Hi all, soooo rude a first post asking for help I know as a standard frequenter of Land Rover and land cruiser forums but I really am stuck and in need of suggestions. Took the opportunity in late 2019 to take a year off and tour Europe on my beloved 2014 Multistrada granturismo, all was going well and loving it until the joys of COVID hit the world. Certainly affected things so much so that decided to leave the bike at a friends in Portugal and come back to the uk until borders etc went back to normal (obv took longer than expected), anyway next was brexit deadline almost 3weeks ago, expired MOT, etc etc plus the bike being in Portugal for more than 6months which is illegal. Ok ok time to fly Portugal before the uk deadline cancelling flights etc. Now to the request for help..... Flat tyre and dead battery no surprise, I’ve had it before.... jump leads onto it from a car (also done before), clicking noise but nothing else, so ok maybe a bad connection on jump leads. Removed car battery and connected up and no clicking which is great EXCEPT.... no nothing, I mean dead! Dash won’t light up, on switch dead, emergency keyless button to use with pin dead. Ok so I know it’s not as simple as a new battery but strange things happen so today buy a new yt12b battery, connect it up..... DEAD! checked fuses near dash screen, the two fuses near the live battery lead, all ok. Tried to switch on again using normal proximity Active key (Also with a new battery) and switch, tried the red passive key near antenna with switch, tried the hands free switch under the tank cap..... DEAD! Nearest Ducati dealer or mechanic is in Lisbon 125miles away, no way to transport etc. Anybody have any ideas, experiences, suggestions no matter how crazy that I can try? I’m fearful it may be the handsfree unit itself which I guess will be big money. Thanks in advance
Pull starter solenoid plug and check for arc damage. If visible damage to pins then you'll need the service kit to wire around this design fault. For a 'by the road side' fix you can try cleaning the pins. https://www.ducatiforum.co.uk/threads/power-relay-plug-with-damaged-wiring.72208/#post-1416838
Hi, long shot, but remove battery terminals, clean and refit (tight) My boys KTM was doing the same, turned out the terminals were slightly loose. Cant understand how that would make a difference, but it did. Once I had tightened them, fired up straight away. Nige
Cheers guys No arcing, key fob battery good and doesn’t work off the button either, checked terminals and seem ok. It has to be electrical so I think I’ll spend the night stripping down every cable, wire, fuse, connection.... clean and refit or replace, fingers crossed! Will check in for any further suggestions and thanks again for replying so fast
Try pulling the main fuse as well, leave it out for a few minutes before replacing or reconnecting the battery. Whereabouts are you in Portugal, I have a biking chum who lives between Moncarapacho and Tavira whi might be able to help
Do these things have a tilt sensor? Also, side stand switch. Oh, while I’m at it, what about the switch on the clutch lever?
There are 2 cables that go to the positive on the battery, I take it that both are connected? It has been known for people to miss the smaller cable and not connect it.
Just speculating here, but I'm wondering if there's some sort of issue if the battery has gone flat, and the electronics have lost the memory for pairing to the key. That said, if the dash isn't even powering on then I guess it's something more fundamental. I guess as others have said, I'd start with battery connections, fuses, starter relay. I'd also be inclined to check the connection for the little remote key antenna thing. I'd speculate that it's a wiring issue somewhere. What a pain! Good luck, and keep us posted!
Really sounds like a defective hands free unit. Exactly the same happende to me. Parked the bike. Not for weeks, but just hours. Coming back, no way to start it. Does not respond to the hands free kit nor to the button. Don’t think there is a work around, except for replacing the hands free unit. Unfortunately this is not an uncommon problem with the earlier models.
The question we need answered is does the immobiliser red ring flash around the information display on the left of the dash? Because that may suggest a key/hands free issue.
Well the answer is..... NO IDEA haha But the good news is that she is running! I took off, cleaned, reattached everything, changed all fuses, checked all wires.... it was taking too long checking each item so did all in one go, connected battery and instantly saw a ring light flash woohoo! Switched on first time, it went through a full systems set up that I haven’t seen before including a *wait* message. Once complete she fired up. Personally if I had to guess it would either the main fuse or the solenoid plug. I wasn’t convinced with how the wires into the plug were so figure it wasn’t the best of connections but the no1 suspect is the main 30amp fuse on the battery terminal (not the ones in the fuse boxes), as although visually not blown or showing damage I’d swear I can see a hairline fracture. I was tempted to refit and check then common sense kicked in and I decided to not tempt the fates and just be happy with the result. Hope this helps others in the future and my genuine thanks to all the above suggestions which were a great help!
A big extra thanks for offering the possible help of a friend in a different country, much appreciated
Very happy to hear the bike is now running, but do you realise what you have now done... I was getting ready for an epic thread where you basically replace just about everything on the bike over a period of many weeks before it sees life.. now you have deprived us of this Enjoy the riding, it does sound like a dodgy connection somewhere so it might do this again, but you know what to do now.
It might be worth lubricating all the connections, fuses etc. with something suitable, just in case it was a dry connection.
