CSC Viper Light Bar lights burned out

[Ozutah]

Has anyone repaired their light bar on the CSC Viper? I have a few lights burned out and would like to possibly repair it than pay the 700$ for a new one.

 

[Woody]

I'm not sure of the age of your kit but CSC does have a warranty on their kits that may cover the replacement

 

[pwhoever]

I'm not sure of the age of your kit but CSC does have a warranty on their kits that may cover the replacement

Yes, probably the best of all the trike brands. 5 years and unlimited miles. Came in handy for me when my original tires were found to be defective. They gave me an allowance of $200 and let me get the replaced locally. Very easy to work with them...

 

[Ozutah]

The warranty on lights from CSC is only six months. The lights bar is 700$ to replace. I just filed for the warranty since my trike is only 5 months. But all my LED Taillights on Trike and Excel trailer are defective and bulbs are burned out. I/m trying to find the old lights for the Viper mod with bulbs and would like to know if it's possible to fix the light bar myself after I get the new one.

I'm just afraid they will give me a new one for the warranty and it has burned out bulbs a month later and that CSC will tell me my warranty is over and I just bought a chrome trimmed reflector. At least I can unplug it. The taillights are another story. I can't afford t buy new LED taillights every year.

 

[cycle7447]

Not sure how to answer this - but something must be wrong if all of your lights went out in just 5 months. I am coming up on 5 months now - and sure am hopeful that such is not an issue.

Having said that, consider opting for the new lightbar. If this one break, I am confident CSC will continue to warranty it. Just call ad talk to them

 

[rhino 2]

The warranty on lights from CSC is only six months. The lights bar is 700$ to replace. I just filed for the warranty since my trike is only 5 months. But all my LED Taillights on Trike and Excel trailer are defective and bulbs are burned out. I/m trying to find the old lights for the Viper mod with bulbs and would like to know if it's possible to fix the light bar myself after I get the new one. I'm just afraid they will give me a new one for the warranty and it has burned out bulbs a month later and that CSC will tell me my warranty is over and I just bought a chrome trimmed reflector. At least I can unplug it. The taillights are another story. I can't afford t buy new LED taillights every year.

If that many bulbs are burnt out a new light bar isn’t going to help there’s something wrong with the wiring and it should be corrected before you put a new light bar in ..

 

[BrokenBackJack]

Agree

I agree that something has to be wrong with the wiring for all those to burn out at one time.

Who installed your Trike Kit?

 

[Ozutah]

It's 12 volts in. There is probably 60 bulbs in the light bar and 4 are burnt out. That's not a wiring problem. It's a manufacturing or quality problem. Although when you buy these they are for aesthetics and you would like for all the bulbs in the assembly to work. I have other LED light assemblies on my trike with no issues. There are others out there with the same problem with their light bars.

 

[BrokenBackJack]

You go from saying all your lights are burned out to 4 out of 60 are burned out.

Describing a problem in accuracy and detail is most important, when wanting help with a fix.

Quite a difference and that changes my answer.

4 out of 60 I would think is a quality control problem.

 

[BigMick]

The warranty on lights from CSC is only six months. The lights bar is 700$ to replace. I just filed for the warranty since my trike is only 5 months. But all my LED Taillights on Trike and Excel trailer are defective and bulbs are burned out. I/m trying to find the old lights for the Viper mod with bulbs and would like to know if it's possible to fix the light bar myself after I get the new one. I'm just afraid they will give me a new one for the warranty and it has burned out bulbs a month later and that CSC will tell me my warranty is over and I just bought a chrome trimmed reflector. At least I can unplug it. The taillights are another story. I can't afford t buy new LED taillights every year.

It's 12 volts in. There is probably 60 bulbs in the light bar and 4 are burnt out. That's not a wiring problem. It's a manufacturing or quality problem. Although when you buy these they are for aesthetics and you would like for all the bulbs in the assembly to work. I have other LED light assemblies on my trike with no issues. There are others out there with the same problem with their light bars.

So which is it?

I have a CSC Encore chrome light bar on my Trike and it works beautifully......zero issues and zero LEDs burnt out.

Have you actually contacted anybody at CSC or just BSing?

They have always been 100% accommodating and offer great support and would be surprised if they did not make this right.......if in fact, the issue is defective LEDs and not something you did.

You're in the warranty period regardless, get them replaced!

Much ado about nothing IMHO....

 

[Ozutah]

So which is it?

I have a CSC Encore chrome light bar on my Trike and it works beautifully......zero issues and zero LEDs burnt out.

Have you actually contacted anybody at CSC or just BSing?

They have always been 100% accommodating and offer great support and would be surprised if they did not make this right.......if in fact, the issue is defective LEDs and not something you did.

You're in the warranty period regardless, get them replaced!

Much ado about nothing IMHO....

It's actually both. The lightbar has 6 bulbs that are burned out. The Trike tailights also have some leds in them burned out. I purchased an Escapade Excel trailer also and each of those tailights have some LEDs burned out. CSC has contacted me that they are defective. My original post was if anyone has repaired the LED Light Bar that is so expensive yet only carries a 6 mo warranty. So I didn't ask for your BS IMHO. I only wanted to know if anyone had repaired one so I could correct it myself when the next one goes bad and has burned out light and is out of warranty. And yes, I have contacted my installer and CSC.

 

[Gorilla]

Ron

It's really hard to say what is causing your problem.

Normally I have not heard of anyone repairing LED light modules. The light emitting diode are part of the assembly light strip.

My guess is that it is not a repairable item.

You are correct in that it seems very strange that so many diodes are burned out on so many of your different LED light like in your trailer and on the taillights plus the light bar.

I would suggest you call CSC and speak with their tech that deals with lights. Something in your electrical system is causing theses diodes to burn out. If it was just one light assembly I would say bad part, but several light assemblies might be something more.

Bottom line on your question is I've never heard of anyone repairing LED strips in a module.

Good Luck Hopefully CSC can come up with a solution.

 

[Ozutah]

CSC Light Bar and Lights

I have worked with CSC through the Dealer and they are replacing the Light Bar, Viper Tail Lights and Trailer Tail lights due to the warranty and manufacturing defects. However since they only have a 6 month warranty on the tail lights I would love to trade the new LED tail lights with someone who has the older lights that take bulbs. When I get them I'll post on facebook and see if a trade is possible. I believe the older CSC Viper is the same tail light but uses Bulbs instead of LEDs and the older trailers are the same also.

 

[dadztoy]

With all those burned out LED's, I'm wondering if the regulator in your alternator might be taking a yak on you??? Have you checked the voltage on the alternator with the bike running? I had a regulator go south in my alternator on my 1500 and the voltage was approaching 16-17 volts.

Might be worth looking into. Hope you get the issue resolved...

Les

 

[ROAD DOG]

I know this is an old post, I'm taking my CSC Arrow apart to paint noticed half the led bulbs on the right side of the light bar are burned out, mine is out of warranty & I don't want to buy another to have it last a few years. Anybody else have problems with the light bar?

Has anybody else have a leaking rear shock? I replaced it at 5000 miles it's been leaking again for about 8000 miles, I'm going to try to match it up with a Bilstein. And the rear sway bar links are junk, if you have a tour pack with a rack on it grab ahold of the rack and shake the trike side to side, mine sounds like the wheels are going to fall off, I will buy some good quality hiem joints & make My own sway bar links. To check for a leaking shock, take the seat off look in at the shock & you can see the oil leaking in there, The JRI shocks are junk

 

[Papa Zook]

Dan, I personally have seen several cases of LED strips randomly fail on tail lights and light bars, but they all happened within the warranty period except for one, or if they happened, I was not made aware of it, which is possible because some customers of mine are from out of town and they deal directly with Will at CSC rather than have to return it to our shop.

I've can honestly say that I have never seen, nor heard of a rear shock leaking or sway bars failing either. I'm not saying this to defend CSC, I'm just telling you based on my fairly large customer base and the fact that until now, no one else has reported those issues here, but I'm sure they exist.

Has anyone else here experienced a CSC rear shock leak? Has anyone experienced sway bar links loose or rattling? If so please chime in..

 

[ROAD DOG]

When I get the body off, I will post a picture of the leaking shock, Before I take the body off, I will see if the kid can post a video of the clunking sway bar. I think mine was a pile of scrap parts they had and made a kit out of it. The differential was put together with the wrong pin that holds the spyder gears in, spewed out grease every wear, that made the speedo quit, check engine light come on, no cruise control, In the end I paid $800. for a new differential & $200. shipping, that was at 5000 miles at the same time when I had it apart that's when I notice the first rear shock was bad.

Will replaced that at no charge, the right rear wheel bearing was bad at that time I replaced both of them on my dime. When I bought it, the paint was so bad the dealer paid me to repaint it. My Goldwing CSC at around 6000 miles the rear shock was bad that was a QA1 shock, and it had a bad right rear wheel bearing at the same time and the light bar was bad on that. We have yearly inspections in Mass and all the lights must be working, so every few years I have to buy a new $500 light. I will not buy another CSC. A 5-year warranty should be a 5-year warranty not just a warranty on what does not fail. Theres no bullshit here this is my experience. Don't take this as being argumentative this site is supposed to be about our experiences we have.

 

[Papa Zook]

When I get the body off, I will post a picture of the leaking shock, Before I take the body off, I will see if the kid can post a video of the clunking sway bar. I think mine was a pile of scrap parts they had and made a kit out of it. The differential was put together with the wrong pin that holds the spyder gears in, spewed out grease every wear, that made the speedo quit, check engine light come on, no cruise control, In the end I paid $800. for a new differential & $ 200. shipping, that was at 5000 miles at the same time when I had it apart that's when I notice the first rear shock was bad.

Will replaced that no charge, the right rear wheel bearing was bad at that time I replaced both of them on my dime. When I bought it, the paint was so bad the dealer paid me to repaint it. My Goldwing CSC at around 6000 miles the rear shock was bad that was a QA1 shock, and it had a bad right rear wheel bearing at the same time and the light bar was bad on that. We have yearly inspections in Mass and all the lights must be working, so every few years I have to buy a new $500 light. I will not buy another CSC. A 5-year warranty should be a 5-year warranty not just a warranty on what does not fail. There's no bullshit here this is my experience. Don't take this as being argumentative this site is supposed to be about our experiences we have.

Dan, in no way am I taking it as argumentative and I was not questioning your experience. Read through all the years of every Sponsor's threads and you'll discover quite a few bad experiences, but they (the Sponsors) know they have earned both the good and bad reviews and the good by far outweigh the bad. And when I asked for similar experiences I would like to hear them. I have personally had to replace just one rear differential several years ago on a GL1800 and it was warrantied. Since then, the first CSC rear diff fluid change was moved up to 500 miles.

 

[ROAD DOG]

I want to hear them to, but if they take the time to look at the shock and see if it is leaking? do you have any CSC in the shop that has 10000 miles on them to look and see if the shock is leaking ? I might be the lucky one that got 3 bad ones. Like I said grab ahold of the tour pack and shake the trike side to side to see if you can hear the sway bar links rattle.? My diff is the sealed unit there is no fluid change its packed full of wheel bearing grease, Will told me they had 5 or 6 of them that were put together wrong, so there more out there.

 

[Papa Zook]

Not at the moment but will have later in the week.

 

[pwhoever]

@ROAD DOG, on my old CSC, I too started getting that rattling, knocking sound if I rocked my trike from side to side. It probably started about 2 years ago that I noticed. I'm guessing after reading your post that it was the anti roll bar as well. It had been converted in 2016 so it was after about 6 years. I had the Passenger Comfort ARB and mine was one of the first ones ever installed. It never seemed to affect performance so I pretty much ignored it. Luckily it is no longer my problem as I no longer have it.

The rear shock never gave me a problem and I don't recall ever noticing a leak.

Now my CSC rear end was a modified DANA rear end. It held gear oil and not sealed and filled with grease like yours. That developed a pinion seal leak but I think I need to blame myself for that. And this was also out of warranty when it happened. I had never changed out the gear oil on it. I knew there was a schedule for changing the gear oil but will admit to being intimidated by it so ignored it figuring it would be fine. I never noticed the leak as most of the front where the pinion seal was located was covered by a gravel pan. It wasn't until another CSC owner I knew pointed out the leak to me that I became aware of it so I really don't know how long it had been leaking. Once I had a chance to drop the gravel pan I was able to get a much better view of it. It wasn't a streaming leak but quite enough had leaked out over time to make a pretty big mess all around that. Here is the before pic



And here is the after pic after it was fully cleaned off and new seal installed.



I learned my lesson on that one. Now that I know how easy it really is to change the gear oil, I will do first change on this new one much earlier and keep on top of it.

As far as LED fixtures, I never had any problems with either tail light or the long strip at top of trunk. I didn't have the optional strip lights that went on lower corners on each side so I can't comment on those.

The only other problem besides the pinion seal and anti roll bar was the right wheel bearing. That was an easy fix and replaced it with a 96 Cavalier front wheel hub. I replaced the left side one as well as a preventive measure. This showed up after it was out of warranty which is why I did the change myself.