Adding brake light and CAN bus?
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2016
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Adding brake light and CAN bus?
I'm looking to add a 3rd brake light to my Lowrider S. A hidden LED strip under the fender.
I have a VoloMod, they don't make them anymore but I've had it on all my other bikes. What it does is pulsates the added brake light in relation to how hard you're stopping, and does a slow flash when stopped. In all honesty it bought me about 6 feet extra between me and the car behind me, I noticed when I took it off immediately. My normal brake lights don't pulsate, just the added LED one.
Problem is all my other bikes didn't have a CAN bus system to them, and these things seem to be fickle. The Volomod taps into the rear brake light, tail light and a ground and has another wire that runs to the added LED light. I had planned on just giving it a go today but looks like the mail man lied about when he would be in. So I left it hooked up but without the 3rd light added.
I only bring it up since I noticed a backfire with the bike, twice, which it's never done (no code popped up). Is the CAN bus that fickle of a setup that the brake lights could effect it's control on the EFI? I've heard they're a bit "smart" and adjust to changes, but I wanted to check on this before I found out it's a problem. It's just never backfired before, let alone twice. Road it for a few miles, turned it off and started it up and road a few more and it didn't do it again. First time I had just turned it on and blipped the throttle (might have just 'flooded' it from being cold, don't ask why I did that since I never have before lol), second time was after starting it again later at the second stop sign out, did it when taking off.
So is it going to damage anything to give this a shot or was this just a fluke that happened at the same time?
BTW this is why I like old stuff, brake lights don't effect anything else. Feel like I want to add a sink in the kitchen and doing so means my roof could leak.
I have a VoloMod, they don't make them anymore but I've had it on all my other bikes. What it does is pulsates the added brake light in relation to how hard you're stopping, and does a slow flash when stopped. In all honesty it bought me about 6 feet extra between me and the car behind me, I noticed when I took it off immediately. My normal brake lights don't pulsate, just the added LED one.
Problem is all my other bikes didn't have a CAN bus system to them, and these things seem to be fickle. The Volomod taps into the rear brake light, tail light and a ground and has another wire that runs to the added LED light. I had planned on just giving it a go today but looks like the mail man lied about when he would be in. So I left it hooked up but without the 3rd light added.
I only bring it up since I noticed a backfire with the bike, twice, which it's never done (no code popped up). Is the CAN bus that fickle of a setup that the brake lights could effect it's control on the EFI? I've heard they're a bit "smart" and adjust to changes, but I wanted to check on this before I found out it's a problem. It's just never backfired before, let alone twice. Road it for a few miles, turned it off and started it up and road a few more and it didn't do it again. First time I had just turned it on and blipped the throttle (might have just 'flooded' it from being cold, don't ask why I did that since I never have before lol), second time was after starting it again later at the second stop sign out, did it when taking off.
So is it going to damage anything to give this a shot or was this just a fluke that happened at the same time?
BTW this is why I like old stuff, brake lights don't effect anything else. Feel like I want to add a sink in the kitchen and doing so means my roof could leak.
Stellar HDF Member
Joined: Feb 2016
Posts: 2,066
Likes: 259
From: Northstreet, michigan
No, adding a brake light won’t cause a backfire nor will it damage your bike. I’d say give it a shot and see what happens. And that is precisely why I too like older stuff. But I still love my lrs lol.
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Road Master
Joined: Jul 2016
Posts: 914
Likes: 245
I didn't think it would. Figured it was a bit like asking if the color of your bike effects how fast it is (we all know black is the fastest). Just don't really know anything about the can bus system other than it's hooked up to everything and can be fickle. Didn't want to find out i could short circuit my bike because of a flashy brake added on though.
I'm guessing at worse it will just throw a code and not work. Seems like some bikes you can get around it with a fuse, but I don't know how much Harley has hooked into the can bus. Didn't tell me when a bulb blew so maybe the tail lights aren't connected to that system.
I'm blaming all of this on the weather, lol.
I'm guessing at worse it will just throw a code and not work. Seems like some bikes you can get around it with a fuse, but I don't know how much Harley has hooked into the can bus. Didn't tell me when a bulb blew so maybe the tail lights aren't connected to that system.
I'm blaming all of this on the weather, lol.
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