St1100 abs/TCS off buttons

Hi,

I have recently acquired a st1100a (abs/TCS). I am new to the pan world so I'm not sure about some of the bodywork. I know that some of the pans I've seen have two buttons on the left hand side to turn the abs/TCS off? Mine doesn't appear to have these despite being an abs/tcs model. Is this normal or has the previous owner just changed the panel?

What year is it? 94 98 and 2000 all had the buttons you are talking about if I remember right.
Not sure if all years did or not. There is a chance that ABS failed and someone covered it up.
Do your ABS lights come on in the dash when you turn on the ignition and go out when you have rolled up to speed?

Ah, that could explain it! It's 1999, and the dash ABS light functions as it should. Didn't realise only some of the years had them. Not that I would want to turn them off anyway, just wondered about it.

Both my 97 and 02 ABSII ST1100s have the two buttons on the left gray panel. But I know the 'options' can be different on the UK/European models.

The buttons need to be somewhere, or else you couldn’t reset the ABS after a trouble code. I would check under the left side pocket fairing. To see if the buttons are tucked in there.
when you say the lights light up and operate as they should....do the ABS red lights come on when you start the bike and turn off after you’ve ridden the bike a few feet?

Some one probably replaced the panel with a non-ABS bike panel. Switches hanging inside the plastic parts and pieces. All '96 and newer ABS bikes have the buttons. Don't know about the pre-'96 models.

The ABS button comes on when you turn the ignition and goes off after I've ridden a few metres, this is the same as on my bandit 1200 so I assume this is the normal for ABS bikes.

It sounds like the panel must have been replaced, when I take the plastics off the bike I will check to make sure the switches are underneath. Thanks everybody for your suggestions.

FaustFest said:

Hi,

I have recently acquired a st1100a (abs/TCS). I am new to the pan world so I'm not sure about some of the bodywork. I know that some of the pans I've seen have two buttons on the left hand side to turn the abs/TCS off? Mine doesn't appear to have these despite being an abs/tcs model. Is this normal or has the previous owner just changed the panel?

Click to expand...

The panel contains two push buttons. The only pic I have of these is in this video taken on my old ST1100AY - a UK 2000 model, but the microfiches for the 1996 ABS model show the same parts (Link to fowlers site here)

If I remember correctly, the panel clips into the rectangular hole from above, and can then be turned and threaded through the hole should the fairing need to be removed. As ron said, if the hole isn't there, then it might be that the fairing panel has been replaced, and possible that either the pushbuttons are hanging loose under the fairing, or have been lost with the original part.

I seem to remember that one button simply turns off the warning light. At least one of them is not an on-off switch but a push button which sends a signal to the ECM. (ie only connected when pushed down, and disconnected when released) It is used for retrieving and clearing the fault codes, as shown in the video and for disabling TCS. It don't believe that it disables ABS.

When the ignition is turned on, the normal state is for TCS to be turned on. Pressing the TCS button switched off TCS - but only for the duration of the ride. As soon as ignition is turned off, it resets so the next time you start up, TCS is enabled.

The only time that I have ever found this to be of any practical use is for retrieving the fault codes, and when my rear ABS sensor started to play up. It didn't just fail and stop working - there were a few weeks when it would fail intermittently. With TCS switched on by default, when the sensor had a hiccup, the ECM thought that the back wheel and front wheel were running at different speeds. It assumed wheel spin, and stopped the engine from firing on all cylinders. The first time it happened, I was in mid overtake, accelerating hard !! I was left with a misfiring engine trundling along at little more than walking speed. I worked out what was happening, pressed the TCS button and the engine started firing on all cylinders again.

Once the sensor failed completely, the TCS and ABS never activated on turning on the ignition, so that problem never repeated itself.

Here's the video - mentioned above - not entirely relevant to this thread, but it shows you the push buttons, where they fit and what the labelling is. If the buttons are not there, doubtless the connection to the harness is and something could be fashioned to restore the functionality, bearing in mind that at least one of the buttons is not a switch. I assume it is a 'push to make' type button. Someone who still has those buttons may be able to find the answer for you.

[video=youtube_share;Jghp8fmey9o]https://youtu.be/Jghp8fmey9o[/video]

Brilliant, thanks John, I have been searching for a video/picture to see exactly what it should look like.