Speedometer went crazy, then FI light

409 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by Whiskey, 21 d ago

GreggyWeggy

Discussion Starter · 2 mo ago

I was out for a ride today and the gas light came on. No big deal of course, I'll just stop at the station up ahead. I look down again at the light a few minutes later and notice the speedometer is now going nuts! It says I'm going between 90 and like 130 mph. The needle is going all the way to the gas light at times, back and forth quickly between 90 and the gas light. For the record I was not speeding. Going about 45-50 according to my GPS speedometer. No other lights on at this point, just the gas light.

I stop for gas, check the speedometer wire and nothing looks weird. When I go to start her up get the FI light flashing and FI showing on the LED. Bike will turn over but not fire up. I push her to a parking spot, disconnect the battery for a few minutes, hook it back up, and everything is fine. I ride home (probably another 30 minutes or so) with no problems at all. Speedometer now works fine and no warning lights. I let it idle in the garage a while and everything seems fine. Fan is coming on and going off normally, no leaks. Check oil after shutting down and it's full.

Anyone have a guess about what happened? I searched but didn't see anything quite like my issue. The bike is a 2005 C50, all stock with the exception of an aftermarket fuel pump.

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IzeHouze

· #2 · 2 mo ago

My only guess is that something went a little nutty on the PCB in the gauge assembly. In which case the "have you tried rebooting it" step 1 worked?
Hopefully nothing permanent. Always the possibility of some weather moisture or an insect going to goo in there I guess. I haven't looked closely under the plastics to see if that PCB is encased or open.

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GreggyWeggy

Discussion Starter · #3 · 2 mo ago

IzeHouze said:
My only guess is that something went a little nutty on the PCB in the gauge assembly. In which case the "have you tried rebooting it" step 1 worked?
Hopefully nothing permanent. Always the possibility of some weather moisture or an insect going to goo in there I guess. I haven't looked closely under the plastics to see if that PCB is encased or open.

Hopefully it was just a one off thing. I'm planning to go on a ride tomorrow morning, so we'll see.

I'm not good with electric stuff, but I thought maybe the gas light being tripped made something in the guave go wonky. Of course it's also possible that the gas light, speedometer issue, and FI are all completely unrelated and just happened around the same time.

Anyway, I'm saving up for a newer bike!

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Jerry K

· #4 · 2 mo ago

On my 2002 Volusia I had to replace my battery every 2 years, usually due to a bad cell in the battery.
One of the first signs that my battery was starting to go was that my speedometer would start going crazy then other odd electrical gremlins would make themselves known, almost all of which would be in the speedometer cluster.
My suggestion would be to have you battery tested.

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Whiskey

· #5 · 2 mo ago

All of the ideas I've got have been addressed. My top guesses would be an issue with the battery or charging system, some moisture got somewhere it shouldn't, or there's a shorted wire somewhere. Just to be on the safe side, I'd probably take the battery somewhere and have it load tested, then put a multimeter on the battery cables while it's running and make sure you're getting a solid 14+ volts from the charging system. Hopefully it was a one off issue.

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GreggyWeggy

Discussion Starter · #6 · 21 d ago

I wanted to update this for anyone who might run into it in the future. I had my front fender off to paint it. When I put it back on, I routed the speedometer sensor cable incorrectly. This caused it to rub against the brake disc, wear through a little, and caused my speedometer to go nutty. Not sure if this had anything to do with the FI light, but it was certainly the cause of my speedo issue.

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Whiskey

· #7 · 21 d ago

Thanks for the update. Glad you figured it out.

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