No Headlights - Fifth Generation VFR's

I got on the bike this morning to go to work, it started fine, when I put the lights on to my surprise all I got were the front running light and the tail lights. No headlights and no main beam. Any ideas?

blown bulbs is the obvious, or the relays have gone. Unfortunately these are up under the front faring.

So the other lights work, like dash warning lights, high beam light, turn signals?

Check the fuses anyway to be sure...

Could be the starter button on the handlebar.  Headlight power goes through there in order to be turned off when the starter is engaged.  Could be gunked up and not making contact.  Spray contact cleaner into the port on the bottom and cycle the button with power off.  See if that helps.  If that does the trick, then you might want to take it apart and clean more thouroughly.  Of course check bulbs and fuses!

KPerham, on Dec 4 2008, 07:04 AM, said:

Could be the starter button on the handlebar.  Headlight power goes through there in order to be turned off when the starter is engaged.  Could be gunked up and not making contact.  Spray contact cleaner into the port on the bottom and cycle the button with power off.  See if that helps.  If that does the trick, then you might want to take it apart and clean more thouroughly.  Of course check bulbs and fuses!
Ive seen this happen before, but usually on Yamahas.  Also check/clean the dip switch.  When I switch beams, sometimes I get "no-beam" until I wiggle it.  And since you have a non US model, also check the on-off switch.

Good luck

Update. On a rideout during the daylight hours the bike juddered to a halt, symptoms were....tacho and speedo went to zero and bike juddered to a halt. There was a high pitched noise coming from the bike and this lasted a good 5 minutes. I was recovered home. I have replaced the reg rect and the battery. I've put it all back together and now when I try to start it I don't get the fuel pump priming. The 20A fuse had blown, I replaced it and when trying to start the bike the fuse blows straight away...Any ideas?

pedro701, on Feb 12 2009, 01:16 PM, said:

Update. On a rideout during the daylight hours the bike juddered to a halt, symptoms were....tacho and speedo went to zero and bike juddered to a halt. There was a high pitched noise coming from the bike and this lasted a good 5 minutes. I was recovered home. I have replaced the reg rect and the battery. I've put it all back together and now when I try to start it I don't get the fuel pump priming. The 20A fuse had blown, I replaced it and when trying to start the bike the fuse blows straight away...Any ideas?

It sounds like your previous r/r failed in the worst way by not regulating the voltage and things began to fry (headlight bulbs usually go first).  The high pitched sound may have come from the battery as it over cooked; they can literally sizzle.  You need to check wires and connections very closely.

FotoMoto, on Feb 12 2009, 08:34 PM, said:

pedro701, on Feb 12 2009, 01:16 PM, said:

Update. On a rideout during the daylight hours the bike juddered to a halt, symptoms were....tacho and speedo went to zero and bike juddered to a halt. There was a high pitched noise coming from the bike and this lasted a good 5 minutes. I was recovered home. I have replaced the reg rect and the battery. I've put it all back together and now when I try to start it I don't get the fuel pump priming. The 20A fuse had blown, I replaced it and when trying to start the bike the fuse blows straight away...Any ideas?

It sounds like your previous r/r failed in the worst way by not regulating the voltage and things began to fry (headlight bulbs usually go first).  The high pitched sound may have come from the battery as it over cooked; they can literally sizzle.  You need to check wires and connections very closely.

Latest update is...the problem has been fixed by replacing the ECU, but now I can start the bike and it rides fine but... my tacho and speedo do not work, is there a commonality between the two or have both gauges gone?
Edited by pedro701, 11 April 2009 - 08:53 AM.

In the end I had to replace the taco and the sender unit for the speedo.. In all the RR failing took out the battery, tacho, speedo, speedo sender unit and ecu. All the wiring is ok and the bike is now ok.

Dude, was your bike off the road for almost two years for this?

yycviffer, on 26 January 2011 - 05:45 PM, said:

Dude, was your bike off the road for almost two years for this?

It took 2 months to repair, I just thought I would close the topic with the solution.

[image: View Post]pedro701, on 26 January 2011 - 04:08 PM, said:

In the end I had to replace the taco and the sender unit for the speedo.. In all the RR failing took out the battery, tacho, speedo, speedo sender unit and ecu. All the wiring is ok and the bike is now ok.

Pretty much the exact same thing happened to me.
I lost a bunch of bulbs as well.
Could you tell me where you got the new taco and speedo from and also what the ecu is? (I know very little about bikes or cars)