Frustrated with my Hondaline heated grips.

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I'm getting frustrated with my Hondaline heated grips.
Went for a long 80 MPH/ 90 MPH ride and I still could not put my grips above the first setting. Hondaline grips have 4 settings and I have never been able to set them on 3 or 4.
On settings 2,3 or 4, all I get is a flashing control panel on my heated grip control.

I can put them on 2 once in a blue moon and get heat and no flashing panel light, but it is hit and miss.

My volt meter tells me I'm at 14.1 volts at that speed.

Was thinking about hooking up 2 batteries and going for a spin.
Pulled my recent Yuasa battery out because my battery analyser was telling me that it was time to replace it.
The cheaper model (think it's called universal) is marginal at best. Still starts the bike like the Yuasa, but just not sure if this weaker battery is causing the low voltage to the grips.

Second thought was to by-pass the quartlet harness.
Thinking the ground wires might be to small and not allowing the current/voltage to flow properly.
Is there a way to check my alternator.

Also, I smell burning rubber when I start my bike daily. Smells like it's coming from the left cowling and not the grips.

Any insights would be much appreciated.

Here are some comments from others on other posts:

Another neat feature is that when you are idling the bike, or running too many other electrics, the lights will flash to let you know you have exceeded the bike's charging ability. It usually goes off when you get the rpm above 2000.
level 1-2 is usually good.

I remember that the lights will blink if it is not getting enough current. With the bike idling that might cut back the current to the grips enough to trigger the flashing. I doubt you will have any problem while under way.

Correct, light will stop flashing as you ride and it gets charged.
 
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Al:

need to flesh the issue out a bit more .....

'Can't get above the first setting .....' because they are too hot? or voltage issues?
 

970mike

Mike Brown
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I think you need to take a look at the wires running to your grips, maybe a bad wire that is causing the problem. I can run my Honda heated grips on any setting going down the road.
 
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Al Gully
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I think you need to take a look at the wires running to your grips, maybe a bad wire that is causing the problem. I can run my Honda heated grips on any setting going down the road.
One more thing to add. When I'm at a light, once in a while, it will flash on the first setting. Juice is getting up to the grips, they are getting warm, but not enough juice to run it on 2-4.
Maybe some corrosion in the heated grip controller preventing the voltage to get to it and preventing it from going up to the grips.
Just wondering if there is something to check before pulling off the left cowling.
 

970mike

Mike Brown
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The only way to tell is to pull the left faring and check the wires and connections as there is nothing on the exterior that would show you if there is corrosion.
 
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Al Gully
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Yeah, that's what I thought, pull the cowling off to do the checks on the wiring. Was going to fully charge my old Yuasa battery, install it and see if it works any better. Also, was thinking of buying another battery from Scott at Evapor on here. Just don't want to waste money and find out its not the battery.
Also a thought was to put a ground jumper wire over the fat 17-24 wire connector under the left cowling. Heard people having problems with the ground around those large connectors.
 

veefore

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I think you need to take a look at the wires running to your grips, maybe a bad wire that is causing the problem. I can run my Honda heated grips on any setting going down the road.
+1 on being able to run any setting, the only other electrical farkle I have is a oem 12v socket for my gps. Do you have an oem accessory quartet harness which the grips tie into?
 
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Al Gully
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veefore said:
Do you have an oem accessory quartet harness which the grips tie into?
Yes I do.
Three connections on it, so one to the heated grips, one to the 12V plug in and the last connection goes to my Audio Vox cruise control.
I have seen rubber boots that goes over connectors, but mine did not come with any when I bought my quartlet harness.
Also, forget if I put that dialectic grease in the connectors before I hooked them up.
 

okmurdog

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Based upon your voltmeter indication, your battery is most likely not the culprit. Most likely there is a bad connection or insufficient connection/wire size that is preventing sufficient current to the controller or grips.

Need to check the voltage at the connectors, or along the circuit while the grips are in operation (voltage across the ground and high side in the circuit). You will most likely find a voltage drop, which will point you where the problems lies. Once you find where the problem is located (don't assume there is only one fault), you can then narrow down whether the ground or high side is at fault (or both), by using the ground and high side from the battery directly as one reference for the multimeter.
 
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Al Gully
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Mark,
Thanks for the tips, not an electrician here. The only thing I know for sure is most people comment IATB (it's always the battery) or check the grounds.
So when I take off the side cowling to check, I'll check the voltage at the plug while idling. Again it works fine on the first setting, but goes into fault on the next three settings. I'll have to put the cowling back on to take it for a test drive as the controller is mounted on it.
Just was thinking the flow back to ground might be buggered though those large connectors under the left cowling and was thinking people have put jumpers over them. Really leaning towards this if I see any heat build up on the ground wire in the connector. I do have a few farkles and thinking Honda undersized the ground wire or I need to beef it up with all the extras I have on the bike.
Next add on is a Stebel Horn, but that going straight to the battery with the + and -.
 

970mike

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The only thing that is hooked up to the Honda quarter harness on my bike is the heated grips. I have a ton of other electrical items hooked up but they run through my fuse box mounted under my seat.
 

okmurdog

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In order to determine if there is a voltage drop across a bad connection or undersized/insufficient wiring - the grips will need to be operating while you check the voltage along various points across the circuit. As far as checking the voltage while riding, you could parallel some wire out of the fairing and have a meter checking the voltage while operating. However, if you give all the wiring a good visual inspection, you will have a good chance of finding problems - look for oxidized connections and signs of overheating.

I suspect that either there is a connection issue, or the wire/circuit is undersized for the current that the grips demand.
 
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I have the same issue.. I can get it to work on 1 all the time and 2 most of the time.. 3 and 4 always are flashing.. I need to follow this. Mine is running thru the quartet harness also.
 
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Al Gully
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Guy,
Wow, exactly the problem I'm having.:confused:
I use my bike daily right at the moment, so you might beat me to it on finding the problem. It might be a few weeks till I dig into taking the plastic off to do some testing and cleaning up the connections.
Thanks to Mike & Mark steering us in the right direction with their knowledge.
 
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I have the same issue.. I can get it to work on 1 all the time and 2 most of the time.. 3 and 4 always are flashing.. I need to follow this. Mine is running thru the quartet harness also.
Anyone come up with the problem to this? mine doing the same thing.
 
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When trouble shooting an electrical problem, you can start either at the battery or at the other end (utilization point, i.e. the controller for the grips) and then work back in an orderly way. Since the problem could be in the controller (I don't know how these fail, so I would guess it is ok) what I would do is run two wires from a car battery to the connector that feeds the heated grip controller. Make sure the contacts in this connector here are not faulty (wiggle the wires while testing this). This eliminates the bike from the equation and you are now testing the controller and grips. if they heat above the first setting, the problem is in the bike's wiring. If you get a repeat of the problematic symptoms (flashing light, etc) then the controller is most likely bad.

My bet would be the quartet harness connector or the ground connection. These wires are pretty small and it would not take much corrosion to create a problem.
 
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There are 3 wires coming out of the controller, One I assume is a ground, the other probably the light in the controller and the third the actual heat on the grips, which one would I hook up to? any ideas?
 

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Hello Al:

You might have solved your 'flashing lights on the heated grips controller' problem by now, but in case you have not:

I am 99.44% certain that your problem is caused by inadequate current getting to the supply side of the controller. In other words, if not enough current is available to the controller, it will flash, I have experienced this problem before myself and isolated it to a current supply problem.

So, to fix the problem, I suggest you very carefully inspect the wiring that supplies current to the controller, and also the wiring that goes from the controller to ground on the bike. A poor connection, loose connection, or undersized wire on either the supply or the ground side of the circuit will cause EXACTLY the problems you are experiencing.

Michael
 
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