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Sudden loss of Charging 2012 Stelvio NTX

scottmastrocinque

scottmastrocinque

GT Godfather!
GT di Razza Pura
Joined
Jun 26, 2011
Messages
5,865
Location
Lima, Ohio
Today, I was riding my motorcycle and I noticed that the icon for my auxiliary lights wasn't displayed on my dashboard as it usually is. I tend to run with these lights on all the time as it significantly increases visibility . Here in Ohio, where it seems most motorcyclists are killed by drivers who didn't see the motorcycle, I felt this was a really nice plus on my new Stelvio. Anyway, I flicked the switch, and...NADA. No icon and no lights as far as I could tell.

I immediately switched my dashboard over to voltage, and noticed the voltage listed at 11.9 volts. Uh oh.... I was between a rock an a hard spot as far as my physical location, so I decided it was better to continue to my destination rather than try the longer way home.

I get to my destination and turn the bike off. Just to torment myself, I tried to restart it, and *Click* *Click* and SERVICE comes up on dashboard. Motorcycle will not start. Great. Arrgh.

It's about 1 billion degrees outside today and I am now completely in a foul mood. :angry: I don't have my Owner's Manual with me and damn if I know what fuse is what and where. Usually I have my iPad with me and it has a PDF file of everything Moto Guzzi for my Stelvio, but not today. I have to hand it to Moto Guzzi. Only they would put in 3 fuse blocks, in completely different locations on the motorcycle. Bravo. Grazie. *Cough*

After waiting half-an hour for the surface voltage to stabilize, I turned the switch on and quickly hit the starter and the bike grumbled to life. Voltage reads 11.2 volts. Well, okay, here goes nothing. I raced home running on complete discharge of the battery and made it all 25 miles. The Guzzi Gods must have been with me because the bike completely died at 9 volts 25 feet from my driveway and I coasted in.

Up on the lift. Battery charger on the battery. Now, I thought maybe I bumped a connector during my charcoal canister removal, so off with the tank to check everything. Turns out everything was fine. Found a blown 30 AMP fuse under the right rear quarter panel. Ah ha. Replaced fuse, started bike. Voltage reads 13.9 - 14.3 PERFECT! So I go to turn on my aux lights again, and *POOF* fuse blows again and I see voltage drop to 11.8 again.

Ah Ha! Something in the aux lights.

Pulled the rubber boot off of the right side. Everything looks great. Go to left side and pull off boot, and inside is COVERED in black soot. Wire comes out with melted insulator. The aux light manufacturer put way too much wire inside of the back of the lamp, and bent it in half to make it fit and the vibration of the bike simply broke the insulator and allowed it to ground out.

GuzziBrokenWire002_1024x768.jpg


GuzziBrokenWire001.jpg


I also discovered that the long wire is actually connected to the bulb! Had to trim off broken piece, re-crimp a new blade connector with new shrink-wrap and insulator material, reassembled, and presto - everything is better.

I would check your wires in your aux lamps just to make sure your not on the same path to this gremlin! :)
 
what's the last few digits of your Serial Number - I can check mine to if it is a close neighbour on the assembly line.
may be a part assembled on hot Friday afternoon in Italy and there was better to deal with at home.
 
Sorry to hear about your trouble with the bike. How easy was the fuel tank removal?
 
The long wire is part of a standard H3 bulb - the lights themselves are just re-branded Hella DE's - plain version goes for $50 bucks a side on Amazon & they are not .....ummmm top quality

Why do I know - last week mine stopped lighting - pulled back the rubber cover on the RH side and the little tongue on the backing plate that holdes the bulb clip in place broke off and let the bulb rattle around and arc out

Got to take it back to the dealer to warranty as the parts are not available seperatly

And start saving up for some good quality LED ones
 
northernguzzi said:
what's the last few digits of your Serial Number - I can check mine to if it is a close neighbour on the assembly line.
may be a part assembled on hot Friday afternoon in Italy and there was better to deal with at home.
Click to expand...

# 111937
 
boxermoose said:
...And start saving up for some good quality LED ones
Click to expand...

Yes, I thought about that too but upon further investigation, I have discovered that they will not work very well as the projector style lens is designed to receive the input light from dead center and the LED will not do this, so the lens can't do it's job properly. Bummer. LED's are so much more reliable and COOLER temperature wise.
 
Hi,

My Stelvio NTX 2012 is 3400 km old. I just found a broken wire on the right projector, just at the rubber booth. Does anybody knowing if Moto Guzzi is being aware of these problems and doing something to fix them?
 
dufourg said:
Hi,

My Stelvio NTX 2012 is 3400 km old. I just found a broken wire on the right projector, just at the rubber booth. Does anybody knowing if Moto Guzzi is being aware of these problems and doing something to fix them?
Click to expand...

The factory folks won't become aware unless there are a bunch of warranty claims. Then they willl change future production to reduce warranty cost.
 
interesting to read the Hella wire was causing some grief.... on our 5200 mile trip that we just got back from - the only bike issue on the entire trip was that somewhere in northern Oregon the right Hella stopped working.

I also run with them on all the time, but I just turned them off for most of the remainder of the trip, rather than pick up another H3 bulb. I did pop the rubber cap off when I noted it not working....but it was dark and I didn't get much of a look in there.

The bike now has 8,000 miles on it, so I took it to the shop for a full service yesterday - noting to them that the Hella stopped working and needed a quick look to see if it was just a bulb or something else. It blew at around 5k miles, which seemed a bit early....so I'd like the shop to have a peek just in case. Reading your thread now I'm thinking that wasn't a bad idea.
 
I have a 2009..... these Hella lights draw almost 10 amps each when they are on.
We'are talking almost 20 amps for both.
They have a 25/30amp relay connection to the battery terminals.
I recently changed the relay because it wasn't energizing properly. (Different problem than posted here) https://www.guzzitech.com/forum/190/8023.html?start=20#p70026

But:
When I had my issue taking the lights apart to check the bulb and putting it back under the rubber boots was a challenge ....so not to have the + wire force on the metal casing.
At 10 amps, drawing current, it has a tendency to warm up the wire ..... the insulation gets soft and if forcing on the body casing, with the added vibration, can cause a short.
 
blakebird said:
I was lucky.....H3 bulb went, no wire issues
Click to expand...

I have 4500 miles on my NTX and have had three failures so far. #1 failure (left side) at 500 miles -- an improperly installed wiretie broke the wires just outside the rubber boot. #2 failure (right side) at <2K miles -- wire touching the inside of the housing. I caught that one before it blew the main fuse. #3 (left side) at 4200 miles -- the U-shaped bracket that holds the light housing broke while I was on the road. I wrapped it several times with electrical tape for the trip home.

I seldom (if ever) ride at night so my use of those lights is to "be seen". This latest failure is a purely metal fatigue failure of the bracket material. Changing the bracket out to a new one (which I'll do as soon as I get one from my dealer) is only going to cause another failure in another 4k or so miles.

I'm wondering if some method of dampening or cushioning of the assembly would help. Unfortunately, there is not enough space to sit the light assembly on a rubber isolator, so I'll have to try something else. Actually, the several wrappings of electrical tape seemed to work quite well. How about a big rubber band around the whole assembly to absorb the vibrations?? :idea:
 
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