Fire

[Sharpshine]

Hey everyone, new to posting on this site although I've been reading for awhile.
Now that I have purchased and have been riding my (new to me) 04 R1150r for over a month now; I have encountered my first troubling moment with the bike. Although the guy that I purchased the bike from (another member to this site) took really great care of the bike and I would not need to do any maintenance for while to come kind of bike.
This morning I left my place and did not even go hundred yards and bike starting making to most awful sound (almost like boiling grease and metal) then I smelt the smoke, (black electrical) and somewhere underneath near the front single shock I saw flames, blew them out. Black sooty type of smoke. Red warning lights came on.
There is a 4 amp fuse out that i replaced yesterday that I believe to be for the heated grips (which I suspect to have a short in the cabling in the grip, installed to tight, no slack) and seems odd that it would be related, but I do not know enough about the R1150r yet to make educated guesses.
The bike is in great shape and before I take it to a mechanic I was interested to hear what the forum thought.

Thank you,

Wayne

[Rider Rick]

I am in your boat, man, new to me 04 R in my garage, only riddern about 20 miles so far. I do know that the zip tie problem in many of these bikes, which has been widely proclaimed, can cause wire breakages, and logically shorts, also. I have read the heated grips can be affected by that, particularly the right one? You need to search for the wire ties problem, or zip ties problem and see what to do, as in cutting the zip ties and applying more loosely zipped ones. I looked at mine but cannot tell if it has been redone...going to post a pic to see if anyone can tell. It looks snug, but...(throws hands up). Good luck finding that! I'll be watching this one, closely.

After re-reading this, I suspect that fuse was out for a reason, the owner may have had some problems, too? Maybe not, but the simplest conclusion is that the new fuse brought the old problem back. Possibly someone did not want to track down the wire with the short in it? If the fuse is not burned out after the incident, I would pull it immediately...anyway, below are some pics of my wireties wire bundles, not sure if they have been redone...they seem pretty tight.

http://rushingaround.net/bike/wireties/ties.html

[Rider Rick]

Bumping this for the benefit of the OP. After further perusal, I'm going to cut these ties and put more relaxed versions back in, they just look too snug.

[vexlak]

While the wires to the heated grips may strapped too tight and have shorted out, it would not cause a fire. Beside the point you stated that the fuse was out so it would have burned before anything else.
Check your battery connections. You battery may be loose and have "danced" around until the wires touched something interesting and caused a good short.

[Sharpshine]

I have finally found the time to take off the tank and see what caught on fire and here are a few pics of the damage. Would anyone like to take a guess at what the cause might be. I have the foggiest idea. Although it is obvious what needs to be replaced. I would like to maybe understand why there was a melt down.

http://gallery.me.com/waynesutton1#100185


Thanks,
Wayne

[Sharpshine]

Looks likes this is a stumper to me as well. Does anyone know what harness connection this is and what it controls.. Im guessing I should find a diagram and or manual to understand the problem..Im interested in learning to wrench on my bike, but this is a little daunting. But Im really going to try avoid taking it in. Any input would be awesome. Overwhelmed.

Wayne

[omg1010]

Hi there,

this looks really bad. And unfortunately you're not the only one ... There have been a few such cases. Recently a fellow German rider experienced the same. Unfortunately several of the wires in the front are not fused which is a design fault of BMW. Wires which are fused cannot melt/catch fire. This is almost certainly either caused by tight zip-ties or another possibility is rubbing of wires in the instrument cluster.

Anyway you are likely to have a new wiring harness to be installed which will cost you big time. The wiring harness alone if bought from the stealership costs around 1000 US$ and there is a lot of work involved. Try to get yourself a used harness and go to a garage dealing with BMW bikes. There you might get the job done cheaper. You might also want to do it yourself which will take you a couple of days.

Brgds
Oliver

[sweatmark]

Missed original January post. A few weeks ago I started a topic based on some ADV Rider info concerning the unfused circuits that Oliver is referencing. Your wiring melt down might be due to the primary unfused circuit on 2003+ bikes, the ignition/key switch supply. Note that earlier bikes have more non-fused circuits. Your problem might also have been due to that fuse you replaced, or something else entirely.

I can't see your photos on BlackBerry right now, but will take a look via laptop and check my BMW electrical schematics CD for connector identification.

[omg1010]

Hi sweatmark,

I remember having seen a posting on advrider about fusing the front/telltale wires (or was it another circuit?). Was it you who started the thread on advrider? Can you direct me onto that thread please because I am apparently unable to retrieve the same ...

Brgds
Oliver

[sweatmark]

Oliver,

Not my thread in ADV but it caught my eye after looking at differences between early and late R1150** bikes and number of fused circuits.

Here's my referral topic:
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=22922

... Which states the ADV topic location.

I do intend to fuse my Rockster ignition power wire, or use auto-reset breaker.

[omg1010]

Hi sweatmark,

that is an excellent post on advrider. Thanks a lot for this!

Brgds
Oliver

[sweatmark]

Oliver - looking at the R1100R (Type 259R) Euro power circuits schematic... es scheint aus dass nur Ignition power, K9120 Load Relief Relay supply, und K9130 Starter Relay (alle 1,5mm Rot) are unfused circuits.

[omg1010]

Well thats about enough to fry your harness isn't it?

Brgds
Oliver

[sweatmark]

Well thats about enough to fry your harness isn't it?

Yes, it sure is!

The R1100R ignition/key switch power runs from battery terminal
- to distribution point X9430
- to the key switch
- back to distribution point X9450 (in fuse box?)
- then finally to fused circuits. Crazy.

There's one R1100R circuit that splits off at X9450, runs to right-hand handlebar switch, then to side-stand switch, then to fuel pump and engine relays (plus other subsystems)... that's a lot of unfused wire carrying power all the time for critical components.

The Rockster benefits from 2003+ wiring changes, but has similar unfused wire run from battery to ignition switch, back to distribution point, up to handlebar kill switch, and then to fuel pump/engine/horn/ABS lamp relays and coils. Installing fuse before the ignition switch will cover most of the bike's unfused circuits with wire outside of the fuse box.