Presumed EHC failure that actually was not the issue

[KnotSo]

Who has had an issue they thought, their friends thought or their technician said was the EHC, then when it was replaced with a new EHC or with anything else or eliminated all together, turned out the issue still was not resolved?

What was the final root cause of the issues and how did you track it down?

Many have replaced the EHC only to discover the issue was actually something else.

Share your story:2thumbs:

The poll has room for more options and these can be added if need be.
Not looking for this to turn into a "this is better than that, or any kind of nefitive or bashing topic" Just looking to help us all with our scoots.

 

[pknowles]

Morning Knotso, My bike had something going on that would cause the bike to shut down while riding down the road. It wasn't something that I could trouble shoot so, I installed the wire plus"WITH ALOT OF HELP FROM THE FORUM MEMBER Bigdogbro1"and it's been a year and the bike hasn't cut off since the install. Was it a bad ehc, I don't know. If there is a way to check it out, let me know. I purchased new wire harnesses after I started the install just in case something went worng. Still have all the spare parts.

 

[Fibersnake]

I replaced my first EHC not due to failuer but due to TSB from BD. The second one I replaced latter, also not due to failure but due to I had broke a pin when reassembling the connectors after some work, it was the pin for the Oil Pressure light and after riding a few thousand miles, I decided to relace it when the EHC was less than $400 and kept the broken one for back-up. I ended up having to put the one with the broken pin back on due to my last EHC went out, not from EHC failure but due to short in main power harness that fired it.

Used the second one (the one with the broken pin) for another couple thousand miles, and then decided to replace it with the PDM from BDPP.

I changed the EHC with the PDM whihc also included the wiring harness and battery tray and saved the old EHC and harness in case I need to change out again. I did this mainly because I wanted to see how the BDPP BDM was going to work out and hopefully eliminate any concerns in the future, especially considering the unknown issue of availability from BD.

I still have the EHC and wiring harness if I need to go back, but more than likely if the PDM fails, will go old school and re-wire entire bike and use classic wiring and switches.

Right now the PDM is holding well and I have close to 2k on it with no problems.

In reality none of my EHC failed due to EHC.

 

[woodbutcher]

i may be completely jinxing myself by talking about it, but mine may be one of the few that has never had any kind of problem. never quit on me, no stupid lights flashing, no stupid lights NOT flashing, nothing. am i concerned about it? yes. do i worry about it every time i go out? yes. will that stop me? no. but it does tend to keep me closer to home.
and to go a step further, i've even jumped it off before----twice!

and right now, i'm knocking an all the wood around me. lol

 

[erldawg]

i may be completely jinxing myself by talking about it, but mine may be one of the few that has never had any kind of problem. never quit on me, no stupid lights flashing, no stupid lights NOT flashing, nothing. am i concerned about it? yes. do i worry about it every time i go out? yes. will that stop me? no. but it does tend to keep me closer to home.
and to go a step further, i've even jumped it off before----twice!

and right now, i'm knocking an all the wood around me. lol

I'm with ya Old Fart. 16,000 + miles no issues....:2thumbs:

However I do not worry about it while riding. I feel very comfortable hopping on the bike and riding 1000 + miles...

 

[Mickeetwo]

Last year during BBQ my bike shutdown on me a couple of times and I thougth it was the EHC going out, so when I got home I ordered the PDM kit. Got to checking everything and found my top motor mount loose and a wire loose on the ignition. The vibration from the loose motor mount was causing the ignition to shut off on occasion. Recrimped wire on ignition wire and tightened motor mount and no more problem. During December changed out the EHC for the PDM because I had it and was wanting to try out the PDM. I did have the original EHC replaced under warranty (recall). Dealer changed it out to the USB (updated) type EHC. So out of the 2 EHC's I had none of them failed.

 

[stlmikie]

I replaced one that I fried due to a broken wire arcing.The bike ran fine but my turn signals and brake light didn't function.

 

[IRONHEAD]

Last year during BBQ my bike shutdown on me a couple of times and I thougth it was the EHC going out, so when I got home I ordered the PDM kit. Got to checking everything and found my top motor mount loose and a wire loose on the ignition. The vibration from the loose motor mount was causing the ignition to shut off on occasion. Recrimped wire on ignition wire and tightened motor mount and no more problem. During December changed out the EHC for the PDM because I had it and was wanting to try out the PDM. I did have the original EHC replaced under warranty (recall). Dealer changed it out to the USB (updated) type EHC. So out of the 2 EHC's I had none of them failed.

If I read this correctly, If I have the USB plug in I have the updated EHC and not the original? I bought the bike used so I dont know its early days

 

[Kiwirider]

Ive had (still not completely resolved) a lot of electrical issues with my scoot. So far I (with the help of this forum) have eliminated the EHC as the culprit. Ive had every light on the EHC dance like a xmas tree hooked up to a sound machine. Turns out so far that most of my dramas have been caused my a bad VR and low voltages/battery/charging/grounding issues. At one point I was going to pull the EHC and install Wireplus. After a lot of fault checking and connection checking the fault list is getting shorter.

 

[ksmike]

I think the EHC is blamed for more failures than it should be , but I have no scientific proof of this. And just to let you know a little about my background I have been an electronic tech for 35 years working mainly in the low voltage field. I spend hours a day diagnosing wiring, component and software related electrical problems.

The two things that have shut my bike down so far was an incorrectly programmed EHC (that was fixed by BDPP reprogramming the EHC) and the other problem that the EHC shutdown for was a loose sparkplug terminal cap. Plugwire came off and the EHC wont let the engine run on one cylinder. That didn't give me a good feeling when it died. I used red locktite to hold the little screw-on plugcaps on now.

Anyway, during the diagnosis of the first problem I went through most of the wire routing in the battery area. There were several places that could have and would have caused a short in the wiring given enough time. One blatant example was two of the tail light wires running under the seat and being crushed by the seat. It hadn't failed yet , but it would have and the ehc could have been blamed for the problem. I also noted several places around the battery box with sharp edges with critical wires rubbing on them. Another spot for failure, so I put some additional insulation in these areas to prevent future failures. I also rerouted wiring around lower engine area, as it was just done in a sloppy manor from the factory. Even though it has nothing to do with the wiring, I found the fuel line rubbing on the coil housing, and it was already worn half way through in only 500 miles, again sloppy assembly.

I haven,t been under the tank yet or into the wiring in bars (scared to look) but I suspect there are places there that need attention also. The guy that designed the EHC probably had a fairly good idea on paper. The EHC may work great for an occasional short but I bet if that "short" pulses at 3-4,000 times a minute for an extended period a component in the EHC will give up.

Even though I haven't done it and hope not too, it looks like replacing the EHC with the PDM or the WP version requires a lot of rewiring of the existing harness. During this rewiring process I suspect a lot of problems that were blamed on the EHC alone were really wiring problems somewhere else that were eliminated during the retrofit with the new wiring. And all the crimp connectors....fine when new but after corrosion and vibration has set in there is a potential for a problem. They should be soldered. All this being said, the EHC still could be crap. Without having one to dissect, and hard to do the way they are made, we may never know if they are the cause of the problem, or fail as a result of another problem.

Sorry for the long post, just some of my thoughts.

 

[woodbutcher]

If I read this correctly, If I have the USB plug in I have the updated EHC and not the original? I bought the bike used so I dont know its early days

yes, the USB is the updated version. :up:

 

[minermark]

The EHC should never have been placed on a scooter, what a friggin joke, by the time mine is done,it will be over a grand for the unit and new rewiring.
The next time i purchase a bike for this kind of money, it will have been rewired or im not buying it.
And i still stand by my all time statment,"if i ever meet the POS that owned big dog i will let him know 30 miles was as far as i could trust it , and even at a 30 mile ride it died 6 times , AAA flatbed four times in seven months"
The fourth time it shut down with no restart AAA, to the shop, where it is now, in a couple of weeks we shall see.
P.S. FU big dog company owners......

 

[Brew]

I've had some weird things happen with mine on several occasions, but nothing I couldn’t figure out! One was because of bad gas that was bought at the service station in which I don’t go to anymore. Every once in a while I’ll get some type of hiccup like the RPM indicator doesn’t work upon start-up and in that case I let the scoot run for a bit letting the battery charge up a bit, then I shut it down and go through the Normal start sequence and then it’ll work.

Sometimes my left rear turn signal doesn’t flash and I’ve taken the scoot apart and put die electric grease on all connectors and heat shrinked all connectors to keep them water tight. I think the EHC gets a bad rap at times and then sometimes it deserves it! There have been some hard failures out there. I’m agreement that the EHC was put in an application it wasn’t really meant for, especially in a high vibration and damp environment.

With that being said, it also has its good points when working correctly! The fault lights can point you to the area of a fault you may be having! I guess I consider myself lucky because I’m still on the original EHC and yes, I’m knocking on wood! Good post Knotso

 

[woodbutcher]

I've had some weird things happen with mine on several occasions, but nothing I couldn’t figure out! One was because of bad gas that was bought at the service station in which I don’t go to anymore. Every once in a while I’ll get some type of hiccup like the RPM indicator doesn’t work upon start-up and in that case I let the scoot run for a bit letting the battery charge up a bit, then I shut it down and go through the Normal start sequence and then it’ll work.

Sometimes my left rear turn signal doesn’t flash and I’ve taken the scoot apart and put die electric grease on all connectors and heat shrinked all connectors to keep them water tight. I think the EHC gets a bad rap at times and then sometimes it deserves it! There have been some hard failures out there. I’m agreement that the EHC was put in an application it wasn’t really meant for, especially in a high vibration and damp environment.

With that being said, it also has its good points when working correctly! The fault lights can point you to the area of a fault you may be having! I guess I consider myself lucky because I’m still on the original EHC and yes, I’m knocking on wood! Good post Knotso

brew, i had the same situation as stated in your first paragraph. was a true indication that it was time for a new battery. :2thumbs:

 

[mastiffdave]

2 years ago during BBBBQ My bike was shutting offfor no reason. Put the wire plus on and so far have no problems except had to reprogram the wire plus once . I feel for sure it was the EHC causing my probs.

 

[Little-Boo]

I replaced mine because the Dog would shut down on its own while riding. Turned out to be the Ignition switch.:bang: However, being that I already had the WP in hand I went ahead and did the change over and have not had any electrical problems in the last 5 years :2thumbs:

Carlos

 

[ground pounder]

:bang:I still have the original EHC . My EFI bike would shut down while riding for no reason. Stop the bike and try starting and it would start right back up and might not do it for a week then bam. Finally it shut down one day in the holding pen. Big dog thought it was the crankshaft position sensor. they replaced it an same problem a week later. The mechanic and I checked all the grounds as per big dog and were all good. got to looking at the wiring diagram and noticed the fuel pump which was not working when it shut down and a couple of other things that were not working were grounded through the VFI module. Replaced the VFI module and everything was fine ! Knock on woold. This all happened over a year ago when my K-9 was new. So far no problems since. Knock on wood again!

 

[chihuasbigdog]

I bought my bike from a Forum member. So, It started with electrical issues.
With the help of members here we finally determined that the EHC took a shit (wiring, ignition, etc.) and I contacted the guys at BDM when they were still alive...
I told em my bike was out of warranty and out of USA, send em pics of the old deffective EHC and they sent me a brand new EHC!

 

[Kiwirider]

I bought my bike from a Forum member. So, It started with electrical issues.
With the help of members here we finally determined that the EHC took a shit (wiring, ignition, etc.) and I contacted the guys at BDM when they were still alive...
I told em my bike was out of warranty and out of USA, send em pics of the old deffective EHC and they sent me a brand new EHC!

Nice!! Good on ya BDM!! Wish they were like that now.

 

[Five Five]

Original EHC's in Pitbull & K-9 ....