FJRF009.4 "Spider"/Intermittent Ground Wire Failures 2010 and Later Research

Despite the redesign of wiring harnesses, starting with the 2010 model year FJR, it appears that the same spider connections are still present in 2010 to 2012 FJR’s and the first failure reports are starting to trickle in. I’m starting this thread in an effort to track these failures and gather pertinent data. Please keep discussion on topic so as not to muddy the waters.

I suspect (but have not seen any confirmation of) that the 2010 and later FJR’s have additional grounding integrated in the harness to take some of the load off the spiders. If so, then they are electrically similar to 2006 to 2009 models once the recall has been accomplished. With those assumptions in mind, I propose that we also track any 06-09 FJR’s that have had the S4 recall and then have any additional spider failures.

Any owners experiencing a failure would do themselves and the FJR owner community a big favor by reporting their failure to the National Highway Transportation Safety Agency at www.safercar.gov . Canadians owners should report at https://wwwapps.tc.g...p.aspx?lang=eng . Recalls only happen if there’s enough failures REPORTED to the appropriate government agency.

Here’s the failures that I’ve found so far on the forum that meet this threads parameters:

Model year Spider # User name Link to failure report

2012 S7 sapest

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/160394-2012-electrical-woes/?p=1183449

2010 S6 okcbill

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/160681-2010-both-headlights-out-ww-dead-turn-indicators-dim/?p=1187931

Harald, I don't want to step on your thread, review the following and I will delete the message if it doesn't fit your process.

First and important, the term 'spider' and 'spider bite' are made up names here on the Forum, it is in no way an actual technical term or even a normal street slang term for grounding terminal blocks. Telling the NHTSA you have a spider bite will likely get you referenced to an exterminator. Please refer to the failed parts with terms like grounding terminal, grounding block, ground distribution or some similar description. Thanks!

The NHTSA responds to safety issues such as losing headlights and does not take action on general failures such as the dash clock failing in 75% of all Dongfeng cars built since 1997. If you have failures on your FJR due to known spider issues, take the time to include all safety related failures in your report and be sure to call them safety issues. State that there is a safety issue with your failed spider because the *headlights go out; *the turn signals/hazard lights fail; *the ignition shuts off; *the ABS light comes on; etc. These are actionable failures for the NHTSA. You may not see any action but behind the scenes the NHTSA will write to Yamaha with the failures that are reported and ask Yamaha to respond to the NHTSA. When the NHTSA last wrote to Yamaha, Yamaha responded rapidly with a notice to dealers about unsafe conditions caused by spiders, then followed up with a recall.

The first time we went through the spider issue the NHTSA sent an inspector to see BkrK12 and I where we walked him through the electrical system and did a simulated spider failure so he could see the faults. He wrote his report and shortly after Yamaha got the report the recall was done. There is a good chance that with continued failures of 'repaired' FJRs and new bike failures the agency will want to look at the FJR again.

Thanks for the clarification Ionbeam, especially about the report needing to warn of a safety concern. I actually thought about adding a comment about our use of the "spider" term, but then didn't do it. So I'll add my thoughts now:

Please note that our spider numbering (S4, S6, etc) is a creation of members of this forum and not official Yamaha or Government terminology. I suspect they are aware of our use of the term “spider” in the FJR owners community, but when reporting a failure I’d suggest using language such as “failure of grounding connector, commonly referred to as a spider in the FJR owner community” or something similar to clarify what you are reporting.

Harald said:

..I suspect they are aware of our use of the term “spider” in the FJR owners community, but when reporting a failure I’d suggest using language such as “failure of grounding connector, commonly referred to as a spider in the FJR owner community” or something similar to clarify what you are reporting.

Click to expand...

The NHTSA motorcycle agent that Dan and I worked with mentioned that he reads most of the more popular motorcycle forums as part of his job. During our digging through Dan's wiring harness the inspector referred to the metal bridge on the grounding connector as a 'spider'. I was truly surprised to hear him call it by that name. I explained to him that it was a made up name here in the Forum and he in turn was surprised to find out that 'spider' wasn't a technical term (I didn't get into the fact that insects have 6 legs and arachnids like spiders have 8 legs...)

Although there's some confusion on whether it was a traditional spider bite, member FJRScrewball reported a problem with S3 on his 2010:

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/139216-fjrf0092-intermittent-ground-wire-connection/page-22?do=findComment&comment=905206

This would be the first S3 failure I've ever heard of on any year FJR. He claims that the connector melted on the engine block and arced to the engine. This makes no sense to me because there's not enough heat there to melt a connector and the only possible way I can see arcing is if the spider had failed (circuits losing their connection to ground) and a circuit was now arcing to the engine block which is at ground potential.

Further data mining has revealed another probable S6, 7 or 8 spider failure on a 2006 owned by member flynfjr 30 days AFTER the recall was completed: https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/139216-fjrf0092-intermittent-ground-wire-connection/page-21?do=findComment&comment=897748

He didn't get details on the location of the failed spider, but the dealer replaced the entire front sub-harness which would point to S6,7or8 failure.

Harald said:

Thanks for the clarification Ionbeam, especially about the report needing to warn of a safety concern. I actually thought about adding a comment about our use of the "spider" term, but then didn't do it. So I'll add my thoughts now:

Click to expand...

Perhaps I should augment the title of the thread to the mirror our term and Yamaha's previous recall terminology?

FJRF009.4 "Spider"/Intermittent Ground Wire Failures 2010 and Later Research

Ignacio said:

Harald said:

Thanks for the clarification Ionbeam, especially about the report needing to warn of a safety concern. I actually thought about adding a comment about our use of the "spider" term, but then didn't do it. So I'll add my thoughts now:

Click to expand...

Perhaps I should augment the title of the thread to the mirror our term and Yamaha's previous recall terminology?

FJRF009.4 "Spider"/Intermittent Ground Wire Failures 2010 and Later Research

Click to expand...

Can't hurt to clarify for those that aren't "the cool kids" that know our top secret terminology we use on the forum.

I just 'stumbled' across this thread but may have something pertinent to add. My 2009 AE had the original 'spider' issue fixed under recall in 2011 with about 6,000 miles. I don't have any idea what all was changed out but I know the entire wiring harness was NOT.

Fast forward to December 2014 at 54,000 miles.

I was having intermittent paddle shift problems shifting up from 1st to 2nd and when the dealer couldn't reproduce the problem, they replaced the switch.

I dropped it off on December 4th and picked it up on the 18th. On the 19th it suffered catastrophic failure; engine died and dash displayed the 'pin ball' affect.

The dealer replaced the entire harness this time under the original 'spider' recall. The service mgr advised that the failure was caused by the 'spider' up near the #1 plug (seems this is the one that fails most of the time.) The service mgr insists that the failure coming the day after they replaced the paddle shift switch was just a coincidence. I'm not sure I agree (and BTW, the shift issue is still there...)

Hate those type of coincidences.

Why did the recall fail ?

I'd go through the process of informing Yamaha and the appropriate authorities, ask your dealer the questions and document everything !!!

Will the dealer inform Yamaha of the recall failure ?

The recall involved adding a bridging connector to the S4 neutral connector and taking a parallel wire back to the battery, hence reducing the neutral current.

However from what the dealer described to you, it is the classic fault on the S4 connector.

Just because the recall was done, it doesn't mean that one of the other 5 12 volt high current neutral bridging connectors or wiring is crook, or high resistance pin/connector on a transducer / sensor neutral connector blocks, 2 of them.

Also remember that there has been high resistance and burnt wires on the front cowling connector block #3.

Such a fault will exhibit similar symptoms to a classic S4 fault, as it contains the "daisy chained" neutral wire from neutral connectors 6,7&8.

The neutrals from the LHS switch block loom connect to the bike's loom in front of the motor under the tank.

A high resistance on that connector block may effect functions of that switch block.

If the diagnostic functions of the YCC-S are fine, you would have to check out all the "spiders" and the connector blocks associated with the auto clutch.

Yamaha was in on it from the start of the YCCS failure. I am not as intimately familiar with the wiring as you so I don't know which 'spider' failed, only that it was "up by the #1 cylinder".

I'm not sure the recall did fail but it sounds like it to me.

McRuss said:

Yamaha was in on it from the start of the YCCS failure. I am not as intimately familiar with the wiring as you so I don't know which 'spider' failed, only that it was "up by the #1 cylinder".
I'm not sure the recall did fail but it sounds like it to me.

Click to expand...

From your description, that would be the S4 spider which is the one that failed the most and was addressed by the recall. It's entirely possible that the mechanic that did the recall didn't inspect the S4 connection very well and just plugged the recall harness into it and sent the bike on it's way. If there was corrosion or other damage to the pins, then you could easily have problems down the road despite the recall. I also remember reading about one owner that found the recall harness was plugged into the S4 spider but never connected to the bikes' ground, which would negate the entire recall.

As far as your continued electrical gremlins, it's probably going to require inspecting all related connectors on the bike. I can tell you that I've found corrosion on a relay behind the battery, the S7 spider and also the fuel pump relay under the nose.

^^^ Agree. After my S6 failure I opened, inspected and greased every damn connector I could get to and open!!

It was a time consuming job and there were some that beat me. Just couldn't figure out how to open them!

Member Bajaleo had a S6 spider failure on his 07 after the S4 recall had been done.

https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/163538-spider-bite-no-start-condition/?p=1235502

It's interesting that he had inspected the S6 spider when he started having problems and it looked good at that time. Only about 4 months later the S6 spider had failed. Looks like there's still too much current flowing through those inferior connections.

Another 2010 got spider bit: https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php/topic/164849-spider-failure/?p=1256390

Member Proteus1952 had a S6 failure on his 2010.

Possible early warning of S6 spider failure.

2010 fjr1300, 22000 miles, mostly dry weather usage and garaged when not in use.

About 6 weeks ago, the glove box lid would only open with a bit of help, it just didn't quite release and spring open without assistance, I put it down to wear and tear, 6 years old, nowt lasts forever etc., etc.

Last week, while on holiday in Ireland, after a lunch stop, start the bike and have all four indicators permanently on, no headlights, high beam indicator permanently on, no wind shield movement, indicate left or right and the rear indicators work at a strange frequency, matched by the front sidelights, try the horn and normality is restored.

Next time I stop and restart ignition, same scenario, hit the horn and everything OK.

A couple of days later, problem reappears, hitting the horn doesn't cure it this time, but find that if I put the screen in highest position, before starting, then everything works OK.

This works for a few days, then I'm back to permanently lit indicators, no headlights etc., whatever the screen position.

Then it rains, and after riding in the rain for 5 or 10 minutes, everything works OK.

Same for remainder of time in Ireland, never thought I would pray for rain, but it worked wonders.

Arrived back home and to cut a long story short, traced the fault to a toasted spider under the glove box, S6. Cleaned it up as best as poss and soldered a piece of wire to it and attached it directly to the chassis, everything now working as it should and glove box now opens without assistance, so it just may be, that if your glove box is reluctant to open without help, it is an early warning that you have an imminent problem with S6.

FJR1300A 2010 UK, Model Type -1CY5, Product Code - 060, Current Mileage - 34000

I have had the no headlights, hi beam indicator on, no horn, etc issue a few times on an intermittent basis on my 2010 UK model. Has never affected the running of the bike and has never hit me at night. Was using the bike daily and didn't have a chance to investigate until I started getting a separate issue where i had everything else working but just had no headlights. This was intermittent also.I eventually traced it when i left the right inner cowl off after fitting different horns and found sticking my hand in and 'fiddling' with the cables behind the RHS indicator brought my headlights back on. There seemed to be a bad connection in there somewhere so I drove like that for a while and when the headlights would fail I'd stop and move the cables until they came back on and continue on my journey. I eventually took the RHS cowl off and had a proper look at the suspect connector -



As far as I can see this is a separate issue to the spider issue although I have had the spider issue symptoms also but this hasn't been as frequent as my headlight issue. Long story short I have the bike stripped now and wanted to sort my spiders out once and for all but then I had a look around and found I have no S4 spider?? -

Presumably you are not the original owner and whoever had the bike before you has cut S4 off and soldered the wires together.

Looks like mcatrophy has the correct answer. Looks like S4 has been removed with all the wires soldered together, although it looks like one wire is corroded and broken off? If that's the case, then that would definitely explain your symptoms with neutral light/high beam lamp on/etc.

Good find on the other connector. Like the spiders, I highly recommend cleaning and applying some type of corrosion preventative to virtually all connectors on the bike. I use dielectric grease and it's worked fine for the last 9 years and 100,000 miles on my 07 FJR. I think this is especially important for those of us that are daily riders and often ride in the rain.