2011 RSS random multiple fault codes and lights

I own a 2011 RSS with 23k miles. Randomly the check engine light and multiple other lights will come on, along with displaying VSS, ABS, DPS Faults. The gauges will also go crazy or not work. I can shut it off or turn the switch on and off and they will go away. I had it to a dealer and he said it was a loose connection with the connector plugging into the instrument cluster. So I sometimes remove the panel and re-seat the plug and that will clear it up for a while as well. Can someone give me a permanent repair/fix? I have seen others mentioning a similar problem and they say it is a relay.

Thanks in advance

Did you pull out the relays and put them back in to be sure they are seated correctly? Also check your battery connections to insure they are tight.

I will take a look at the relays and battery connections.

:agree: with SpyderAnn's suggestions, but also suggest you should get the battery load tested while you're at it!! :lecturef_smilie:

Sometimes, if it's not the relays or dodgy battery connections, an old or dying battery can give you these 'random multiple fault codes' that clear up just as mysteriously as they arrived; and the gauges going crazy &/or not working can also be a sign of a dead or dying battery!! :shocked:

Good Luck! :thumbup:

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Originally Posted by Peter Aawen

:agree: with SpyderAnn's suggestions, but also suggest you should get the battery load tested while you're at it!! :lecturef_smilie:

Sometimes, if it's not the relays or dodgy battery connections, an old or dying battery can give you these 'random multiple fault codes' that clear up just as mysteriously as they arrived; and the gauges going crazy &/or not working can also be a sign of a dead or dying battery!! :shocked:

Good Luck! :thumbup:

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:agree: and also suggest heavily smearing that plug or the receptacle with elec connection paste , it should help conductivity and act as a lubricant and waterproofer ...... good luck .... Mike :thumbup:

I will try these suggestions and let you all know.

Please do let us know. I have the same issues and haven't tackled it yet.

Ok, I switched around the relays, and I haven’t had another problem. I have road it about 8 times and 300 miles, so far and it’s been perfect. I changed out the main relays with the other relays, like the headlight. I will be buying a couple new ones though. This problem was happening almost every time I had it out, so I will post another update in a week and let you all know. Thanks for the help.

My 2012 RS S just started doing the same thing yesterday 8/9/20. I suspect the battery, since I think it is OEM battery. I'd have thought that since the machine starts with no issues, and will sometimes crank for fairly long times without noticable slowing, the battery would be good.

Yesterday 8/11/2020, I replaced the battery. I also reseated the relays in the fuse panel. It started right up, and all seemed good. I didn't get a quarter of a mile from the house until it started throwing the same faults. I'm going to take the new battery and have it tested just in case it is defective, but I think it will be an effort in futility. By the way the old battery tested bad, according to the store.

The faults include check engine, check DPS, ABS fault, VSS fault, EBD fault, and failure of the gauges. When the gauges fail the odometer also stops counting.

I'm beginning to wish I never bought the Spyder. I changed the battery to no avail. I checked and reseated the connector on the instrument panel. I moved relays around. After all that the "Check Engine" and "Check DPS" came on before the machine went ten feet. Shutting it off and restarting cleared the faults, but they came back along with the ABS, VSS, and EBD faults and inoperative instrument panel. All the faults will apparently clear themselves every so often, then recur. There is no apparent effect on the driveability. At the moment I am out $129 for the new battery and several hours of work, with no success. From the way it acts I think there is a loose connection somewhere, but there are so many connections on it I don't know where to start.

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Originally Posted by Charon

........ From the way it acts I think there is a loose connection somewhere, but there are so many connections on it I don't know where to start.

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From the sounds of it, replacing the battery was a necessary first move! :thumbup: But I reckon that in doing that, you've done what I did when I fairly recently replaced my 2013 RT's OE battery... :rolleyes: I moved the Negative cable around a bit while getting the new battery in, and that was enough to loosen the other end of that cable. In my case, that resulted in a 'not really great' & intermittent connection on the 'non-battery' end of that cable which meantan intermittent & alarming DPS failure! :banghead:

Admittedly, your 2012 probably has the battery under the seat rather than behind the frunk like mine, so yours might not be exactly the same problem, but it's a good place to start! First, check to make doubly sure that the battery terminal connections are tight & making good contact - nb: I've seen 'tight' terminal bolts that simply didn't clamp the cable onto the battery terminal at all!! :shocked: Those battery terminals with bolts that go into a 'blind hole' can be a real trap; bottom out the bolt in its blind hole & it 'appears' tight, but the ferrule on the end of the cable can still be loose & flopping around in the breeze with that 'tight' bolt going thru it - so make sure the cable end IS actually tightly held onto the terminal with a clean & firm connection - star washers work really well at this! :ohyea: And then follow both the + & - cables away from the battety, checking that their connections are tight & clean on their other ends! While you're doing that, check &/or clean every other 'electrical ground bolted/screwed to frame' connection that you can see/find & any other 'bolt &/or nut' type electrical connection you can see; those in particular can & do develop a little corrosion between the metal surfaces as time passes, and that means increasingly poor electrical connections - adding star washers to all those connections too can resolve any problems now and help save a lot of grief down track! :thumbup:

Good Luck! :cheers:

Ps: IIRC there's a 'wiring earth to frame' onnection under the seat on the 2012's & earlier that has a 'pressed nut' pushed into the frame cross piece, and if you undo that bolt &/or over-tighten it, you can push or pull the nut out of its seat & compromise that ground conection! It's a while since I played with one of these, so once again, it's down to memory... :rolleyes:.... still, IIRC it's a real bear to fix once you've loosened this connection, cos you've somehow got to remove the bolt with its now freely spinning and largely inaccessible hidden nut before you can re-fix it so that ground connection stands any chance of every working properly again.... :cus: I think many resorted to using a large self-tapping screw directly into the frame cross rail (in a spot cleaned of paint too!) instead of trying to replace the bolt & its now permanently loose nut that formerly held the ground connection tight?! :dontknow:

I checked the ground connection on the end of the cable under the seat, found it loose, and tightened it. No joy. I at the verge of donating the thing to some charity and letting them fight with it. I figure to try again, but more and more I'm regretting ever buying it.

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Originally Posted by Charon

My 2012 RS S just started doing the same thing yesterday 8/9/20. I suspect the battery, since I think it is OEM battery. I'd have thought that since the machine starts with no issues, and will sometimes crank for fairly long times without noticable slowing, the battery would be good.

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When a problem develops all at once, it is probably related to a singular issue. Because these bikes are very dependent on the ECU to run things, they are also very voltage dependent. In other words, if you have a bad battery or connection off the battery then strange and less than wonderful things will happen. It can also cause the system to throw codes that may or may not be real.

Changing the battery was probably a good start. But you have found out, its probably not the only or root cause. So dependent on how much skill you have troubleshooting electrical issues, finding the problem may either be something you can tackle or something you want to have a mechanic look at. I personally would not want to bring in outside help unless I was sure it wasn't something I could fix myself. If you feel the same, then keep plugging away.

You will probably need to start tracing wires back from the battery, both positive and grounds. Use a meter and check voltages on positive and resistance on the ground connections. Check for low voltages especially as you get farther away from the battery. It will probably be tedious, but it is necessary. Pull off whatever panels you need to. If you have connectors, open them and "cycle" them by reconnecting and then do it again. This will wipe the contacts a bit that may help to get you to a strong clean connection again. Take pix and post them here. It will help others to help you and may help the next guy who has the same problem. Good luck.

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Originally Posted by Charon

I checked the ground connection on the end of the cable under the seat, found it loose, and tightened it. No joy. I at the verge of donating the thing to some charity and letting them fight with it. I figure to try again, but more and more I'm regretting ever buying it.

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Have you re-checked the battery voltage &/or re-charged the battery since then? Even a brand new battery can be run flat (or die) very quickly if there's poor connections anywhere, & that's especially so if the poor connections are in its charging circuits.... :dontknow:

Apart from that, I agree with Eviltwin in his post above - it's time to start tracing wires & checking connections.... Good Luck! :thumbup:

Ps: while I can understand the frustration you're experiencing atm, this issue is probably going to something that's fairly simple to sort - once you find it!! Sure, the finding bit might be a right pain, but the alternatives are more painful, aren't they?? :dontknow: You could let a possibly 'not really interested or properly competent' tech fumble around in there for a while after your Spyder's been sitting around in some dealer's service yard for a month or so, racking up a ginormous bill & creating who knows what other problems along the way, and then charging you a ridiculous amount while not ever really finding anything anyway, & probably leaving you with the initial problem and more to boot; or you could dump the Spyder & not only take the significant $ loss that'd entail but also miss out on the Miles of Smiles these things can be once you've resolved what is very likely a simple to fix electrical problem... :gaah: Or possibly you could spend a bit of time getting to know the internals & workings of your Spyder a bit more, sort the problem (probably, or at least possibly) fairly quickly, AND if you approach it the 'right way', benefit from the whole 'the Zen of Motorcycle Maintenance' thing while you do so - it's all up to you & the way you approach the task, isn't it?! Your choice tho ;) Cheers :cheers:

I am fairly comfortable with electrical and electronic stuff, having spent most of my life working with it. But during most of that career I had the benefit of circuit diagrams. I'm flying pretty blind with the Spyder. I have also had the dubious pleasure of chasing down intermittent problems. The trouble with intermittent problems is that you never know for sure they are fixed. The Spyder adds to the pleasure by having so much bodywork in the way. It doesn't help that I am older and less flexible, and the Spyder is quite low and relatively inaccessible. I figure I'll keep working at it, but it certainly is frustrating.

I recharged the new battery, and while the battery maintainer was still attached the faults seemed to clear. This at about 13.6 volts. Removing the maintainer dropped the voltage to about 12.75 volts and the faults popped up again. Starting the machine brought the voltage up to about 13.8, but the faults didn't clear. I used the magic button sequence to read the computer fault codes, and it says there are no active faults, despite the ABS fault, VSS fault, the DPS fault, the Check Engine light, and the inoperative instruments immediately prior to and immediately after reading the No Active Faults message. Frustrating.

Checking the battery with the maintainer connected isn't going to show you anything except to confirm that the maintainer is actually pushing out volts. :sour: So, once it's been off the maintainer for some hours, can you see what the battery voltage does actually WHILE you're trying to start the Spyder?? It still sounds awfully much like a dead/dying battery &/or a poor charging system, altho at least initially, the off maintainer/pre-start voltage of 12.75 sounds OK (could be surface charge tho - you need to leave it OFF the maintainer for some hours before checking to get a valid 'resting charge' reading. ;) ) and the charging voltage while running sounds OK too.... have you checked each terminal & cable lug for clean surfaces & tightness? You haven't got a terminal bolt that's 'tightening' into a too short blind threaded hole that still leaves the cable loose, have you?? What about physically checking all the fuses for continuity, proper seating, & all the main relays for correct operation? :dontknow:

Still, for what it's worth, maybe just try running back thru the list & re-checking everything?! As was mentioned earlier, Battery maintainers can hide dead/dying batteries, so you need to leave your battery OFF the maintainer (overnight?) before checking its resting voltage, and even brand new batteries can fail & so not pass a load test; poorly seated fuses & relays and poor/loose connections &/or ground cables could be compromising the voltage supply, possibly only actually while the engine is running &/or you're ryding.... and everything you've told us re the fault codes simply SCREAMS that it's most likely a dead/dying battery; loose/poor connections &/or fuses, relays, ground cables, etc; or your charging system has carked it! Surely there's gotta be something in that lot that's doing this?! :gaah:

I finally gave up and took it to the dealership today. The dealership, Star City in Lincoln Nebraska, says it will be probably a month and a half before they can run a diagnostic on it. The fee for the diagnostic is $129. The fee is halved if I then have the repair done there. The shop rate is $129/hour, and BRP is not noted for inexpensive parts. If I get lucky I might get it back without spending more than $500 or so.

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Originally Posted by Charon

I finally gave up and took it to the dealership today. The dealership, Star City in Lincoln Nebraska, says it will be probably a month and a half before they can run a diagnostic on it. The fee for the diagnostic is $129. The fee is halved if I then have the repair done there. The shop rate is $129/hour, and BRP is not noted for inexpensive parts. If I get lucky I might get it back without spending more than $500 or so.

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I used to think that Brit/Lucas electrics were quirky (from my MG/Triumph days) but BRP certainly gives them a run for their money. These machines seem to have their share of quirky electrical/sensor/circuit problems, probably from trying to cram too many safety gizmos into such a small platform. (Please see my thread about VSS issues which, with the help of this forum, I think i've solved.) Just look on the bright side: at least you have a dealer to which to take your trike. I'd have to ship mine to the US west coast! I won two other motorcycles but the Spyder's still special with its low end torque and get-up-and-go. I'll keep it for now.

Good luck!

I just got a call from the dealership. They say they have run diagnostics on my RSS, and the diagnostics point in several conflicting directions. They say they have contacted CanAm and are awaiting further information from them. I believe the phraseology was something like "Opened a case with CanAm." To quote Hermione Granger, "And now we wait."

I got the call from the dealership, and the bad news. The consensus is that the instrument panel/gauge cluster is defective. The repair, including parts and labor, is just shy of $900. Of course the parts have to be ordered.

Latest update, Dec 15, 2020. Dealership called and said the speedometer/instrument cluster is on backorder from CanAm with an estimate of early February. Way I understand it, neither the dealership nor CanAm is absolutely sure that will cure the problem.