The dreaded DESS

[mstella101]

Well it finally happened, the dreaded Dess, first time in four years! Jumped on the bike, started her to go to work, had to run into the house ,put on the parking brake, came back Took off the parking brake and brake failure popped up on the screen. I was already running a little behind so I parked it back in the garage and turned it off, with the parking brake on and no beep, jump in the cage and headed to work. Any advice on what to do or what to check when I get home. I feel very fortunate that it took this long to get one of these codes!
Mat

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

D.E.S.S. ??????

Well it finally happened, the dreaded Dess, first time in four years! Jumped on the bike, started her to go to work, had to run into the house ,put on the parking brake, came back Took off the parking brake and brake failure popped up on the screen. I was already running a little behind so I parked it back in the garage and turned it off, with the parking brake on and no beep, jump in the cage and headed to work. Any advice on what to do or what to check when I get home. I feel very fortunate that it took this long to get one of these codes!
Mat

This is NOT the.... DESS .... failure warning, that's why it says " brake failure " ...... Have you checked how much fluid you have in the Brake containers under the seat on the right rear ??? .... before you do , you need to clean the CAPS and the TOP of the container before you open them !!! .....you do NOT want any crap getting in them ..... I'm pretty sure you need a little bit of Brake fluid use the correct type for your Spyder ...a couple of teaspoons usually fixes it .................. The DESS failure is shown by " the entire screen goes ORANGE " .... and the Spyder is DEAD , it won't do anything except show the screen ..... Mike ......., Also you have a 2013 ST, the 08 to 13 had the old DESS system that worked 99.99% of the time ..... So some BRP engineer decided to fix that :lecturef_smilie: :banghead: ... and now it's a problem .......Mike

 

[mstella101]

Thank you so much Mike- after. I left I started thinking bout it - I'll check it out as soon as I get home. Thanks for the tip- not sure I would've thought of that. I'll let you know what happens
Mat

 

[ARtraveler]

Spyder's do seem to use a bit of brake fluid. If down more than a teaspoon, you can get the brake warning light. The first couple times I got it, we were going on the down side of Hatcher Pass--11 miles worth. A teaspoon or so of fluid fixed the warning light. :thumbup:

Mike has you covered on the cautions. :yes:

 

[Peter Aawen]

Do check the brake fluid & that your brakes are working, but also be aware that if you flicked the park brake on or off at the wrong time/in the wrong way (I dunno, holding your tongue out to the left instead of the right maybe?!?) then sometimes you can get spurious 'Brake Failure' warnings that disappear & never return if you ride on a bit (saaaay 10-20 yards!!) It's happened to me a couple of times, & I've seen it a few more times on other Spyders too, generally when the ryder was in a hurry to do something else; often their Spyder was not quite stopped when they flicked it on, then once the task at hand was done, they jumped back on & flicked the park brake off at the same time, expecting to ryde straight off but NO, 'Brake Warning' flashed up! :shocked:

Sometimes it could've been just a little surge in the slightly low level fluid in the master cylinder; sometimes it seems to have had more to do with the when & how the park brake was applied/switched off; but often the remedy was just a matter of slowly & carefully re-engaging the park brake properly, then (with a foot on the brake pedal) disengaging the park brake before gently releasing the foot brake & riding on for 10-20 yards before checking the brakes & park brake again & the warning went away! It shouldn't hurt you to try that, & it may well get rid of the warning that likely only happened cos you were in a bit of a hurry to do something else.... But do be careful & check your brakes are working properly before heading off again! :lecturef_smilie:

Good Luck!? :thumbup:

 

[BoilerAnimal]

If you do add brake fluid be sure to use NEW DOT 4 fluid. Open containers of brake fluid have a bad habit of absorbing moisture........and that's bad!

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

BRAKE FLIUD

If you do add brake fluid be sure to use NEW DOT 4 fluid. Open containers of brake fluid have a bad habit of absorbing moisture........and that's bad!

:agree: ....Plus be very, very careful that you don't spill it on anything ...... It's corrosive abilities is almost like ACID ..... Mike :thumbup:

 

[Grandpot]

Do check the brake fluid & that your brakes are working, but also be aware that if you flicked the park brake on or off at the wrong time/in the wrong way (I dunno, holding your tongue out to the left instead of the right maybe?!?) then sometimes you can get spurious 'Brake Failure' warnings that disappear & never return if you ride on a bit (saaaay 10-20 yards!!) It's happened to me a couple of times, & I've seen it a few more times on other Spyders too, generally when the ryder was in a hurry to do something else; often their Spyder was not quite stopped when they flicked it on, then once the task at hand was done, they jumped back on & flicked the park brake off at the same time, expecting to ryde straight off but NO, 'Brake Warning' flashed up! :shocked:

Sometimes it could've been just a little surge in the slightly low level fluid in the master cylinder; sometimes it seems to have had more to do with the when & how the park brake was applied/switched off; but often the remedy was just a matter of slowly & carefully re-engaging the park brake properly, then (with a foot on the brake pedal) disengaging the park brake before gently releasing the foot brake & riding on for 10-20 yards before checking the brakes & park brake again & the warning went away! It shouldn't hurt you to try that, & it may well get rid of the warning that likely only happened cos you were in a bit of a hurry to do something else.... But do be careful & check your brakes are working properly before heading off again! :lecturef_smilie:

Good Luck!? :thumbup:

I agree with Peter. Sometimes for seemingly explainable reasons I get a Brake Failure orange screen. The Spyder was still drive-able. The last time it happened was when I had my foot on the brake and released the parking brake. The brake pedal went down further at that time. It may have activated the Low Pressure switch, so I did the following and it worked:

LPS fault c1282 reset

1 turn Ignition switch off. Remove the key from the bike and take a walk...
2 wait at least 30 seconds
3 turn Ignition switch on
4 Immediately, firmly press and hold the brake pedal until you hear a click from the LPS switch, the 1st click will come from the brakelight switch. Continue to strongly press to hear a 2nd click. This one will come from the low pressure switch
5 Turn Ignition switch off, and recheck the Code.

I did not receive the Code, but the reset procedure worked.

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

BRAKE FAILURE

I agree with Peter. Sometimes for seemingly explainable reasons I get a Brake Failure orange screen. The Spyder was still drive-able. The last time it happened was when I had my foot on the brake and released the parking brake. The brake pedal went down further at that time. It may have activated the Low Pressure switch, so I did the following and it worked:

LPS fault c1282 reset

1 turn Ignition switch off. Remove the key from the bike and take a walk...
2 wait at least 30 seconds
3 turn Ignition switch on
4 Immediately, firmly press and hold the brake pedal until you hear a click from the LPS switch, the 1st click will come from the brakelight switch. Continue to strongly press to hear a 2nd click. This one will come from the low pressure switch
5 Turn Ignition switch off, and recheck the Code.

I did not receive the Code, but the reset procedure worked.

...However this does NOT fix the problem ..... adding some brake fluid will ..... and I went thru the same thing .....just adding the Fluid cleared the warning code ...... Mike :thumbup:

 

[Grandpot]

...However this does NOT fix the problem ..... adding some brake fluid will ..... and I went thru the same thing .....just adding the Fluid cleared the warning code ...... Mike :thumbup:

Mike, I did forget to mention that I had to bleed the brakes. That's what caused the pedal to go all the way down to the Low Pressure switch. You are correct also. Low fluid level creates very similar symptoms.

 

[Deanna777]

Even tho you have 50+ mostly repetitive posts on the DESS subject ..... " Brake Failure " ..is not a DESS issue :banghead: .... Mike :thumbup:

I deleted the post. Deanna

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

BRAKE FAILURE

Mike, I did forget to mention that I had to bleed the brakes. That's what caused the pedal to go all the way down to the Low Pressure switch. You are correct also. Low fluid level creates very similar symptoms.

OK :thumbup:.... your issue was a lot more serious than the OP said His was :dontknow: ......no harm - no foul :roflblack:

 

[mstella101]

A big shout out to all that responded with such great advice. Finally had a chance to take a look and my brake fluid was low! Got a new bottle of DOT 4 and turkey basted the fluid in and all is well. I know I am lucky that this is the 1st message screen I've seen and I hope(I'm crossing my fingers I'm not jinxing myself here) the last one I see for quite awhile. thx to all
Mat

 

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

TURKEY BASTER ? ? ?

A big shout out to all that responded with such great advice. Finally had a chance to take a look and my brake fluid was low! Got a new bottle of DOT 4 and turkey basted the fluid in and all is well. I know I am lucky that this is the 1st message screen I've seen and I hope(I'm crossing my fingers I'm not jinxing myself here) the last one I see for quite awhile. thx to all
Mat

I hope it was ....REALLY clean or NEW ...... and don't use it for anything else ......ever :lecturef_smilie: ..... Mike :thumbup:

 

[mstella101]

Yep- it was clean and new! and won't be used for anything else