I had to take my 2010 trike with 15K miles in to have some trouble shooting done because every time I hit either the front or rear brake it blew the brake light fuse and after hours of checking i could not find the problem.

Well the dealer has had my ride now for 3 weeks and they finally called me told me that they need to replace the main wiring harness because of the aftermarket LED lighs that are installed. Even though I don't use them very often because I put them on switches and connected them to battery and have in line fuses, that is the reason that the main hot wire in the harness has overloaded.

Has anyone else ever had a problem with led's overloading the harness? I'm not an expert but it seems to me that all the Harley lights that are on whenever the bike is on would be the probable cause more than the aftermarket leds that are used once in a while and very seldom all at once.
Oh yeah the dealer has determined that it is NOT covered on my ESP so I'm out $3100.00 in parts and labor and another 2 1/2 weeks in the shop.

Thanks

I have the following LED lights installed

HARLEY – Always on
http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US
73390-10A Head Lamp, 73396-10A Auxiliary Lamp
http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US
69290-09 Fairing Trim

http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US
68271-08A Air Wing
http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US
57335-08A Windshield Trim
http://www.harley-davidson.com/gma/g...bmLocale=en_US
92059-07A Mirrors



Kuryakyn – connected to a switch and wired to the battery
http://www.kuryakyn.com/Harley/Light...ccent-Lighting
5021, 1301, 8416,7755

http://www.kuryakyn.com/Harley/Light...r-End-Lighting
7759, 8666



Custom Dynamics

GEN 21-LD-R
Bullet Style Turn Signal

Connected to a Switch and wired to the battery
Side marker 200 series QTY (12) – Hyper 18 QTY All on 1 Switch
Stringer24 / 99 White 10 LED Wheel Light POD QTY (2) each connected to same switch

 

Let me first say that I don't really know jack.

But intuitively I find it virtually impossible to believe that somehow the main breaker on the trike would not have popped a long time before any serious damage was done to the main harness. What's the purpose of it otherwise?

Someone who actually knows what they're talking about please chime in here, but to me this doesn't pass the smell test.

 

Any lights hooked up directly to the battery could not affect the wiring harness unless that wiring caused a short IN the wiring harness which seems very unlikely. However, it's possible a defective led component could short and take out a couple of wires and NOT trip the main, again highly unlikely. I'd get the full technical story and then get a lawyer.

 

The only way the lights hooked up to the battery could affect the main harness is if the battery was so low on voltage it caused one of their plugs to fail by overdrawing that one circuit when it was first initialized. It might then have burnt one of the connectors. Or caused the charging system to put out MAX charge continuously and because MOCO didn't build the system to do so, maybe caused a short/melted wire somewhere.........
Even then it should have blown a fuse, unless it involved a circuit that is un-fused.
Basically I would call a BS unless they could give you a detailed on paper you can take to someone else for an opinion. Like an independent shop. I would refuse any work until they can prove what caused the problem. I could better believe that something caused a feedback that could have fried a circuit board. But that isn't likely either, but more believable!
If you have to have the bike soon, pay the price, and find a lawyer ! There is a bunch of BS somewhere !!

 

I smell bs on that one. LED's on seperate circuits all fused!!! Uh Oh I just snapped, are all of the Harley addon lights plugged into the harness? If so, one of those could pose a problem.

 

Sounds fishy.If the lights are HD they should be fine.Do not give anyone $3100.

 

Ask to be shown where the main harness is bad and how/why they think the aftermarket lights caused this when they are not connected to the main harness.

 

That's what I would do too. I looked at the lights you put on and it seems to me that the Air Wing light is lit only when you apply brakes. Which is fine, that's what it's there for but one LED light draws a very small percentage of amps compared to a regular bulb so LED's overloading your electrical system is next to impossible. $3100 to fix that? Wow, that's just wrong. How do they know it's not the brake light switch causing the problem?

 

The LED's hooked directly to the battery are not overloading the harness, I have to call BS. I'm with Icebite1, I'd want to see the damged harness.

 

Thanks all and I agree you...It is BS. I will be having the dealer put in the new harness and I will be taking an electrical expert with me so when they explain the problem we can stick it them.