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08 GL1800 Heated Seat & Grips not working

1K views 22 replies 8 participants last post by  kwthom 
#1 ·
Gday,

Sadly it’s getting to that time of year to start using the heated seat and grips. I have heated gear so it’s not totally necessary to have the heated gear working but I’m kinda anal about having everything working on all of my vehicles. My question is for those with heated equipment issues, how long did it take a dealer to trouble shoot the electrical? I don’t mind spending a few a bucks fixing the bike but don’t want to be paying several hours of trouble shooting costs.

Thanks

Spiff
 
#3 ·
The most common issue is a break in the continuity of the wiring for the left hand grip.

There is a fairly easy troubleshooting step you can do. Both the hand grip heaters and seat heaters must work, or both will be shut down by the controller.

You can test this by turning off both the hand grip heat and seat heat and then turning the bike off (to reset the controller).

Turn the bike on and test the seat heat only. If it works, the problem is in the grips. If the seat heat doesn't work, then do the same test but the other way around.
 
#5 ·
The most common issue is a break in the continuity of the wiring for the left hand grip.
That is interesting. You would think that the right hand grip would have the most issues with a broken wire since it is moved much more frequently than the left hand grip.


Is there a specific part of the left hand grip wiring that is particularly prone to failure?
 
#8 ·
When the heated seat and grips are working properly, I'm assuming you can definitely tell thru the riding gear?
Grips do take a bit if you have think(er) gloves on. Heated seat? Eventually you'll feel it. Depends on how cold it is.
 
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#9 ·
The heat is definitely noticeable when I have my Olympia winter gloves on. It kept my hands comfortable in 40 degree temperatures recently.

As to the seat, feels good with with my Levis on. Haven't tried it with riding pants yet.
 
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#15 ·
Hi GL470,

I never had the seat off but the bike is new to me. I've had less than 2 months. It seemed like it was working when I bought it. It was in the 90s when I bought it so I wasn't really sure if if was working. It's getting chilly now so I'll be trying to do some trouble shooting tomorrow. It also has the Kury iso clam shells abs I always wear gear so it may be working but if getting thru the layers.
 
#22 ·
I dont have the technical reason but hopefully someone with more knowledge will pipe in but it has to do with thermistors that are used for the seat heat. As the ambient temperature goes higher, it reduces the ability of the seat to heat up.
 
#23 ·
I'd suspect it's a personal safety issue. In the event the heater was on at an elevated temperature, one might reasonably expect the potential for a burn to occur.

Fred H did some dissecting of the system, which led him to derive the resistor trick in the circuit to make the temp controllers deliver more heat.
 
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