed in. I think that's good advice for FBB.
