Firefly something interesting

[wyliec]

You mentioned in a previous post that one of your hid ballast may be going bad and you also mentioned (I think) that the scrolling message on start up sometimes reappears after your spyder is started. Long story short, started my spyder last week after sitting for a few months and only one hid came on. I drove for over and hour and checked the headlights again before parking the spyder. Still only one hid on. Shut the spyder off and turned it back on and I heard a noise. Both hids were on and the scrolling message reappeared after start up. Since last week the hids work fine and no reappearing of the startup message.

I'm thinking when the second ballast finally fired up it caused an electronic glitch and the reappearing of the startup message. So, on your spyder the reappearing of the message may indicate a faulty hid ballast.:dontknow:

My ECU was replaced last Nov. b/c that reappearing message used to happen continuously and I never had a hid problem in over 2 1/2 years until the other day.

 

[docdoru]

Start the bike with the fog lights off; turned them on after 1 min. :doorag:

 

[Firefly]

Interesting info. I'm still investigating mine. Been starting without the fogs on and that seemed to help...... but then.... not so much.

Have had some high idle problems again... and this morning I went to start it and it wouldn't start--- gave me every error code you could imagine... DPS, ECC, blah blah blah..... but then the really strange part---- power to spyder would not turn off. spyder wasn't running..... pulled key out and everything electrical was ON and would not shut off.

Left it sit for a few minutes trying to turn key on and off, etc..... and the power would NOT turn off no matter what.

Finally pulled and re-seated the relays and then was able to start it up and go.

I might put a temporary by-pass switch on the HID headlights so I can rule out if those are causing interference....

I did notice on the way home last night, I started the Spyder without the fogs on.... and then about 10 minutes down the road I kicked the fogs on and there was a short 'stumble' ... like the ignition cut out for a brief second.. and the electronics (including headlights) flashed off for just a second.

Seems that the HID ballasts certainly can cause some strange interference... perhaps worse when if they're going bad..... :dontknow:

 

[NancysToy]

How's your battery?

 

[Firefly]

How's your battery?

New as of last summer---- I tender it often. Just need to to a teardown and check it all... but with this nice weather I'd rather be riding!

 

[docdoru]

I would move the ballasts away from the frame and each other. :doorag:

 

[bone crusher]

Interesting info. I'm still investigating mine. Been starting without the fogs on and that seemed to help...... but then.... not so much.

Have had some high idle problems again... and this morning I went to start it and it wouldn't start--- gave me every error code you could imagine... DPS, ECC, blah blah blah..... but then the really strange part---- power to spyder would not turn off. spyder wasn't running..... pulled key out and everything electrical was ON and would not shut off.

Left it sit for a few minutes trying to turn key on and off, etc..... and the power would NOT turn off no matter what.

Finally pulled and re-seated the relays and then was able to start it up and go.

I might put a temporary by-pass switch on the HID headlights so I can rule out if those are causing interference....

I did notice on the way home last night, I started the Spyder without the fogs on.... and then about 10 minutes down the road I kicked the fogs on and there was a short 'stumble' ... like the ignition cut out for a brief second.. and the electronics (including headlights) flashed off for just a second.

Seems that the HID ballasts certainly can cause some strange interference... perhaps worse when if they're going bad..... :dontknow:

If you recall, I had a bad ballast that would shut off the bike when I first started it...PITA. The darn things drain a lot of juice when you first fire up the bike. A friend of mine, who is an electrical engineer, took them out...I got new ones and he attached them where there was NO chance of them hitting any metal...it seems that although HID lights are vastly superior with the light they put out, they can be a nightmare if they're not attached properly and/or if one goes bad...

I opted NOT to go with HIDs for the fog lights as you want yellow light anyway for fog, not white or blue light...too much light concentration will bounce back at you and render their function useless...