Heated grips and seats not working

[brianl]

I have a 2017 wing with a Roadsmith kit. I noticed that my grips and the seat heaters aren’t working. It’s possible that the seat may be working but I have a Hartco custom lamb skin seat cover so sometimes it’s hard to tell if it’s working or not. It doesn’t appear to be. Is there a fuse that would supply both heaters? Does anyone have a diagram showing which fuses service what parts? I’ve read there’s a relay under the seat. Does it control both heaters? Also, if anyone has a link for how to remove the side panels without breaking the tabs that would be great.

 

[woody]

What brand seat do you have and is the light on the dash blinking? My seat was bad and the dash light blinked all the time if yours is not blinking then you may be alright. Can you run your hand under the seat cover to feel if the seat is working?

 

[pwhoever]

Unfortunately, the GL1800 heated system is about the stupidest setup you will ever see. If you are using the heated grips and one of the grips ends up with crack in circuit, heated grips and seat will shut down and not work until bike is turned off and restarted. Then only work for a little while until it shuts down again. And then if break in circuit somewhere in seat, the grips will get shut down until restarted. If you know seat is bad, you can leave that off and grips will work. If grips(s) are bad, you can still use seat as long as you don't turn grips on. And the seat has thermistors integrated into it so if outside temperature is too high (above 65⁰ IIRC) the heat will not work on seat.

You need to figure out if this is the case and check the seat and the grips with a multimeter. If you don't find an open circuit in the grips or seat, then you need to check the HCU (Heated Control Unit). This is located in left side of frame further back towards rear wheels from the battery. Unfortunately if yours is like my CSC Viper, you can't get to it without removing the trike body.

The most common failure for some reason is the left grip. On my 2007, I found the connector for both left and right grips under right dash pocket and was able to discover that left grip had a fault in the circuit and replaced the left grip. But on a 2017, I don't believe it has a right dash pocket but connector should still be in similar location under the shelter.

Later, my system stopped working again and figured it was most likely the HCU. So I completely bypassed the OEM wiring and connected the wiring to a dual Gerbing wireless controller mounted in right dash pocket with the grips on one circuit and drivers seat in second circuit. I use a wireless controller to turn it on and off. The way I wired the grips, even if one side goes bad again, the other grip will still heat up.

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What brand seat do you have and is the light on the dash blinking? My seat was bad and the dash light blinked all the time if yours is not blinking then you may be alright. Can you run your hand under the seat cover to feel if the seat is working?

The older GL1800's up to 2017 do not have any kind of dash light indicator. You either feel the heat or you don't.

 

[brianl]

I have an OEM seat. There's no way to get my hands under the Hartco seat cover as it completely covers the seat and goes underneath. There's no way I'm going to be removing the trike body to access the module and my mechanic isn't an expert on trikes so I don't want him doing it either. I'll probably just have to live without the heaters. There's only 3 or 4 weeks left to the riding season anyway.

 

[pwhoever]

Try the simple stuff first. Ohm out the grips and seat connectors which will probably find the problem before diving in too deep.

As far as the seat, use a multimeter on the harness and plug that plugs into the bike wiring harness but a factory service manual is very helpful on the pinout to know which pins to meter. And the connectors on end of wiring for each grip shouldn't be too hard to get to I don't think. Both connecters plug into same connector on the bike side wiring harness to the right of the air filter housing. Like I mentioned on my 07, I could access them by removing right dash pocket but maybe in yours, you could find a similar method to get access without having to remove the shelter? An multimeter set to ohms will quickly tell you if either the right or left grip are at fault.

Usually, like I also mentioned, the left grip will be the culprit and if so, once that is replaced, you will have a fully functioning grip and seat heated system again. And I highly recommend ruling out grips and seat connectors before diving into the HCU anyway as that's usually where you will find the fault. If it is the left grip, my suggestion is to fully install new one, wiring harness included, instead of cutting grip wiring by left handle bar and just splicing it in. It takes a little more effort and time removing old harness and routing in new one but works out best in the end.

 

[GoldWingrGreg]

Here are some things to know. On 5th gen comfort systems, we have 3 separate systems (grips, rider seat, passenger seat), all tied into one. For any or all to work they all must be plugged in. If any and single system fails, it will quit working, and if one of the other systems is turned on then too, it will quit working also. To diagnoses, it is first best to isolate which system is faulting out, and then work from there.

Here is how to do that. Each of these tests are all the same, but their riding times are different. To find out if your grips are faulting. Have the ignition off. Turn all 3 systems off (grips, rider seat, passenger seat). Once off, start the Wing and only turn the grips on. Then go for a 30 min ride. If your grips stayed on for 30 mins, you probably do not have a grip issue. If there were, they would usually quit in about 15mins.

Then repeat the test for the rider seat. All heat switches off, start Wing, turn rider seat on, but this time go for a 45min ride. If there is a seat issue, it will usually quit heating after about 30mins. Repeat the test for the passenger seat. Keep in mind that for seat heat to be felt, it's best to do such test riding on cold days. Also to test the passenger seat, a co-rider is needed.

Do those 3 tests and report back.

 

[brianl]

Here is how to do that. Each of these tests are all the same, but their riding times are different. To find out if your grips are faulting. Have the ignition off. Turn all 3 systems off (grips, rider seat, passenger seat). Once off, start the Wing and only turn the gips on. Then go for a 30 min ride. If your grips stayed on for 30 mins, you probably do not have a grip issue. If there were, they would usually quit in about 15mins.

Then repeat the test for the rider seat. All heat switches off, start Wing, turn rider seat on, but this time go for a 45min ride. If there is a seat issue, it will usually quit heating after about 30mins. Repeat the test for the passenger seat. Keep in mind that for seat heat to be felt, it's best to do such test riding on cold days. Also to test the passenger seat, a co-rider is needed.

Do those 3 tests and report back.

Those are excellent and really easy suggestions. I’m not and never will be a bike or car mechanic. I stopped working on anything with a gas engine as soon as I was able to afford to pay someone else to do it for me which was about 40+ years ago. I’ll definitely try these things the next time I have the bike out on a cool day.

thanks

 

[Papa Zook]

Those are excellent and really easy suggestions. I’m not and never will be a bike or car mechanic. I stopped working on anything with a gas engine as soon as I was able to afford to pay someone else to do it for me which was about 40+ years ago. I’ll definitely try these things the next time I have the bike out on a cool day.

thanks

One more thing Brian,

If you determine that your heated grips are working, but your heated seat is not, you can purchase and add a heated seat dummy load module to the OEM heated seat receptacle that will enable your heated grips to function properly. I just had to do that to a really low mile '08 GL1800 that I own after having replaced a faulty left side heated grip. My pretty much brand new, barely used Ultimate seat did not function even after getting the heated grips working.

You can order one here from electricalconnection.

 

[brianl]

We had some unseasonably nice weather this weekend so we went for a ride. I didn’t need the heat to start the ride but tried it anyway. I turned the grips on in my driveway and they worked so I turned them off. Later in the day when it got colder I tried them again after stopping for lunch and they didn’t work. It’s probably an intermittent problem with the grips. As I said, I don’t work on my bike myself. I’ll bring it to my mechanic in the spring and have him check it out. Thanks for all the advice.