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Dash display acting up

W

William Bedell

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Jul 8, 2020
Messages
25
Location
Mahtomedi, MN
This past winter I decided to remove my canister following the excellent directions on this site and all went well but this spring when Riding season started my dash display began cutting out going blank or freezing up so I pulled the dash to check connections and cleaned up the pins in the plug and dielectric treatment on all connections and cleaned and treated the battery connections as well, Thought I had the problem solved as when I took it out for a ride all was well until a few days later the same problem a occurred, the screen starts up fine but after a few mile it freezes up or goes blank but after turning off the ignition and restarting the bike all is fine until it does the same thing after a few miles, this is a 2014 Stelvio with 33,000 miles. Any suggestions on a fix would be greatly appreciated.
 
William Bedell said:
...dielectric treatment ...
Click to expand...

NO NO NO NO NO !!!

Never put dielectric grease on any electrical connector that you want to work!

Dielectric grease is an INSULATOR not a CONDUCTOR. It inhibits and resists electrical flow. It does not increase electrical flow.

Get some electrical spray cleaner, and remove all of that immediately, from the pins and the connector.

If you want to use a contact enhancer, use this:

IMG 7990



"dielectric, insulating material or a very poor conductor of electric current. When dielectrics are placed in an electric field, practically no current flows in them because, unlike metals, they have no loosely bound, or free, electrons that may drift through the material. Instead, electric polarization occurs. The positive charges within the dielectric are displaced minutely in the direction of the electric field, and the negative charges are displaced minutely in the direction opposite to the electric field. This slight separation of charge, or polarization, reduces the electric field within the dielectric."


One day, heard in my workshop:

Customer: "All the electrics on my Goldwing stopped working or they are working intermittently."

Me: "What have you done lately?"

Customer: "Nothing, why?"

Me: "Uh huh. Let me look..."

IMG 1953

Me: "Remember when I asked you what you did lately? Slathering dielectric grease all over your electrical connectors, counts as 'what have you done lately' and has caused your problem. You did that just recently I am sure and that is why I asked you that question! 'Dielectric' means 'prevents flow of current'. You have made your own misery."

Customer: "Oh..."


👌 👍 🙏
 
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What I meant to say was I used OX Gard, Not dielectric grease on my connectors, it comes in a tube and states that it guards against oxidation, improves connectivity and produces a cooler connection. Are you familiar with this product and if so what are your thoughts on OX Gard. It is made by Gardner Bender and I followed directions on their label.
I never had this problem until I pulled the dash to remove the canister so I am assuming the work of removing the canister and the dash are related, maybe I missed something on re assembly. I did disconnect the battery and left the key on overnight to drain any current from the system hopping to reboot the system. As I stated in my first post after doing this I took about a fifty mile ride and everything was fine so I thought the problem was resolved but after a ride today it resurfaced. I do appreciate your feedback but could use some more input, could it be my battery? it seems to start fine and am showing just under 14 volts while riding. Again thanks for the feed back.
 
The dash pins and crimp connectors in the plug aren't that robust, so a guess is that one of them came unseated or bent, or the wire has come uncrimped. Remove/inspect/correct and reseat.
 
Thanks Todd, I'll pull the dash again this week and re check all connections although none of the pins seemed bent and plugged in pretty smoothly I'll check everything once again.
 
William Bedell said:
Thanks Todd, I'll pull the dash again this week and re check all connections although none of the pins seemed bent and plugged in pretty smoothly I'll check everything once again.
Click to expand...
Welcome, carefully check the wires as well.
 
I know it might seem silly, but you did re-engage the cam lever on the wiring loom side to lock the connector in place behind the dash? This is what makes the solid connection of the bus to the cable and a vibrating cable can give the symptoms you are describing.

👌👍🙏


Charcoal Canister Removal 19

Charcoal Canister Removal 20


Charcoal Canister Removal 21
 
Yes I did and the plug did slid in very easily, I will remove the dash again this week and check all the wires to make sure they are all locked in their proper position, I hope I can sort this out as I plan on riding it next week to the BMW national rally and will be on the road for 8-9 days, I'll report back after I check wires.
Nice pictures by the way.
 
scottmastrocinque said:
NO NO NO NO NO !!!

Never put dielectric grease on any electrical connector that you want to work!
the direction of the electric field, and the negative charges are displaced minutely in the direction opposite to the electric field. This slight separation of charge, or polarization, reduces the electric field within the dielectric."
Click to expand...
Ohhhh THAT'S why it's called DIE-lectric and not LIVE-lectric.
 
William Bedell said:
What I meant to say was I used OX Gard, Not dielectric grease on my connectors, it comes in a tube and states that it guards against oxidation, improves connectivity and produces a cooler connection. Are you familiar with this product and if so what are your thoughts on OX Gard. It is made by Gardner Bender and I followed directions on their label.
I never had this problem until I pulled the dash to remove the canister so I am assuming the work of removing the canister and the dash are related, maybe I missed something on re assembly. I did disconnect the battery and left the key on overnight to drain any current from the system hopping to reboot the system. As I stated in my first post after doing this I took about a fifty mile ride and everything was fine so I thought the problem was resolved but after a ride today it resurfaced. I do appreciate your feedback but could use some more input, could it be my battery? it seems to start fine and am showing just under 14 volts while riding. Again thanks for the feed back.
Click to expand...

I have never used this product but I would not put it on any of the connectors to my dash. The pins are coated and the connector is designed to function perfectly with no need for any chemicals.

Also, in order to fully discharge the capacitors in the electrical system, you need to disconnect the battery and then connect the positive and negative cables from the motorcycle, together. This will properl;y reset the electronics to a ground state after about 1.5 hours.s

👌 👍 🙏
 
OK I'LL once again pull the dash clean the pins check that the wires are properly seated and reassemble, Do you think it would be worthwhile to deal with the battery cables as you suggest? I'm just looking for solutions to my problem and figured there is more knowledge on this site then I have, I realize there's a lot of BS out there when looking for advice, after all isn't that the purpose of this forum, a source for good advice on our bikes problems. I'm 72 years old and have maintaining my own bikes for many years but am smart enough to know that I don't know it all and at times need a little help.
 
Years ago I removed the dash on my Breva and found that one of the pins was completely bent at 90 degrees and pushed flat, it came from the factory like that. I managed to straighten it, and it didn't break, phew, From memory it was Pin 1 and that is not used.
 
William Bedell said:
OK I'LL once again pull the dash clean the pins check that the wires are properly seated and reassemble, Do you think it would be worthwhile to deal with the battery cables as you suggest? I'm just looking for solutions to my problem and figured there is more knowledge on this site then I have, I realize there's a lot of BS out there when looking for advice, after all isn't that the purpose of this forum, a source for good advice on our bikes problems. I'm 72 years old and have maintaining my own bikes for many years but am smart enough to know that I don't know it all and at times need a little help.
Click to expand...

I’m sorry.

I wrote the guide for removing the Stelvio Charcoal Canister you utilized.

You are the first of literally a hundred people who have contacted me, that had any issue whatsoever.

I’m not convinced your dash issue has anything to do with the removal itself. Something is amiss here that is either you did not get the cable seated properly, you contaminated the electrical field at the contacts, or your dash is simply failing at the circuit board level.

It could be any of those. Impossible to determine empirically.

All you can do is slowly eliminate the possibilities.

👌👍🙏
 
I'm sure the canister removal has nothing to do with the dash problems and your article on the removal was well written and very thorough, following your instruction it was a smooth process and I will look into all your mentioned problem areas, but am wondering if my battery could be the cause of my problem if all else checks out.
 
The very first thing I do is always perform a load test on the battery. Any major auto parts store usually offers this service for free.
 
Load test performed and battery is in very good condition, Cleaned and checked all wiring all seems good, turned key on and dash lights up as it should , started bike and all seems well, moved and tried to jiggle wires before securing dash and all seems well, so plug to pins is secure, secured dash but due to rain a test ride will have to Waite. Sure hope this works out, hate to have to insure the expense and hassle of installing a new display.
 
Those pins are so tiny. Sometimes just removing and reseating the cable fixes the problem. I hope you got it solved! 👌👍🤞
 
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