Not the kind of adventure anyone wants

My last proper ride out, a local-ish green-lane, before the dreaded "EWS!"

Just before Christmas I was riding when the engine died with EWS! showing on the Kombi, leaving me stranded at the roadside. It had shown a few times previously at key-on but cleared upon retrying, however, starting the bike to head home had taken several attempts. Once recovered to home my GS-911 reported the typical "10491: Electronic immobiliser malfunction" with "no signal or value".

My maintenance plans for Christmas went out the window.

So I:

1. Replaced the battery, as I read it could have an impact and it was on my to-do list anyway (~9 yrs old) - No change.
2. Un-taped the wiring loom from the ring antenna to the main loom to inspect for the usual reported damage - None found.
3. Tried the spare key - No luck.
4. Replaced the ring antenna - No change.
5. Un-taped the main loom either side of the branch off to the ring antenna and down toward the ECU (BMSKP) - Still no damage found. Discovered that the bike seems to 'retry' every 38 secs which can make you think the wires you just moved are intermittent.
6. Tested the continuity from the RA plug to the disconnected ECU plug - all 4 wires read ~0.5 Ohms even during wire manipulation.
7. GS-911 View Key Status says (with RA connected) "The key currently in the ignition is INVALID and ENABLED. It is key number: 0". The info is the same with the spare key.
8. Un-taped the loom further looking for any damage but nothing visually wrong and there's too many wires to test individually.
9. Put a scope on the twisted-pair to the ring antenna to see if there was any activity - there was; I saw data traffic, but couldn't tell if it was from the RA to the ECU, but the ECU is ignoring it or if it was the ECU requesting info from the RA and not getting an answer. I suspected the former as the RA had been replaced. The CAN channel of the ECU that is connected to the RA must be damaged so it isn't able to read the data from the RA. I should have checked with the RA disconnected too, that would've indicated one way or the other.

2008 GSA, stripped down to investigate.

Observations

• ODO/trip reset button on Kombi does nothing.
• INFO button on left bar does nothing, but indicators, horn and ESA buttons seem fine.
• Dipped beam can switch itself on, apparently randomly (with and without GS-911 connected).
• Every 38 secs, either FUEL! or LAMPF! appear for <1 sec (EWS! disappears) and a servomotor can also be heard (tank removed, HID lamps connected).

Diagnosis

This looked to me like the ECU was partially faulty, possibly just a CAN transceiver chip, but I'm speculating. I presumed a dealer could test the BMSKP to confirm one way or the other as I didn't want to arrange a replacement to find that it isn't the cause.

Action

I called Reiten Motorrad, my nearest dealer, and explained the situation. They were a little confused by the symptoms (we ran through all the usual) but said there was a few things they could try...

While reassembling the bike to get it to Reiten, my mate was relaying the events and symptoms to his pal at Lind Motorrad (out of hours too!). Once my mate's mate had had chance to discuss it with his colleagues, I got a message saying they suspect I may be correct in my diagnosis; ECU. Arse. ECUs are expensive and I was kind of hoping...

I checked Reiten could take the bike if I turned up with it in a van on Saturday, no-prob-Bob, so I made the arrangements.

Outcome

Just a few hours after drop-off my phone rings; "it's definitely the ECU, I'm afraid". They happened to have a same year bike in on part exchange and swapped it's BMSKP into mine and the problem disappeared. The BMSKPs are coded to the VIN so can't be swapped and left in but can be used to help fault finding.

Bad news is a replacement part is £750, plus a bit of labour. Ouch! (I didn't have to sit down too quickly as I'd read the same when researching the fault and had prepared myself.)

Future

I asked for my old ECU back so I could attempt an autopsy and perhaps have a spare.

If they let me have it (can't see why not) and when/if I open it up, I will make another post of any findings.

Garmin Zumo 590LM battery fix

A "permanent" fix for an always flat, won't charge Zumo battery

I've been meaning to post this for a while and have been reminded/prompted by several related threads over on ZumoForums.

April 2018 UPDATE: the original ZumoUser forum suddenly closed it's doors and all data seems lost (lucky I posted here, eh?). It's replacement can be found at www.zumouserforums.co.uk.

Credit to user stu_m for having the nerve to diddle with the connector in the first place. I'd previously only re-seated the connector a few times to reduce contact resistance and the improvements didn't last.
Please refer to the forum for the origin(s). I will post these details there too, it is just more convenient for me to create here.

Garmin Zumo 590LM.

If your Zumo seems to die within minutes of taking it out of the cradle and doesn't seem to charge no matter how long it's left on charge for or with whatever charger/power supply, then there's a good chance this will work for you.

My fix is slightly more pin-friendly and reduces the risk of bending a pin too much (and crushing or snapping it) and provides improved contact on both sides of the pin and it's mating half, as it should have been at point of manufacture. It's fairly easy to do, you just need a steady hand and good eyesight (or some kind of magnification - close-up pictures here are from a cheap USB microscope).

Step-by-step:

1. Remove battery.

Press down tab and lift out connector.

2. Remove a pin (one at a time to avoid short-circuit or mixing up the sequence) by using either a pin, small jewellers flat-blade screwdriver or the blade of your scalpel/X-Acto knife to carefully lift the tiny pin-retention tab on the connector housing. Gently pull the wire at the same time and it will slide out.

Lift tab and pull out pin.

3. Insert the knife blade between the "sprung" contact surfaces, either side of the pin and "lean" the blade over slightly (both ways) to expand the gap, it doesn't need much.

Spread the contacting surfaces.

4. Re-insert the pin in to the connector housing.

Back home, ensure the tab is pushed back down.

5. Repeat 2-4 for all pins.

6. Re-insert battery, switch on and you should see an immediate improvement.

In the couple of months since I did this, I've never had my 590 die on me or any low battery warning for that matter. Enjoy!


Jan 2020 UPDATE

I just noticed my battery performing badly again. I couldn't be bothered to pull the pins again (I was also doing other things) so opted for a tiny squirt of WD-40 in the battery socket in the back of the Zumo (soak up the excess with tissue paper or shake/blow out the excess). Hey-presto, battery lasted over 2hrs. I suspect it won't last as long as the proper fix but could be useful mid-trip. Use this information at your own risk ;-)

Don't bother: 24hrs later and it was reading low battery. Just did the pin trick again...