Heated seat & grips not working

[Anton4]

I recently had my 2016 GW converted to a Roadsmith trike. My heated seats and grips are now not working. I've checked the fuses, the plug under the seat, and the plug behind the key switch cover. Any other suggestions? Also, my trike dealer claims they didn't pull anything apart on the front end of the bike, but how do they accomplish the 6 degree rake without doing that? Thanks for any assistance.

 

[pwhoever]

Without getting in to the name of the dealer, I only know from your questions on the other forums. They will take a bike and trike it in a day. The only way they can do that is by taking shortcuts. I know of several service places that once they hear where the conversion was done, refuse to do any work for fear of being accused of doing damage where it had already been done during conversion.

With that said, they don't have to remove the fairing but do at least have to take that ignition cover off to access the triple trees. Usually the dash gauges panel needs to be loosened and moved but sometimes even needs to be removed as well. Along with all of that, there are wires that need to be unclipped from and around the triple tree including the wires for both grip heaters. It's possible that one or both of those wires could have been either broken or pinched which could cause a short. The heat controller does not like seeing a short and won't work if it does. Also the left heated grip is known as a problem and is often the culprit. The story goes that as a bike and using center stand, it can get stressed to the point that the heating strips under grip can crack and cause an open circuit.

Now, not sure if you understand the heating system on the Goldwings but it was horribly designed. A fault with any of the parts, the left grip, the right grip, or the seat can cause the heat to not work. All 3 parts need to be functional. A quick test is to, with engine running, turn on the grip heat by itself and see if they heat up. Turn it on high and they should get toasty within a few minutes. If they do, you know the grips are working. Make sure to turn the grips back off before continuing.

I almost forgot. Make sure to test your the passenger seat as well but do it separately from drivers seat heat. The switch for that is a dial switch under the rear storage box. If the drivers part of the seat doesn't heat up but passenger side does, you have a defective seat.

Now during each of these tests, if something fails to warm up, before going on to next test, make sure to turn engine off before proceeding as the heating system has probably gone into fault mode and needs to be reset.

Now even if the grips are not working, go on to the next step. Then try the same with the seat, turn it on high, engine running and sitting on seat. If it heats up within a few minutes to toasty, you know it's working. One thing to also point out with seat is there are thermistors inside the seat which will prevent the seat from warming up if the ambient temperature is too high. As long as ambient temperature is below 65⁰ (IIRC) seat heat should work. If ambient temperature is higher than that, you can fool it by placing a bag of ice on seat which will cool it down.

My guess is that the seat heat should be working but you will find a problem with the grips. And just to add, no thermistors in heated grips so they will work at any ambient temperature if not defective. Now if you have the seated het working and then turn on grip heat at same time and one or both grips are defective, the heat shuts off completely until you turn off ignition and system will reset. But whatever part is defective, once that is turned back on again, the heat shuts off right away again. It's rare to have defective grips and defective seat at same time.

Now if both grips and seat are out and not functioning, it usually means the heating system controller has failed. That would need to be replaced. But before assuming that the heated controller has failed, this is all contingent on no breaks in any of the wiring for the heated circuits. I would still try to track down the 2 connectors up front for the grips and test for continuity to those first because the grips, especially the left one seem to be the biggest culprit for a failed heating system. I hope this helps.