Archive of BMW Motorrad Club Cape (2006 - 2019)

Check your battery or the battery terminals /connections

Hi Carel,

Checked the battery connections, all clean and tight. I have noticed that the front brake feels different,  almost a spongy feeling.

I had a similar problem with my bike last year and the issue was a voltage drop in one of the cells in the battery that "confused" the computer. The bike started fine and then all of a sudden the speedo cluster just went haywire and the lights died etc. 

Maybe you must take your bike to some-one with a diagnostics tool to see if there are any fault codes logged. 

I can recommend Jandre Koekemoer if you are in the Northern Suburbs area.

Connect the battery to an Optimate or equivalent overnight to see if that either fixes the problem or tells you your battery is kaput.

Spongy brakes = air in the line.  This could be symptomatic of something else or it could just be a bubble in the brake fluid.  Bleeding the brakes will sort that out most times.

ABS may not start up for a variety of reasons, from holding the brake lever while turning on the bike, to a faulty switch, to low battery voltage.  The speedo cluster thing seems to point towards low voltage also.  When last did you replace the battery?

Hi Charles/Carel,

I will connect my battery to an optimate tonight and check it again tomorrow. I did not have an issue with spongy brakes up until this problem started. I am taking her to GS Traders tomorrow afternoon to have her checked out, honestly her battery is about 4 years old......hope that is the problem and not the ABS pump. 

If the ABS pump were to be faulty, will that not cause the brakes to feel spongy?

Hi Morné,

As mentioned above, check battery first. When slightly down on oomph it plays havoc with the systems.

Should the A B S be faulty there are guys who can repair them, you will need to scout this forum.

Flying Brick, Chris knows about who does the servicing and I'm sure he will point you in the right direction.  

One of our advertisers, ABS Solutions Garden Route, specialises in this.  They are in Knysna.

If your brakes are servo-assisted perhaps.  I don't know enough to be able to say.  My bike is fully manual - took out the ABS because I want to do my own thinking thanks.

Could be a failed rear ABS sensor.

Your picture suggests you ride an 'air cooled' 1200 GS? That seems to be a common failure.  

The speedo will be dead for a few minutes after starting off, and then suddenly swing into life.  ABS light will of course remain on. 

I've replaced a number of them. Sometimes the cables get cut from stones being kicked up, sometimes the sensor itself is damaged. In one case the sensor had collected iron filings from a worn rear bearing. The more rough-stuff you ride, and the more mileage on the bike, the more likely it is you'll have one.   

I also had an intermittent failure on one - the cable was almost broken, sometimes connecting, sometimes not.  

Hi Guys,

Just a quick update, took her to GS Traders and the diagnosis is a faulty sensor! 

Kevin, she was perfectly fine when I came from work, next morning on startup I had this problem. 

Hi Guys,

Just an update on my bike.

Booked my bike in at GS Traders today to have the ABS sensor replaced. A short while later Marius informed me that there was a problem - not just with the sensor but with my ABS pump electronic part as well. He gave me a quote to repair my ABS pump as well, and believe me he gave me a excellent price. Most people would just replace the entire pump but he made an effort to cut down on unnecessary costs and only replaced the electronic part of the pump. I expected my bike to be ready by Friday or so, but around 3pm he let me know that she will be ready by 16:30. While we were chatting about my bike, I mentioned that the nut on one of the throttle body's came loose and that I had just tightened it up. Without hesitating he pulled out his gauges and balanced the two throttles again. What a huge difference that made! 

I am really very happy with the service I got from Marius. He showed me the pictures and explained exactly what he did. 

Marius I don't know if you use this site, but if you do THANK YOU for the great work and service!

Morné, That is brilliant news, now it's bum in the saddle and keep the black on the black.

Hi Rene,

Most definitely!!