I wonder if washing them while there how could cause them to warp?

 

I wonder if washing them while there hot could cause them to warp?

 

I'm really anxious to find out what the Harley techs found out on the OP's bike. Most of the feedback on this thread is basically "hear say" and could also other types of brake failures rather than ABS.
Motor cops in the departments that use Harleys have been riding with ABS brakes long before they were ready for the general public. I would really like to hear some reports on ABS failures from those people. I know that the Las Vegas police motorcycle course uses ABS extensively and really push them to the extreme. Any one who teaches or been on that course or out in the field know of any failures due to ABS? Your feedback would really be important for all of us.

 

Well after 12 days in the shop and a lot of anxiety i picked my bike up today. They put on a new ABS Electronic Control Modulator part# 40649-08 on. After a long discussion with the Service Manager it appears that this part can fail and leave you without brakes as mine did. One of the comments made in the shop was that the odds of this happening was probably about the same as a plane crashing (didnt care for that comparison) I test drove the bike in the parking lot for quite a while with some hard stops and starts and the brakes performed as they should. Drove it home...30 miles, no problems. As a side note i looked at the Master Cylinder closely before i left the shop and it dont appear it has been changed. It had some bug guts on the front of it!

Sorry it took so long but im glad to have her home.

 

OK, now that's a first for me. Leave it up to the MOCO to design and market a system that can fail and disable perfectly good brakes. Brilliant!

 

Thanks for the update. Did they give you any written report explaining what had happened and what action had been taken. Way beyond my area of expertise, but it seems inconceivable that a vehicle manufacturer can allow a "known defect" of such safety critical importance continue without some kind of process, ideally leading to a design review + rectification + recall?

If they replaced the control module that indicates a hardware failure rather than a software failure. One would like to believe that there is a high level of redundancy for critical components and if this is the case they would argue that all backup systems (in the control module I mean now) failed and the design is inherently safe, and that can be the case. If this is the case, I would expect them to issue some kind of checking routine where the integrity of this system can be checked at regular service intervals

 

Aside from the obvious risk when something like this fails, one of the worst things is that "seed" it plants in your head. For a while, everytime you hit the brake, you'll wonder if it's going to work.

 

That's normal. All Harley's do it.

 

Hey wait! This is the MOCO you're talking about.

Most likely they'll wait till a few people are dead or mutilated for life and they have a few multi-million dollar lawsuits pending before they'll do anything as "responsible" as admit that there's a problem and issue a recall to fix it. They're way to big and important of a company to worry about something as insignificant as a few brake failures here and there.

What WERE you thinking??

 

Thank you for your feedback on the ABS problem, and I'm happy to hear you survived the ordeal and got your ride back.
However:
First of all, I would never fly in a plane made by Harley!! Harley and electronics never did make a good match, they're still having problems with their mechanical engineering after 100+ years.
Secondly, It is really scary to think that on a critical componet, like ABS brakes, if the electronic control module failed the mechanical/hydraulic component would still work to save your a$$.
Finely, I'm confused as to why we can remove the fuse for the ABS, disabling the electronics and the brakes will work normally. Hopefully someone can answer that one for me.