Low fuel light problems & dash gauge errors - any ideas

[Briteyes]

Hi again; Briteyes here. I have a 2016 RT Limited with 33240 miles. On my vacation trip the low fuel icon would come on right after I fueled my bike, it would sporadically go off and come back on, and my fuel gauge would drop down to empty right after I fueled up. Also, in the mornings after sitting all night, the temperature gauge would read that it was warm already; & the the brake failure icon would come on. I've checked all the fuses and relays and all are good and tight. Any ideas on what would be causing this?

 

[Peter Aawen]

The low fuel warning lights and the fuel gauges themselves are notoriously inaccurate on Spyders/Rykers, altho they did get a little better from 2014 on. Still, what you describe is not unheard of (as I can personally attest! ) and while you MIGHT improve things by replacing the fuel pump with its integrated gauge & low fuel sender unit, the fuel tank hast come at least partially out so it's not an easy job to do (ie. it'll cost a fair whack of dealer tech labour time or more time plus some cusswords & leaky red stuff if you do it! :cus: ) and if you do replace it with an OEM part you are simply replacing one dodgy sender with another potentially dodgy sender, so there's a good chance you'll end up with the same problem at some stage - in my case, it was sooner rather than later! So I just live with my extremely inaccurate gauge & the light being wonky like that - best I had was it going from full to empty in less than 18 kms after a fill up & showing the low fuel light UNTIL it was almost empty, then it went out!! Mind you, I still rode for another 200km on the gas that was definitely in the tank! :thumbup: Just reset a trip meter to zero every time you fill, and over time work out roughly how far you can rely on getting from a tank of gas even when it's running at its worse ever mpg, & then ALWAYS refill before you get that far &/or run out!! These fuel pumps DO NOT like running dry, it damages them & over time, eventually destroys them cos they NEED about 1/4 tank of gas remaining in the tank to safely/properly cool & lubricate the fuel pump that's submerged in whatever gas is left in the tank! So DON'T run it dry! :lecturef_smilie:

That said, the fact that you are ALSO having other dash/gauge problems suggests there juuust might be some other dash/gauge issue going on. . Often, weird dash gauge problems like these are the first sign of a dead or dying battery, so check that for charge; get it load tested; and make sure all the terminals & any grounds you can find are making good contact with clean, bare metal & they are tight - use/install star washers if you haven't already! And if your battery is much more than saaay, 4 years old, it might be time to replace it anyway, just for Justin.... . Other than that, have you tried taking out the screws & gently leaning the entire dash module forwards out of it's housing so that you can check the back of it for any signs of damage &/or loose connections?? Possibly the connector on the back has vibrated loose, or there could be some water in places it shouldn't be?!? :dontknow:

Over to you! Good Luck! :cheers:

 

[Partzman23]

Do you know if your Spyder has the Magic Mirrors installed on it? The magnets can mess with the analog guages. If your's has the Magic Mirrors on it try taking off the top magnets on each mirror and turning them around. It has been reported here that this has happened ..

 

[Mikey]

I had that happen to me when I installed the magic mirrors, so I just took them out and went with the digital display that comes on when you unhook the analog gauges!! I think they work better and you can get the caps to fill the holes in the dash, and in turn that will give you a spot to install power ports or other things!! Sorry I got off topic, back to the question at hand, I would start with a load test on the battery, if that's ok, I would spend some time cleaning ground connections!! I hate electrical Gremlins!!!:banghead: Good luck!!

 

[Navydad]

Could be a ground wire not making good contact somewhere in the system. Bad ground can cause all sorts of trickery and can be tough to find.

 

[UtahPete]

It seems you're having all sorts of electrical system gremlins. Start with a good battery, securely connected battery post terminal wires and work downstream from there, checking all connections as you go, particularly anywhere previous owners have added farkles.

I found a corroded after-market accessory wire connection on my wife's bike.

 

[Joel The Biker]

Magic mirrors are most likely the culprit if you have them installed. Magic mirrors=mirrors held on with magnets instead of OEM clips.

 

[UtahPete]

Magic mirrors are most likely the culprit if you have them installed. Magic mirrors=mirrors held on with magnets instead of OEM clips.

They don't affect my gauges

 

[bigbadbrucie]

They don't affect my gauges

Nor mine!

 

[Piratezz]

Flip the magnets, and you'll see, that they are casusing problems... 50 percent chance, to put them in the good or bad way, they will work, but the wrong side of the magnet pole, is known to start problems...

 

[Briteyes]

Bought the Spyder new; I’ve had the magic mirrors on couple years. My fuel gauge not working has just happened in the last couple months, I can live with counting miles. The temperature gauge has been acting weird for 4 times now, where it will register in the middle like it’s already warmed up in the morning, I pulled the dash out yesterday and tested both plugins, the fuel gauge had power and when testing the back of the fuel analog gauge the light came on and the gauge worked, so that’s a probably a bad wire or sending unit or sensor is out like I said I can trip the mileage every time I fill.

But when I tested the temperature analog gauge I had power coming from the end attached to the Spyder, but when I tested the back of the temperature analog gauge nothing no light and the gauge didn’t move. Would you say the temperature analog gauge is stuck or could it be the temperature sensor?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.