CANBUS Errors When You Do... ANYTHING
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Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 228
Likes: 29
From: Cincinnati, Ohio
CANBUS Errors When You Do... ANYTHING
Last week, my wife picked up her trike from the dealer, who was fixing a brake switch and installing an XM radio module. The next few times she ran it, she was getting various BCM errors, the last of which kept the bike from starting until I cleared the error (b2210).
We took it back to the dealer who found nothing wrong with it. He told me that after you do anything electrical (even just changing a lightbulb), that we'll likely get various BCM errors for a while, which we can just reset and ignore.
My question: Is the dealer right? Is the HD canbus so unstable that minor changes can trigger a variety of errors for several run cycles?
We took it back to the dealer who found nothing wrong with it. He told me that after you do anything electrical (even just changing a lightbulb), that we'll likely get various BCM errors for a while, which we can just reset and ignore.
My question: Is the dealer right? Is the HD canbus so unstable that minor changes can trigger a variety of errors for several run cycles?
Club Member
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 45,429
Likes: 2,898
From: Bedford UK
CANBus is actually a Bosch design and protocol, not H-D and is used widely throughout the automotive industry. Any recent autos we may own probably also use it. If Harley dealers are indeed having problems I suspect that is down to poor training rather than the hardware or software on the bike. It will be interesting to see what others have to say!
Last edited by grbrown; Sep 11, 2017 at 02:44 PM.
Thread Starter
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Cruiser
Joined: Jan 2016
Posts: 228
Likes: 29
From: Cincinnati, Ohio
That's what I was wondering.
Ultimate HDF Member
Joined: Jun 2009
Posts: 6,899
Likes: 3,412
From: OH
Legalize it and the problem should go away then......
Back to topic I had to get a harness connector in the headlight nacelle turned on in the BCM to use it on my road king. The thing controls a lot and I have been told by the dealer that it can be incredibly fussy if you start messing with anything electrical on the bike.
Back to topic I had to get a harness connector in the headlight nacelle turned on in the BCM to use it on my road king. The thing controls a lot and I have been told by the dealer that it can be incredibly fussy if you start messing with anything electrical on the bike.
Seasoned HDF Member
Joined: Apr 2015
Posts: 7,709
Likes: 7,850
From: New York
There is a high level of self-interest in the following scenario regarding the CANBUS system, so take the advice with a grain of salt. Years ago when I purchased a BMW R1200RT (which was the first model that went to a CANBUS system), the dealer advised me I could not use any random trickle charger [I was considering a Battery Tender system]. The explanation was that the CANBUS system would keep detecting changes in voltage and would keep shutting down thinking there was a short. Surprise, surprise - BMW's proprietary recharger (at 4 times any other charger) was allegedly designed to not create this problem.
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Intermediate
Joined: Jun 2013
Posts: 41
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From: Mougins
CAN bus is no magic. I didn't have time yet to look at the one of my new 2018 HD, however my job is often concerned by that bus. Basically it's a network to share information between 'nodes', like an ethernet LAN: it transports information, it doesn't make it.
But since it makes easy to share info, a bus designer can make a system where different nodes exchange various data very easily. One node can, for instance, monitor a voltage, and broadcast on the bus the voltage info and nodes can decide to turn themselves off it the voltage info shows that there could be a short somewhere.
If you have error codes, as a previous user wrote, it may be linked to the lack of training, or to the techs not following exactly the mounting instruction or fixing instructions listed in their service manual.
Talking with OEM in the automotive world, the car makers often get mad at technicians in garages that think they know the vehicle better than the engineers that designed them. So they work the way they want, not the way it is documented. Or they work looking at their watches, listening to their bosses telling them to hurry up and so they take "shortcuts" in the mounting/fixing instructions. Or they don't understand what the instructions say because they require a level of knowledge they don't have and so they are obscure.
My company is selling devices connected to CAN buses to OEM and have a feature to allow remote (over-the-air) installation check. The results are often terrible when the first device is installed in a dealership that has never seen it before: we have many times the evidence that the techs didn't even read the fitting instructions, even if they claimed the contrary: many times the OEM had to send people taking pictures to demonstrate (internally!) that they have no control at all of what is going on in their own dealerships. But once the techs are trained in a dealership, then nearly all problems disappear...
But since it makes easy to share info, a bus designer can make a system where different nodes exchange various data very easily. One node can, for instance, monitor a voltage, and broadcast on the bus the voltage info and nodes can decide to turn themselves off it the voltage info shows that there could be a short somewhere.
If you have error codes, as a previous user wrote, it may be linked to the lack of training, or to the techs not following exactly the mounting instruction or fixing instructions listed in their service manual.
Talking with OEM in the automotive world, the car makers often get mad at technicians in garages that think they know the vehicle better than the engineers that designed them. So they work the way they want, not the way it is documented. Or they work looking at their watches, listening to their bosses telling them to hurry up and so they take "shortcuts" in the mounting/fixing instructions. Or they don't understand what the instructions say because they require a level of knowledge they don't have and so they are obscure.
My company is selling devices connected to CAN buses to OEM and have a feature to allow remote (over-the-air) installation check. The results are often terrible when the first device is installed in a dealership that has never seen it before: we have many times the evidence that the techs didn't even read the fitting instructions, even if they claimed the contrary: many times the OEM had to send people taking pictures to demonstrate (internally!) that they have no control at all of what is going on in their own dealerships. But once the techs are trained in a dealership, then nearly all problems disappear...
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Grand HDF Member
Joined: May 2008
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From: Rolla
We took it back to the dealer who found nothing wrong with it. He told me that after you do anything electrical (even just changing a lightbulb), that we'll likely get various BCM errors for a while, which we can just reset and ignore.
My question: Is the dealer right? Is the HD canbus so unstable that minor changes can trigger a variety of errors for several run cycles?
My question: Is the dealer right? Is the HD canbus so unstable that minor changes can trigger a variety of errors for several run cycles?
I have changed a turn signal bulb, and installed the XM module myself on my 2015 Limited.
No canbus errors of any kind.