Today, while running a few errands and taking advantage of a break between hail storms and other wonders of nature, my wife started up her Lo, and then told me her speedo display was showing an error.

VIN ERROR

The bike is a '10 Lo, and it's got Harley's combo speedo/tach with the mileage, gear, fuel LCD display at the bottom. The speedo and tach continued to function, and the backlights were still functioning, glowing the colors she'd set. There was no cycling through for time, trip odometers, mileage odometer, and the gear and fuel indicators were also out. The only thing that would display was the error message.

Brought the bike home, pulled the dash, and made sure that the connectors were all secure (one was slightly loose, but should be still making solid connections), and there was no evidence of any leaks or moisture present. Disconnected the speedo and reconnected, same error. Checked the ECM connection, then. Pulled the ECM, and separated the connector there, too. Again, no evidence of leaks, and was completely secure. Reassembled all of that - same error message.

Pulled out the original speedo from storage, and plugged it in instead. Showed 157 miles (which was the mileage when the speedo was changed, I guess), no error code, and would cycle through all of the displays. I did NOT start the bike - had a dash in one hand, the old speedo in the other, neither secured to the bike.

Plugged the combo unit back in, reassembled it, figuring that at least she would still have the speedometer plus the tach, and we'd research the issue further, but figuring that the replacement unit had probably crapped out. Turned on the ignition switch, and the correct mileage displayed again - 8500 miles or some such - but no fuel display. Reset the clock, and started the bike up to see if the gear indicator would now work - and the fuel level came back. Around the block, and it shows the proper gear as well.

Not sure what happened - loose connection somewhere, glitch that reset, or the beginnings of a failure down the road, but it did all get sorted out. Any thoughts on this would be interesting to hear.

That the unit works is good news. That we got it working again without an expensive trip to the dealership is outstanding news.

Question I have is this, though... is '10 before the mileage was stored in the ECM? I know that on my '13 Slim, it is, in fact, stored there. Seems odd that I could just pop the old speedo in and all of a sudden have a 4-year-old bike with only 157 miles, but the new unit balk at a (perceived) VIN mismatch! I know that at some point in the past, any replacement speedo would have to be set to the actual mileage of the bike prior to install, just not sure what year. Still hoping that the issue was just a fluke, but trying to gain as much info as possible to help diagnose if it comes back around.