Tonight while riding home, my headlights were acting a little funny. When a car approached I'd switch to low beam. Upon switching to high beam, a few times it took a half second for them to come on. The blue high beam indicator also hesitated in step with the high beams.
I was running my heated grips on high at the time. They are wired directly to a brand new battery. I turned the grips off and was able to reproduce the anomoly again.
This didn't happen every time, but about five or six times out of maybe 15 transitions from low to high beam.
Anyone ever experience this or have any ideas what's happening? I'd like to solve this before something serious goes wrong and leaves me stranded or simply without wheels while under repair.
[image: View Post]Alien VFR, on Oct 4 2009, 09:07 PM, said:
Tonight while riding home, my headlights were acting a little funny. When a car approached I'd switch to low beam. Upon switching to high beam, a few times it took a half second for them to come on. The blue high beam indicator also hesitated in step with the high beams.
I was running my heated grips on high at the time. They are wired directly to a brand new battery. I turned the grips off and was able to reproduce the anomoly again.
This didn't happen every time, but about five or six times out of maybe 15 transitions from low to high beam.
Anyone ever experience this or have any ideas what's happening? I'd like to solve this before something serious goes wrong and leaves me stranded or simply without wheels while under repair.
Hello,
Well, since no one else is responding to this, I'll take one stab at it. I'm no mechanic, so don't take my word for it. I'm going to suggest cleaning the connectors, relay(?), and any contacts that are involved in turning on/off those lights. Just a thought... And this is assuming everything else is working well --battery (new, right?), R/R, etc. But I guess cleaning would not hurt.
Good luck,
c
Remember that the high beams are activated by a relay, which is itself activated by the switch on the handlebars.
Either the switch is dirty, or the relay is faulty and needs replacing. If the delay is always consistent (like, say, half a second), then it's probably a dodgy relay. You can get replacements at any auto shop, but you need to remove the front fairing to get to it. It's not too hard - do you have the service manual handy?
[image: View Post]veefer800canuck, on Oct 4 2009, 09:34 PM, said:
Dirty/corroded contacts in the handlebar switchpod?
There is a relay in the headlight circuit, actually there's two of them.
One for the low beam and the other for the high beam.
When switching from one circuit to the other, if there is a delay it could be a slow relay.
Did you notice a similar slowness when switching both up and down ?
The relay is used to avoid sending the high headlight current flow through the handlebar switch.
The relays are located up behind the upper cowl, according to pg20-27 of my 2003 service manual.
There is a test suggested, but I think this is a go/no go test, yours are still go. (working)
And pg 2-12/13 shows how to get the upper cowl off, its a bit messy in there.
[image: View Post]Alien VFR, on Oct 5 2009, 12:07 AM, said:
Tonight while riding home, my headlights were acting a little funny. When a car approached I'd switch to low beam. Upon switching to high beam, a few times it took a half second for them to come on. The blue high beam indicator also hesitated in step with the high beams.
I was running my heated grips on high at the time. They are wired directly to a brand new battery. I turned the grips off and was able to reproduce the anomoly again.
This didn't happen every time, but about five or six times out of maybe 15 transitions from low to high beam.
Anyone ever experience this or have any ideas what's happening? I'd like to solve this before something serious goes wrong and leaves me stranded or simply without wheels while under repair.
check and see if the contacts are clean in switch may have a little rust.................
Was the 2003 suffering from the same wiring harness issues as the 2004. If so, did you have the recall addressed. It involves the headlight as well as other items on that portion of the harness and this could be related. Just a thought.
This can be a sign of your r/r starting to go bad. Use the search feature and see what you find. My 5th gen did that just before the r/r failed. I am surprised no one mentioned it.
[image: View Post]Alien VFR, on Oct 8 2009, 01:59 PM, said:
I had the recall done; is my r/r still at risk?
YES The r/r was a week point they never addressed. There are several fixes. I switched to an 06 r1 r/r. Next sign will be a mostly dead battery. As the r/r fails it will work until it gets hot. then it will stop working and start drawing power from your battery. when it cools off it will start to work again. This will keep happening until it fails 100% and leaves you stuck where it dies. Once it is dead it wont start again
[image: View Post]Alien VFR, on Oct 8 2009, 02:24 PM, said:
Hmm, that's not cool...
I'll have to start looking for r/r's I guess... ...and reading up on it here on VFRD.
If you decide to go the r1 r/r route. The reason I went with the r1 r/r is the cost and reliability. 3 years on mine and no problems yet. I have good instructions I can post. Its not the end of the world. A good volt meter mounted to your bike can keep you informed on the health of your charging system. Let me know if you want any info from me and I will do my best to help. George
BE SURE TO READ ALL THE INFO PROVIDED AS THE DRAWING IS SLIGHTLY OFF. Also you will have to cut the cooling fins down a little with a dremel to make it fit in the same place. Its way cheaper then hondas r/r and works flawlessly for me and magellen
BE SURE TO READ ALL THE INFO PROVIDED AS THE DRAWING IS SLIGHTLY OFF. Also you will have to cut the cooling fins down a little with a dremel to make it fit in the same place. Its way cheaper then hondas r/r and works flawlessly for me and magellen
My 99 has done this for some time. I blame it on not using the high beams very often.I don't ride after dark very often so they may get used but every 4 months. I've already done a regulator replacement so check your voltages at the battery before you order anything. After I use the high beams a few times, it's fine. I live in the desert so corrosion from moisture is minimal in damaging the relays. A relay is a mechanical devise so we can change it or the headlight switch. You pick. I've owned this bike 10 years next month so I know it hasn't been subject to adverse conditions.
[image: View Post]dr.toto, on Oct 8 2009, 02:46 PM, said:
My 99 has done this for some time. I blame it on not using the high beams very often.I don't ride after dark very often so they may get used but every 4 months. I've already done a regulator replacement so check your voltages at the battery before you order anything. After I use the high beams a few times, it's fine. I live in the desert so corrosion from moisture is minimal in damaging the relays. A relay is a mechanical devise so we can change it or the headlight switch. You pick. I've owned this bike 10 years next month so I know it hasn't been subject to adverse conditions.
I went through 2 honda r/r's before replacing with the r1 r/r. second failed within a year of the replacement of the first. A volt meter can tell a lot aout whats going on though.
I have a volt meter on the bike. I was a little down on voltage. I did the doubling up on wiring listed on this forum and I'm in good shape now. This was all done after replacing the original r.r. I bought a r1 unit and it's still in my box of spare parts. If the replacement quits, I'll dig it out of the box and install. Before the wiring change, I thought it was hopeless to be within the factory spec. In retrospect, I'd probably get one of the newer r.r.'s that have the voltage sensing wire. My point was that the operating coil on the relay's has a range that is well within what most of our bikes produces. If you remove the relay and hook voltage to the 2 poles that energize the coil, you would find if it is working properly. If it's all right, that leaves you with the switch on the handlebar. If you don't have enough voltage to make the relay operational, you will be walking soon.
End of thread · 19 posts recoveredWayback Machine snapshot 12 Apr 2010