REAR INDICATOR STAYS ON

[Nigel Shields]

Hi, this is my first post despite having as GS911 for 5 years, it shows GS1200 can be very reliable.  However for the first time in 72000 miles I  have a problem in that my rear right indicator comes on on its own even when the ignition is off [constant not flashing] but the GS911 says no faults found.
Has anybody heard of anything like this before?

[schuppi]

Hello Nigel,

yes, there wouldn't be a fault mentioned by the system.
I think, there is some water in your cluster (KOMBI) which produced a short circuit on the PCB just for the indicator LED.

Needs a quick breakdown to remove the wetness 

[Nigel Shields]

Thankyou for the reply, I will try that.

[Nigel Shields]

For what I hope is the final post on this thread, I appear to have sorted the problem, so for anybody curious here's what i did:
I stripped the rear indicator, removed bulb and  disconnected bulb holder, i checked voltage, which was 12v with ignition OFF hence the indicator on constant.  I then shorted the 2 wires together to trip the canbus hoping it would cure the fault when it reset itself. I then reassembled the indicator, but noticed the live connection on the bulb was hardly touching the bulb, so I bent the metal strip in further to make a good contact.
I reassembled unit, turned ignition on and its worked fine since, fault appears to be cured. simple cure to a baffling problem.
If anybody has a rational explanation for this I would be interested.

[Jughead]

BMW electronics/electrics are a black art that needs some patience to understand.

Everything is live all the time (thus your 12V at the globe) and all components are activated by applying the earth via the ECM.

If you happen to have a chaffed wire somewhere in the harness shorting to ground, whatever component is attached to that wire will be activated.

I have sat with a opened harness and a magnifying glass for two days to find a small cut in a wire you could barely feel with your fingernail.  It caused the particular bike to start up as soon as you turned on the ignition, and kept the started engaged as long as the ignition was on.

[Nigel Shields]

Thankyou for taking the time to explain that, I am used to electrics on old bikes so had no idea newer BMW's worked that way, it explains all the issues, unfortunately that includes the likelyhood of my bike having a shorting wire, and the reason it stopped was I moved the wire when testing voltages etc. so I will have to look if it shorts again.
At least I now understand how it works.Thankyou.

[Jughead]

[emoji106]