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No headlight or front, right blinker

Dr. Dolittle

Dr. Dolittle

Experienced Member
Contributor
Retired Moderators
First of all, I just got home this morning and immediately was faced with my emergency "honey do" list - actually that's why I had to get up at 5:00 and head home from NC. I have done minimal troubleshooting and hope to get into it tomorrow. Just throwing this out to see if anyone else has experienced this or has ideas to guide me in my poking around tomorrow (Hoople - hint, hint - that last part was for you, you electrical genius!)

When I flipped on the ignition this morning, it was still dawn and only partly light so I immediately noticed I had no low beam headlight. High beam worked fine. I did a light check on the rest of the bike and noticed the right front running light/blinker was also not on and didn't work when the blinker was activated either. The green, turn signal icon would flash normally a few times and then rapidly even though the bulb was doing nothing. All other lights worked normal.

As I pulled into the garage, I noticed the high beams were now not working either. The blue high beam indicator was on.

Self Help Tips said to cycle the blinkers and let them go at least 5 flashes but this did nothing.

No check engine light or codes.

Ideas?
 
Sounds like your covered and I agree with all of the above. Bad bulbs would be a great place to start.
 
OK - I was going to start with the easy stuff anyway, fuses and bulbs.

I also thought it was an extreme coincidence that it happened at the same time but then I remembered how hard a rain I'd ridden in on Sunday and Monday. No doubt some rain could have gotten in and caused this. Kind of strange that when I switched to high beams yesterday morning, they worked fine. At least I know they were working while I was riding in the dawn's early light because they were lighting up the road for me. I have no idea when they stopped working since it got light pretty fast. You'd think if there was water in the headlight housing it would have shorted out the high beam as soon as I switched to it. I guess sometimes there's no explaining the behavior of those little electrons!
 
Dr. Doolittle said:
OK - I was going to start with the easy stuff anyway, fuses and bulbs.

I also thought it was an extreme coincidence that it happened at the same time but then I remembered how hard a rain I'd ridden in on Sunday and Monday. No doubt some rain could have gotten in and caused this. Kind of strange that when I switched to high beams yesterday morning, they worked fine. At least I know they were working while I was riding in the dawn's early light because they were lighting up the road for me. I have no idea when they stopped working since it got light pretty fast. You'd think if there was water in the headlight housing it would have shorted out the high beam as soon as I switched to it. I guess sometimes there's no explaining the behavior of those little eletrons!
Click to expand...

I had the same thing happen recently. Hit alot of rain for hours, after getting home I noticed highbeam was gone(I was running with the highbeam ). Low beam was there, that day or the next low beam was gone. The bulb was physically broken. Weird how the low beam worked the way the bulb looked.

Should there be sometype of gasket under the headlight ring? I was looking at my friends 07 Ultra and it looks like there is a black gasket under the headlight ring.
 
Dr. Doolittle said:
You'd think if there was water in the headlight housing it would have shorted out the high beam as soon as I switched to it. I guess sometimes there's no explaining the behavior of those little electrons!
Click to expand...


Well actually pure distilled water is a very good insulator. It is the ground salts and minerals that make it a conductor. Since rain is actually condensed water vapor, it is more of an insulator and would probably not blow anything..
But if the water was from a garden hose, that would be a very good conductor and could cause damage.
 
Hoople said:
Well actually pure distilled water is a very good insulator. It is the ground salts and minerals that make it a conductor. Since rain is actually condensed water vapor, it is more of an insulator and would probably not blow anything..
But if the water was from a garden hose, that would be a very good conductor and could cause damage.
Click to expand...

Might be that the bulbs are hot and the water cold. Maybe a temperature thing and not electrical.
 
If this is what caused it, it was definitely the rain and not hose water. Bike hasn't had a bath in a month or so (what is wrong with me? :p) and everything's worked fine since that last washing. It was a pretty cool rain but I guess ANY rain would be colder than an illuminated bulb!

Jonas - thanks for the info on your experience. At least I know my bike isn't simply posessed or anything! Comforting in a sick way to know that someone else has had the same problem.
 
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