A friend of mine has a 2010 FLHTC that has had a recurring problem with the throttle by wire. Just yesterday he headed out to join me for a ride, but when he got on the expressway with the cruise set, the bike drops to an idle with the check engine light on. He pulls over to the side and finds that the bike idles with no throttle response. He shuts the bike down and waits 10 min. for the check engine light to reset, then starts the bike up and heads home. He got the bike to the dealership yesterday and they told him the throttle by wire had corroded contacts. That's the same thing they told him 6 months and 4k miles ago. They cleaned the contacts and put dielectric grease on them (same thing they did 6 mo. and 4K ago), and told him to come get the bike.

His bike is garage kept, and not ridden or parked in the rain. Is this a common experience with throttle by wire for bikes a few years old and around 20K miles?

 

I had the same problem at app. 35,000 miles. Lots of rain rides and washes. No problem so far. It's been over 6,000 miles with no more problems. If it only happens every 35,000 miles I can handle it without being too upset.

 

Interesting that I post a legitimate mechanical question and get only 1 response. Maybe I should have asked if I should put a CVO badge on my FLHTC

The owner of the bike with the TBW problem contacted Harley today about the issue. Harley gave him a case # to pass along to the dealership mechanics and assured him that they would work with the dealership to resolve the problem. He had much more discussion with the dealership mechanics today about his situation. They told him that it is a common problem, and that they have about 4 per week in for the same thing. He was also informed that some police officers had complained about this issue with TBW. They fire up their bike to pursue someone and then have it drop to an idle with no throttle control. The supposed answer to the police issue was replacing the contacts that go into the throttle body with gold plated contacts. Time will tell what Harley will do the the general public.

I posted this in case someone else was experiencing the same issue. I also did a search on the subject of "throttle" and got nothing. The search didn't even identify this thread with throttle in the title and throttle in the first post.

 

there's actually a service bulletin about this failure. it's caused by "fretting" of the contacts due to vibration. Harley knows about it, and there have been many threads about this issue, so don't know why you can't find them. I'm just waiting for it to get my bike too (08 Ultra)!

 

My 2010 had the problem at 2,000 mi they cleaned it ordered me a new one and replaced the control about 3 days later put 20k on the bike after that with out issue

 

Chill out. There's been so many posts on this subject, it's like . There's a thread about this at least once a week.

Search "limp mode". You will find page after page of previous posts on this problem.

I've experienced it 8 to 10 times-I lost count. It can be anything from fretting of the pins on the throttle body connector to broken wires on the throttle body wiring harness to bad grip sensor to broken wiring in the harness from the grip sensor to bad connections at the ECM connector. I've had 'em all, except broken wires on throttle body connector harness (hope I haven't jinxed myself ).

It's very frustrating and aggravating if you are one of the lucky ones to have this problem. My bike has 70000 mi on it and it still goes into limp mode every once in a while, so I don't think it's ever going to end.

Even though I'm really pissed off about it, I don't think it's a very wide spread problem or HD would do something about it-unless they can't fix it or they're not worried about it.

Good luck to your friend.

 

I feel for you guys with these FBW bikes that have issues. There must not be enough failures for HD to send out a recall. It is hard for me to believe that this has been going on since 08. It appears they have not changed the design. It would really suck if the same issue continues 2013. Power is a bikers friend. The thought of twisitng up to merge on the slab and the chance of the bike going limp would be a real concern. Ride safe.

 

Ok, sorry I posted something everyone already knows. I'll not follow-up anymore. My '07 FLHTC with its throttle cables is looking better and better to me.

I'm sorry, but it seems absurd to me that a company would produce a Touring bike that will leave you stranded at any time, regardless of age, maintenance, or mileage. Cleaning the contacts and putting them back in the same flawed design is no fix! That just ensures that you'll have a problem again at some later date.

I don't see what was so wrong with cables anyway. Were all of the customers pre '08 saying that their bikes would be perfect if they just had TBW? I don't get it. Oh well, I'll keep my cables lub'ed on my '07 and move on. -Later-

 

I wish mine was an 07. TBW=POS imo.

 

Does the bike have a power commander on it. Also need to put dielectric grease on these connections. I have not had this issue since putting dielectric grease on these connections.