So halfway home today I got an ABS message battery message and no speed on the dash. Went to stop and as I got to less than 30mph speed camera back, eml light flashed and abs warning went. Accelerate and once I hit 30mph goes again. Cleaned the rear sensor and ran in in gear on the centre stand. All good to 45 the first time then all the errors back. 60 the second time all errors back. I'm thinking the rear ABS sensor is done? Any ideas? 2013 Multistrada 1200S with 39000 on the clock.
Remove the speed sensor and inspect the surface, is it damaged? Mine was clouted by some road debris that seemed to have gotten caught in the phonic wheel, this was on tour. It left a score across the rear calliper bracket that the sensor is located in and damaged the sensor. This threw an immediate error that then went away. Once home checked codes with my OBDStar reader and it pointed to the sensor, however, I didn't do anything as it seemed to have sorted itself. Though this came home to roost a couple of years later with complete failure of the sensor with symptoms similar to yours. Probably due to water ingress. See my reply to your comment on the other thread you posted on. I had assumed, until I saw this, that your bike was a 1260...
No damage to it, cleaned it and the speed higher before errors comes back. Plugged OBD Star in and it reads "abs control module overvolt" Ordered a second hand rear sensor off evil bay to try.
Nope test ride still all the errors over 30mph. Strangely the indicators don't work when the fault shows. Slow to less than 30 everything fine and indicators work.
I also bled the rear brake a day or so before this, however it rode fine for 60 miles before the errors. I have since read in an online Ducati manual that after bleeding the rear brake ypu need to get up to 50kmh and brake till the. ABS activates 5 times??? Never heard of that on any vehicle??
I was led to believe it 'releases' any air trapped in the ABS manifold. No idea if that's true but I did it for years on my first gen Multistrada 1200 and my girlfriend's first gen Diavel. Andy
Bit of an update. Remembered me and the boy bled the rear brake on this and got air in the system, mostly through my poor supervision/explanation. Took the caliper off and re bled with the nipple at the top. Got a much better pedal and some air out. Went for a ride had no error till 50ish mph. Came back bled ot again. Same thing. Put the rear wheel sensor on from Ebay, same, error at 50ish mph. Tried heavy rear braking then re bleeding. Put around 200ml through the rear system. Could there still be air in the ABS module? If so how do I bleed that out without a dealer computer? Do I need to keep bleeding more fluid through. Or is it time to go to Ducati and sell a kidney?
There are a few things here. 1. Bleeding the rear brake will have no affect upon the operation of the sensors and electrical circuits and impulses of the ABS system. 2. There is no way, even for a dealer to bleed the ABS unit itself. The ABS unit doesn’t get air trapped in it unless there is still air in the system which has risen to the highest point (usually the ABS unit). However that air can be bled out by usual brake bleed procedure, especially if a vacuum bleeder is used. 2. It’s not effective to run the bike up to a particular indicated road speed whilst it’s on the centre stand as the ABS computer is continually monitoring for a variance between front wheel rotational speed and rear wheel rotational speed, which of course there will be if the bike is on its centre stand and in gear with the rear wheel spinning. You’ll just be throwing a curve ball at the system. You need to road test the bike, the ABS light should go out once 5kmh is reached and obviously should stay off. 4. The stored or active errors in the various computers on the bike should be cleared after each occurrence and before retesting the system to rule out it being an uncleared error, which the original cause of has been fixed, which is triggering the warning lights. 5. The indicators not working when the warning lights are on may be an unrelated issue but may be part of the issue. The front indicators are driven by the dash the rear are driven by the BBS after it receives a signal from the dash over the CANbus. Was it both front and rear not working, or just the rear? 6. The indicated over voltage in the electronic part of the ABS is telling you at some stage more than 5v has gone through the circuit that connects all the components of the ABS system. This may have been as a consequence of the rear wheel sensor failing (an altered resistance on the circuit) or may be due to something else. It may just be due to the system trying to adapt to the fact the front wheel was stationary while the rear wheel was spinning. It may or may not have done damage elsewhere in the electrical system, probably not but only further testing will tell. 7. IMO in situations such as this it’s never wise to replace a faulty electronic component with a 2nd hand one for one never knows the integrity of the 2nd hand component. Yes it saves a little money but it often times costs more in the long run in time and money. The fact your speed indication disappeared when the ABS warning light came on would indicate a faulty rear speed sensor or a faulty/poor/corroded connection of that to the loom. Speed sensors are relatively easy to test as they have a set resistance range - I can’t recall at present what it is for this one, would have research it. If you google for a site called madcogz there’s a full, interactive, workshop manual on there plus a lot of explanatory stuff about the various systems on the MultiStrada. iirc he bases it off a 2010 model but I don’t think yours is dramatically different. I don’t think you need to take it to a dealer just yet, I think you can probably get to the root cause of the issue yourself, you just need to get your multimeter out. Don’t worry about any possible air in the rear brake lines that’s not the cause of the ABS warning light. The ABS warning light has come on because the ABS computer and/or BBS is receiving electrical signals (voltages) outside its programmed parameters and therefore assumes there’s a fault in the ABS computer and, for safety reasons, deactivates it which prevents it from activating the electro-mechanical ABS pump. Hope this helps.
Thanks for the help it's always appreciated. 1. After the bleed I ride to work and halfway home without issue which is why I initially discounted it. 2. When I initially bled the rear I didn't take the rear caliper off and invert it. When I have re bled I have then had some more air out, gotta a better pedal. I have reset the fault with OBD star and gone for a test ride. This time the bike got to 50mph before the fault. So I came home tooke the wheel off and caliper, re bled, erased fault rebuilt everything then went for another test ride still got to 50 and faults back. Came home took wheel off caliper off re bled. Had tea. Relpaced sensor ( i realise second hand electronics arent best however it was sold as tested and save over £120, and the money Ive spent on it over the last few months I'm now on a budget lol) Reset fault and rebuilt bike. Too late for test ride so quickly tested in on centre stand. Still only 50 mph. And faults. 3 and 4 see above. 5 the indicators stop working, backlight dims, speed goes to 0 and ABS ERROR and BATTERY error all come up till the speed drops off then all comes back to normal. Above 50 the same again. My worry is the main ABS computer is the fault and £2000 plus fitting is faaarrr beyond my means. Mechanical stuff I'm OK with. Elastictrickery is a bit beyond me
The only other thing is the regulator rectifier went around 6 weeks ago and I had to replace that and the battery. Rode about 1000miles since that without issue, so I'd ruled the regulator causing that damage.
Not sure it would show up when testing on centre stand would it? They usually rely on differences between wheel speeds, so need to be on road to check that.
So are you supposed to just try and lock the rear up? At what speed do they suggest? Gobsmacked if that is the ‘professional’ advice from the manufacturer.
