Audiovox Cruise Install Problem

[bikerider]

Well, it's actually a problem with my bike I think, an '04 w/ABS. Anyway I tied into the yellow wire in the tail to connect the purple wire from the cruise to and it turns out there's .25 or so freekin' volts in that wire! The cruise will not set because it sees voltage in that wire (I assuming). I checked everything else I could check and I'm pretty sure this is the problem. Anyone know where else I can check for 0 volts in the brake circuit? It's the same right at the foot brake switch also. Not sure about the hand brake but I really (really) don't want to run a wire all the way from the handlebars to that particular wire.

Help, please.

Bob Held

 

[GunMD]

Do you happen to have a "Back Off" module...I've heard that those things tend to "leak" a bit of voltage onto the wire.

 

[bikerider]

Do you happen to have a "Back Off" module...I've heard that those things tend to "leak" a bit of voltage onto the wire.

Yes I do, but I've disconnected it to do the diagnostics so that should not be the problem.

 

[v65]

EDIT: I am adding a post to the technical section on how to get the cc to work with the backoff module.

LED tailights?

 

[jestal]

You should be able to isolate any sort of aux rear tail or brake light from the brake light circuit with a 50 cent diode from Radio Shack.

I'll have to go look at the wiring diagram again but a backfeed like that seems hard to explain on such a simple circuit that is isolatd from other circuits. Have you taken the tail light bulbs out and tried the check again? Possibly there is a substandard bulb that is allowing current from the tail light filiment to bleed onto the brake filiment circuit? Just a wild idea out of nowhere.......

 

[v65]

Jestal, I just finished doing this, with a somewhat complicated wiring diagram: how I did it. Could you provide a wiring diagram for how you got yours to work?

 

[jestal]

I just tapped the rear brake light wire for my hyperlite rear brake lights and put a diode in the wire leading to the hyperlites to isolat it from backfeeding anything to the rest of the circuit. That is the only install I have any direct experience with. You might have to use a relay like you did in other situations, certainly. I honestly don't even know if the hyperlite arrangement would need the diode. I never tried it without it. Just put it in when I wired it up as a precaution.

 

[v65]

Jestal I want to thank you for not showing me a diagram with a wire with a diode in it, re-reading your post that is what my question deserved

Bob, I see your bike is an '04, is this a new install? If you don't have any other aftermarket tailight installs, the other thing to check is that you have solid grounds everywhere.

 

[FJRCarShopGuy]

The cruise will not set because it sees voltage in that wire (I assuming).

Bob, perhaps you should verify this is the cause of the problem before continuing. See if the cruise works by grounding the purple wire. Be extremely careful here without the brake cancel safety feature!!!! The system is designed to ground thru the brake light bulbs in order to operate, and cancels when voltage is present.

I agree with Jestal's idea of removing the light bulbs and testing for feedback again, this will also tell you which direction its coming from. I have not looked at a diagram to see if there's a relay in the system to power the brake lights. Perhaps a bad relay could be the cause as well. Try removing it (if there is one) and retest.

 

[bikerider]

The cruise will not set because it sees voltage in that wire (I assuming).

Bob, perhaps you should verify this is the cause of the problem before continuing. See if the cruise works by grounding the purple wire. Be extremely careful here without the brake cancel safety feature!!!! The system is designed to ground thru the brake light bulbs in order to operate, and cancels when voltage is present.

I agree with Jestal's idea of removing the light bulbs and testing for feedback again, this will also tell you which direction its coming from. I have not looked at a diagram to see if there's a relay in the system to power the brake lights. Perhaps a bad relay could be the cause as well. Try removing it (if there is one) and retest.

 

[bikerider]

The cruise will not set because it sees voltage in that wire (I assuming).

See if the cruise works by grounding the purple wire. -snip-

I agree with Jestal's idea of removing the light bulbs and testing for feedback again,-snip-

No luck on either account. I re-checked all the grounds, all the connections, still have the Back-Off disconnected, no LED tail lights or anything like that. When I start the bike and press the 'ON' button, I can see the LED on the canister light up and then immediately kick-off. If I hold the 'ON' button, the LED will stay lit constantly. I'm only using one vacuum port right now and no canister, could low vacuum cause it to act like this?

I'm going to look at the Audiovox trouble shooting papers, but while I have your attention, does anyone have any extra parts laying around for these things? Not your everyday leftover type stuff, I need the loose connector that comes in the kit. I tore my garage apart looking for that thing and can't find it anywhere. I jury rigged something for now (and checked and re-checked that the connections are not shorting). If I can't find mine or another one soon, I'll change the whole damn thing to a Molex and be done with it!

PS _ sorry about the previous post, had my head up my *ss or something.

 

[radman]

It's kinda late tonight, but I'll check the wiring on my 05 ABS first thing Sat AM to see what I set up. Which "loose" connector are you talking about? They were all loose when I got mine-did I get ripped off?

 

[v65]

Bob,

There have been numerous accounts of people with a sticking brake pedal, removal and relube of the pivot points has done the trick. Doesn't seem like that would register .25 volts, but worth checking.

 

[bikerider]

It's kinda late tonight, but I'll check the wiring on my 05 ABS first thing Sat AM to see what I set up. Which "loose" connector are you talking about? They were all loose when I got mine-did I get ripped off?

It's the one that you have to install the wires into, it comes as a loose connector, no wires at all.

Bob,There have been numerous accounts of people with a sticking brake pedal, removal and relube of the pivot points has done the trick. Doesn't seem like that would register .25 volts, but worth checking.

Yep, I had the sticking brake pedal problem once also. When I added my peg lowerers(sp?) in March, I had lubed it again.

 

[FJRJeff]

The cruise will not set because it sees voltage in that wire (I assuming).

See if the cruise works by grounding the purple wire. -snip-

I agree with Jestal's idea of removing the light bulbs and testing for feedback again,-snip-

No luck on either account. I re-checked all the grounds, all the connections, still have the Back-Off disconnected, no LED tail lights or anything like that. When I start the bike and press the 'ON' button, I can see the LED on the canister light up and then immediately kick-off. If I hold the 'ON' button, the LED will stay lit constantly. I'm only using one vacuum port right now and no canister, could low vacuum cause it to act like this?

I'm going to look at the Audiovox trouble shooting papers, but while I have your attention, does anyone have any extra parts laying around for these things? Not your everyday leftover type stuff, I need the loose connector that comes in the kit. I tore my garage apart looking for that thing and can't find it anywhere. I jury rigged something for now (and checked and re-checked that the connections are not shorting). If I can't find mine or another one soon, I'll change the whole damn thing to a Molex and be done with it!

PS _ sorry about the previous post, had my head up my *ss or something.

Bob,

I have the Audiovox installed on an 04 with ABS, using only a single vacuum port, and it works fine, so you can cross that off as a cause of your problem (though it seems like it may be related to a check engine light I see at higher speeds).

I believe I connected the purple wire to one of the ones under the right side cover. When I had initially gotten it installed, it failed to remain engaged, and it was because I had a bad connection from one of the wire tap connectors - it hadn't cut through the wire I was tapping. Once that got cleared, it worked fine.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I can't find the actual troubleshooting part of the manual that includes the lights on the servo unit...

Jeff

 

[bikerider]

Okay now I'm freekin' pissed . . . tried grounding the purple wire and no go so I went to the manual (boy does it pain me to admit that). Anyway, here's the scoop. At the servo connector: black to ground good continuity, red has a constant 12v, ign on or off (might want to fix that), brown wire has 3.65v with the ign on (what the f***) and 13v with the 'on' button depressed the purple has 0 with the ign off, .26v with the ignition on (as before) and 11v with the brake lever or pedal pressed!

I'm going back to square one, pulling all the wiring out of it's wire loom and going over every inch! There's something screwy going on. Wish my dad was still around, he had a lot more electrical smarts than I. I will then fix whatever I find (if anything) and wire it outside the frame just to see if I can get it to work before running loom, etc all over again. Just in case you're wondering, I did not use any of those wire tap connectors, everything is stripped, soldered, taped, etc. And yes I'll be checking all those connections again also.

The thing that really pisses me off is I'm wasting precious time with the cruise that I could be using to install my HIDs before I leave for Alaska. At some point (shortly) I'll just say the hell with it, pull the freekin' thing off and worry about it after the trip. Sorry for the rant but . . . well you know.

 

[bikerider]

Took a ride up to see FJRandy today, looking to get some CB advice and test out the cruise control. Here's the scoop on the cruise control:

Single vacuum port, no vacuum canister, no relays, resistors or diodes to isolate my BackOff module and the damn thing works, will wonders never cease! I'm not exactly sure what 'fixed' it but I removed all of the wiring and started over from scratch, I even replaced the fuse in the orange wire even though it checked out okay. The only problem I had was it took a long time to engage after pushing the set button, but a quick cable adjustment to remove some slack took care of that in a hurry. It seems to hold speed fine up and down hills so I think we're good to go now. I probably had a wire crossed somewhere or a bad ground I didn't check. Thanks to everyone for all the help.