Bulb Warning

[rborder]

I picked up a 2021 first edition over the weekend - and am sorting through a few little things with it. My current focus is trying to diagnose/resolve a bulb warning on the dash.

The bike came with a bobber kit, including custom tail-lights. I'm not sure about the headlight (may or may not be original). The bike is showing a warning on the dash - for a bad bulb. I don't know if there is a way to figure out which bulb is the issue. I know this bike has had this error for a long time... I looked at the same bike a couple years ago, and it had the same warning.

My suspicion is that this might be related to the removal of the stock license plate frame. When I bought the bike, it had no provisions whatsoever fo the license plate - I fabricated a new bracket, I am guessing that the original license plate holder had a light - that light/bulb is no longer there.

So that's the background - here are my quesitons:
1) Is this a stock headlight? If so, what sort of bulb should be in it? (Halogen, LED, ??)
2) Is there a way - perhaps through the OBD2 port - to determine which bulb the bike is complaining about?
3) Long shot: does anybody have a wiring diagram (2021 FIrst Edition)?
4) Can anybody confirm if removal of the license plate bulb will trip the warning on the dash?

aTdHvAaNnKcSe-

 

[harrisrc740]

My first suspicion would be the tag light, is the wiring still there or was all of that hidden/removed with the bobber conversion?

 

[Ulrich]

That headlight looks like a Halogen ... it should be a LED light.
Looks like this:


Mine has the adaptable function ... which in this case means that some more Leds light up to the left (or right) when you turn.
Not having that alone will throw a lamp fault.
There is a ODB II connector that is called GS-911 that will tell you all faults and can reset them if eliminated.

 

[harrisrc740]

Did not pay attention to the headlight since I have a B and my headlight is different. From owning many BMW cars & bikes, if the previous owner just got rid of the tag light, that will cause a fault also. So you may have several light faults to troubleshoot.

 

[Scott Semone]

Did not pay attention to the headlight since I have a B and my headlight is different. From owning many BMW cars & bikes, if the previous owner just got rid of the tag light, that will cause a fault also. So you may have several light faults to troubleshoot.

I love troubleshooting these types of issues... The ECU measures the current draw on the circuit; too little or an open and or too much current will trigger an error. LED lights draws much less amperage than an incandescent lamp; which is why, adding a resistor will increase the current load which will mask or suppress an error code when upgrading to LED lights from incandescent lamps.

The R18 is all LED, so there is probably an open circuit (license plate lamp) or perhaps too much current is being measured (headlight)?

 

[Petr Kunc]

I picked up a 2021 first edition over the weekend - and am sorting through a few little things with it. My current focus is trying to diagnose/resolve a bulb warning on the dash.

The bike came with a bobber kit, including custom tail-lights. I'm not sure about the headlight (may or may not be original). The bike is showing a warning on the dash - for a bad bulb. I don't know if there is a way to figure out which bulb is the issue. I know this bike has had this error for a long time... I looked at the same bike a couple years ago, and it had the same warning.

My suspicion is that this might be related to the removal of the stock license plate frame. When I bought the bike, it had no provisions whatsoever fo the license plate - I fabricated a new bracket, I am guessing that the original license plate holder had a light - that light/bulb is no longer there.

So that's the background - here are my quesitons:
1) Is this a stock headlight? If so, what sort of bulb should be in it? (Halogen, LED, ??)
2) Is there a way - perhaps through the OBD2 port - to determine which bulb the bike is complaining about?
3) Long shot: does anybody have a wiring diagram (2021 FIrst Edition)?
4) Can anybody confirm if removal of the license plate bulb will trip the warning on the dash?

aTdHvAaNnKcSe-

HI,
regarding the headlight - it should be all LED headlight, so for sure yours is not original. ECU might be confused.
For licence plate light - there is a separate cable for the light located on the left side ( at least on EU models ) so if you have no bulb connected it might be also a problem.
Here is the link for the Wunderlich cable https://www.wunderlichamerica.com/bmw-r18-wunderlich-taillight-wiring-harness.html
What is also important to know is the type of rear lights. As mentioned in the instruction manual, for super tiny lights you need to add the resistor which is compensating the smaller current.

 

[Scott Semone]

 

[rborder]

HI,
regarding the headlight - it should be all LED headlight, so for sure yours is not original. ECU might be confused.
For licence plate light - there is a separate cable for the light located on the left side ( at least on EU models ) so if you have no bulb connected it might be also a problem.
Here is the link for the Wunderlich cable https://www.wunderlichamerica.com/bmw-r18-wunderlich-taillight-wiring-harness.html
What is also important to know is the type of rear lights. As mentioned in the instruction manual, for super tiny lights you need to add the resistor which is compensating the smaller current.

Awesome info- thank you!

 

[Petr Kunc]

Awesome info- thank you!

That's why we are all here - help each other
I have Kellermann DF1000 3 in 1 - means position and brake light is the outer ring and turn signal is in the middle. US might be different and there is a topic here on the forum.
For bobber kits they are using Kelermann Atto usually, very tiny lights where the reisistor is a must. As you can see on the schema attached in posts before. Good luck to fix it.

 

[rborder]

Tore into it a little bit today. It appears to me that the factory harness going out to the tail of the bike has been spliced into (not a conversion harness). There is a 6-pin connector, under the left side cover. On the female/bike side, all 6 pins are populated, with wires. On the male/tail-light side, I only have 4 pins and 4 wires. They appear to be numbered. I trace them to be: 1) Ground, 2) Left signal/brake, 3) right signal/brake, 4) tail lights. Pins 5 and 6 are completely missing from the male plug. Each of my rear lights has 3 wires running to it (ground, rear-light, and a combined brake/turn circuit). As stated above, I have no license plate light at all.

I probed the 2 un-used recepticles on the bike side. Both wires are grey; pin5 is grey/red, pin 6 is grey/yellow. I really expected to find hot (license plate light power) on one of them. However, I discovered that these 2 locations are dead (on the female side). They're not hot, not ground, seem to be disconnected; which maybe supports the idea that only 4 of the 6 pins were originally used. I suppose it's quite possible that the original license plate bulb was just wired in with the 2 (always on) tail-lights. Would the bike be sensitive enough to tell if there are 2 or 3 active bulbs on that circuit? If so, bulb type will certainly matter.

Curious if anybody with a stock bike (mine is a 2021 1st edition) has opened up this plug. Is only 4-pins, on the male side, normal? Or am I looking at a modified plug?

 

[Scott Semone]

I found the below image in another thread; not sure if it helps or not?

 

[Petr Kunc]

Tore into it a little bit today. It appears to me that the factory harness going out to the tail of the bike has been spliced into (not a conversion harness). There is a 6-pin connector, under the left side cover. On the female/bike side, all 6 pins are populated, with wires. On the male/tail-light side, I only have 4 pins and 4 wires. They appear to be numbered. I trace them to be: 1) Ground, 2) Left signal/brake, 3) right signal/brake, 4) tail lights. Pins 5 and 6 are completely missing from the male plug. Each of my rear lights has 3 wires running to it (ground, rear-light, and a combined brake/turn circuit). As stated above, I have no license plate light at all.

I probed the 2 un-used recepticles on the bike side. Both wires are grey; pin5 is grey/red, pin 6 is grey/yellow. I really expected to find hot (license plate light power) on one of them. However, I discovered that these 2 locations are dead (on the female side). They're not hot, not ground, seem to be disconnected; which maybe supports the idea that only 4 of the 6 pins were originally used. I suppose it's quite possible that the original license plate bulb was just wired in with the 2 (always on) tail-lights. Would the bike be sensitive enough to tell if there are 2 or 3 active bulbs on that circuit? If so, bulb type will certainly matter.

Curious if anybody with a stock bike (mine is a 2021 1st edition) has opened up this plug. Is only 4-pins, on the male side, normal? Or am I looking at a modified plug?

I will be in my garage tomorrow, so i can check on my 2021 FE the socket but i have European model. But thanks to Scott! It seems that you have to look for blue/brown cable to feed your licence plate light and brown as a grounding.
In worst case there is a free connector under the left panel for add-ons or you can split the cable going to the power/charging socket and use this one. Only thing is that those cables are switched on when the engine is running and they are going off after 15 sec when the engine is off. So it will light up bit later and stay on also bit longer.
I have a rev counter from Wunderlich which should be connected exactly to that power socket, but i don't like the fact that it stays on for these 15s after the engine is off.
I purchased the HealTech power distribution box after my troubles with main harness and connected the rev counter and wireless phone charger to it.
This might be a solution for you as well.
Good luck

 

[rborder]

Well - I think I've determined that the condition is terminal. I bought the OBDLInkLX tool, and MotoScan app, to get a better idea what's going on. (I also do all my own maintenance, so I kind of needed it for resetting service intervals and such). After clearing eveything out, I could take a look and see what's going on. In a nutshell, I think the bike is failing to communicate with a headlight electronics package - a package that I'm guessing is integral to the orignal headlight. Unless I want to spend $$$$ on going back to an original light, I don't think there is much hope of ever clearing this fault. The only hope is probably disabling the bulb warnings all together- I haven't been able to find anything suggesting that's possible. I'd even be open to clipping the wire that feeds the warning light on my dash- but I'm not too keen on trying to crack open that unit. At least for now, I guess I just live with it.

 

[Scott Semone]

The wiring harness that is connected to the R18 B headlight, looks like something if you removed a section of flight instrumentation from the dash panel of a Boeing 747 from the 1970's...

 

[Petr Kunc]

Well - I think I've determined that the condition is terminal. I bought the OBDLInkLX tool, and MotoScan app, to get a better idea what's going on. (I also do all my own maintenance, so I kind of needed it for resetting service intervals and such). After clearing eveything out, I could take a look and see what's going on. In a nutshell, I think the bike is failing to communicate with a headlight electronics package - a package that I'm guessing is integral to the orignal headlight. Unless I want to spend $$$$ on going back to an original light, I don't think there is much hope of ever clearing this fault. The only hope is probably disabling the bulb warnings all together- I haven't been able to find anything suggesting that's possible. I'd even be open to clipping the wire that feeds the warning light on my dash- but I'm not too keen on trying to crack open that unit. At least for now, I guess I just live with it.

I don't think that you can simply disable the warnings or just ''remove the warning light'' as there is the CanBus. Your headlight is consuming more Amps than the original full LED probably. Unless you can find the replacement LED bulb with similar power consumption as original headlight unit. Any chance to get the original from previous owner maybe?

 

[Scott Semone]

I don't think that you can simply disable the warnings or just ''remove the warning light'' as there is the CanBus. Your headlight is consuming more Amps than the original full LED probably. Unless you can find the replacement LED bulb with similar power consumption as original headlight unit. Any chance to get the original from previous owner maybe?

I agree.. maybe find a LED headlight in order to reduce the amperage required to power an incandescent lamp. Maybe post some pictures of the existing headlamp wiring harness; I think this is a fixable problem since the Adaptive Headlight is an option, and you can probably get away with a standard option headlight. But, you definitely need to 86 the incandescent light off the menu..

 

[rborder]

One of the first things I did was replace my Halogen with an LED headlight bulb. There appears to be a whole headlight control module that my bike is missing.