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Multistrada 1200s 2012
I have posted about this issue before but have had a few personal issues but now back on it.

I cant find my previous posts so here's the story.

last year sometime I had a new instrument panel installed as the neutral light would sometimes come on dimly. No problem at all with the bike.

That is until about after about 700 miles.

The last thing I did was go for a bike ride, wash the bike and put in the garage.

I put a ctek charger on to look after the battery.

At around new years day I decided to go for a ride, first I tried the key fob which didn't do anything. I then pressed the override button so I could enter a pin - presuming the keyfob battery was faulty. Still nothing.

I checked the battery - 12.8v so thats fine.

I then checked all the fuses by removing and inspecting and testing with a dvm - all good.

This last week I have removed the kill switch and cleaned it out with contact cleaner. put it back together, nothing, still no response.

I disconnected the battery left for 10 mins or so then reconnected and noticed that the instrument panel flashed white, I pressed the button, first it complained about the lock the the 'red switch' error. I switched the switch on/off a few times, tried again with the same result. tried again then nothing

I am really hoping that someone can point me in the right direction. I really dont want to send to the dealers as I can see this costing a lot of money to fix. I have taken all the fairings off to check the connectors as far as I can - next step is to remove the fuel tank and look under there in case there is a poor connection.

the only thing I can find is that the serial number of the new clock is 13

 

[dspear99ca]

what year?

 

[Spinup]

sorry, its a 2012 1200s

 

[dspear99ca]

Get out your wiring diagram and check to make sure you've got always-on and key-on power to your ECU on the correct leads. Check the ECU ground and the battery ground at the frame/engine. If you have good power and ground to the ECU it may be going to the dealer and hope they have a decent electronics tech. First thing they seem to suggest is replacing either the ECU or dash or both if it's not a power issue.

 

[Spinup]

finally gave up as there volts here and there but I couldn't make any sense of what was going on.
I took it to the ducati dealership bike shop - from where I bought it.

they cant say for sure whats wrong, they think it might be the handsfree, would I like to buy one for £510 to try - no promises that it will fix the fault tho. and that there might be other modules on the can bus that have been affected - they don't know how or why its all gone wrong.

isn't there any way to check the hands free system?

 

[dspear99ca]

finally gave up as there volts here and there but I couldn't make any sense of what was going on.
I took it to the ducati dealership bike shop - from where I bought it.

they cant say for sure whats wrong, they think it might be the handsfree, would I like to buy one for £510 to try - no promises that it will fix the fault tho. and that there might be other modules on the can bus that have been affected - they don't know how or why its all gone wrong.

isn't there any way to check the hands free system?

Unfortunately the dealership is lacking either the interest or expertise to diagnose the problem and has resorted to replacing fairly expensive parts in the *hope* that it will fix the issue. You can bypass the hands-free unit by jumpering across a relay, read this thread:

http://www.ducati.ms/forums/44-multistrada/544642-hands-free-error-print.html

It may be that you need a new battery in your key fob, I'd do this anyways just to rule it out.

 

[eonderde]

Broken kill switch

My bike suffered from similar symptoms. In my case it was the kill switch that kept on putting the kill message on the CAN bus. This is something the dealer is able to check. Solution was a new right hand switch block.

 

[Spinup]

thanks for the idea but its not the keyfob as the override button doesn't work(this is completely independant of the feyfob). I will ask if they can force the relay. They cannot run diagnostics apparently as they cant power the system up.

If someone out there could make a keyless ignition eliminator I am sure they would sell them by the bucket loads.

 

[Spinup]

My bike suffered from similar symptoms. In my case it was the kill switch that kept on putting the kill message on the CAN bus. This is something the dealer is able to check. Solution was a new right hand switch block.

they checked the switch and that was ok.

I find it infuriating that they cannot check the can bus or the individual modules on the CAN bus

 

[dspear99ca]

they checked the switch and that was ok.

I find it infuriating that they cannot check the can bus or the individual modules on the CAN bus

That's why so many of us do our own diagnostics and service work. As I noted in my first post, not all shops have an experienced electronics tech. Even the factory trained techs only learn to use the Ducati-provided hardware/software tools to read fault codes from the ECU, so I can see their predicament if they can't get the ECU to boot up to dump the codes. If I were you I'd learn all about the startup sequence, what gets power first, what has to happen before the ECU powers up the dash, that sort of info. As pretty much everything that is connected to the CANBUS is proprietary you need some really detailed information (from Ducati or by reverse engineering it) about what signals each piece puts out, what the ECU is expecting, etc. You need to have that level of understanding if you want to troubleshoot, otherwise like the dealership you will have to revert to the "shotgun" or "guess 'n check" method of repair whereby you just keep replacing parts until the bike fires up.

Clearly the hands-free unit has a lot of control and can preclude the ECU from lighting up the dash or doing much else for that matter. Lots of posts out there about how when people have problem with the keyless start, they also frequently have issues starting with the PIN. Take the HFU out of the mix and see if you get to the PIN prompt, you can do it yourself with a paperclip and some electrician's tape or piece of jumper wire with alligator clips the ends, or you can pay the shop £150 in labour to do it. it is shitty that the bike doesn't work, and I realize not everyone wants to become a motorcycle tech in order to own a Ducati, but you are here now and it needs to be fixed so...

 

[Sco]

I don't have a solution however, water probably got into your electrical system somewhere when you washed it , got to be careful , these bikes have so many electrical functions I never pressure wash mine , I clean it with a damp cloth. Good luck

 

[dspear99ca]

I don't have a solution however, water probably got into your electrical system somewhere when you washed it , got to be careful , these bikes have so many electrical functions I never pressure wash mine , I clean it with a damp cloth. Good luck

Ain't that the truth. I just sold a '97 900SS, it had zero electronics. things sure have changed in the past 20 years, sometimes you wonder if it's for the better.

 

[Spinup]

That's why so many of us do our own diagnostics and service work. As I noted in my first post, not all shops have an experienced electronics tech. Even the factory trained techs only learn to use the Ducati-provided hardware/software tools to read fault codes from the ECU, so I can see their predicament if they can't get the ECU to boot up to dump the codes. If I were you I'd learn all about the startup sequence, what gets power first, what has to happen before the ECU powers up the dash, that sort of info. As pretty much everything that is connected to the CANBUS is proprietary you need some really detailed information (from Ducati or by reverse engineering it) about what signals each piece puts out, what the ECU is expecting, etc. You need to have that level of understanding if you want to troubleshoot, otherwise like the dealership you will have to revert to the "shotgun" or "guess 'n check" method of repair whereby you just keep replacing parts until the bike fires up.

Clearly the hands-free unit has a lot of control and can preclude the ECU from lighting up the dash or doing much else for that matter. Lots of posts out there about how when people have problem with the keyless start, they also frequently have issues starting with the PIN. Take the HFU out of the mix and see if you get to the PIN prompt, you can do it yourself with a paperclip and some electrician's tape or piece of jumper wire with alligator clips the ends, or you can pay the shop £150 in labour to do it. it is shitty that the bike doesn't work, and I realize not everyone wants to become a motorcycle tech in order to own a Ducati, but you are here now and it needs to be fixed so...

looks like that's the route I am going to have to take. thanks for your advice. I will start to trawl the net to see what info I can find on the ducati CAN bus.
I presume the CAN bus connections are standard across any vehicle?

 

[Spinup]

the bike is still at the bike shop. They did manage to override the handsfree by shorting out the relay and managed to diagnose that the fault is the handsfree.
next step - buy a handsfree for £510 for them to program/install.
all in all this is likely to cost far to much money considering they charge something like £88 an hour!!
I will report the conclusion when I get the bike back.

 

[Wilddriver]

Same issue

Hi, yesterday I faced the same problem! After a short stop we intended to move on but nothing happened when trying to start the bike which is a 1200 S 2015 DVT. Battery power ok, most relays gets power and all fuses ok. The bike is now at a Ducati Dealer which has had en Enduro 2016 in last year, same issue, and the cure then was to fit a new electric cabling in the whole bike!
Most interested in the solution for your bike!

 

[mroberto]

Hi, yesterday I faced the same problem! After a short stop we intended to move on but nothing happened when trying to start the bike which is a 1200 S 2015 DVT. Battery power ok, most relays gets power and all fuses ok. The bike is now at a Ducati Dealer which has had en Enduro 2016 in last year, same issue, and the cure then was to fit a new electric cabling in the whole bike!
Most interested in the solution for your bike!

I've just started having the same problem with my bike last week. The culprit seems to be the 4-pin white connector on top of the starter relay. My symptons are no apparent power to the bike. The bike won't turn on, the red immobilizer lights don't blink. All fuses are good. Battery voltage is good.

If I wiggle or remove/reinsert the white connector on top of the starter relay, power is restored. The bike then calibrates the rear spring and I have to set the time and date.

I had a quick look at that connector and it appeared that pin 2 had some corrosion on the pin (pin on the relay side, socket on the bike harness). I cleaned up the pin but I've still had the power loss issue a few times since then. My working theory right now is that a combination of high current through the and an environment with a lot of vibration is causing corrosion on that connection (there's a very common example of this on the ignition connector on 2004-2008 Suzuki SV650 bikes). My next step is to replace the socket on the bike harness side and see if the problem goes away.

In the meantime, my dealership informed me that there's an upgrade kit to the starter relay but they didn't have any other information regarding what that is. They are going to contact Ducati and get back to me.

 

[Wilddriver]

PM

You have got a PM

 

[Wilddriver]

Still dead

We fitted the upgrade kit yesterday but no change, bike is still dead!

 

[Wilddriver]

Still dead

At last, my Multi is back on the roads again after more than 5 weeks since the electronic break down! The long time is to blame Bologna for parts out of stock, in this case a complete cable harness! However, now the harness and HFU is replaced and the bike fired up and everything just fine. Please let me know if you out there has got the harness replaced in order to get the bike running again!?

 

[butterfield4805]

Similar Issue - Resolved

I had a similar issue. I went to fire the bike up one morning it turned on for a split second and then went dead. I checked battery and fuses, all ok. I put it on a battery tender anyway and left town for a week. When I came back it was still dead. A couple days later I arrange for a buddy to help me take it to the dealer because it is still under warranty. As I was waiting for him to show up, I rolled the bike out of the garage. I tried it again, still nothing. Then I hopped on the seat because i was bored and the dash flashed white for a second. I bounced on the seat again and it came back to life. I fired it up and rode around shut it off and restarted it. Problem gone. Took it to the dealer and they couldn't find anything wrong. When they rolled it out of the shop and went fire it up, it was dead again. We took the seat off and started looking for anything that would be impacted by the seat. We discovered a similar problem to mroberto. The starter relay was the issue. the connection was loose and one of the wires was also loose.

Once correct, issue has gone. It's firing up no problem since (3 weeks ago). I would definitely check that connection if you haven't already.