Heated grips heating up while off

[Archeon]

Hi All,

This morning, after some quite heavy rain last night, as I was riding I felt my Oxford heated grips starting to heat up...and continue heating...

I checked the control box and everything was definitely off, and hitting the power button made the lights come on as expected.

My first instinct would be a potential short in the control box, basically bypassing the power switch, though I would possibly not expect the control box to power up as normal when the power button is hit?

The main question now is do I disconnect the whole thing and be done with it, or is there an easier fault I can try and fix?

Regards,

Si

 

[JasonB]

Never heard of something like this happening with heated grips before now

Have you tried them again since this morning, in other words, do they consistently heat up when the bike is running regardless of whether the control box is switched on or not?

If this is happening consistently, then it may well be a duff control box that's causing the issue. IIRC the Oxford Heated grips I've got on mine use the newer digital control box, which uses a variable pulse to control the heat level. Older units used a rheostat type control unit, which controlled the heat level by varying the resistance. If you have one of the older control boxes I guess it's possible that the rain may created some kind of short inside from damp, corrosion etc. Certainly the older control units appear to have been susceptable to corrosion Oxford hot grips - switch corrosion?. If you fitted the grips yourself and they're still within the 2 year warranty you may be able to get it sorted out at no cost from Oxford themselves.

Older control boxes can be replaced with the newer digital control boxes though, so that might get you out of a hole if you want to keep the heated grips. Check google for prices but a replacement controller will cost you around £30 and the new ones are totally enclosed and weather proof.

Oxford Hot Grips V8 Switch - Hot Grips - Ghostbikes.com

Hope you get it sorted out soon!

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

I'm not familiar with the set up but the above post sounds good.

IMHO, for NOW, pull the connector from the battery just to disable it.

Even if your outside of warranty, I'd contact the company, explain the situation and ask what now. I suspect, they'd probably hook you up with the digital controller as a free replacement... I'd also mention, you posted the issue on a forum looking for a fix. They like the free plug and NOT you posting, too bad, great PR!


BTW, I just sent a CTEK battery charger ($70+) back to the manufacturer as the "mode" button was NOT working 95% of the time. The unit was purchased in 2010 thru Amazon. The tech I spoke to said he'd try to fix it if he could, but they'd take care of me one way or the other. Again, excellent PR!

Good luck

 

[Archeon]

Hi,

Thanks for the comments.

Interestingly the grips continued to heat while the ignition was off (but were cold when I started the bike this morning)! As a result of this I hacked through the tape holding the connectors together and disconnected them so it doesn't kill my battery while I am at work.

I didn't do the set up (which appears to be wired directly to the battery) - but booked in with a mechanic to do a full removal of it tomorrow (as fiddling around with the battery tests my sanity!).

Regards,

Si

 

[Cloggy]

I had a problem with my oxford hot grips controller (over a couple of years ago now) although my symptoms were different.
After turning my grips off (and the light went off) it continued to heat them. After this I couldn't turn the (lights on the) controller on again. I eventually pulled the connection from the battery.
At the time the set was a year and a half old, and my garage (where I had originally bought them) exchanged the old controller with Oxford for a newer one for free and since then it's been working fine :thumbup:

BTW heated grips are a must for me as I ride through the winter (unless it's snowing/icy).

 

[Motogiro]

The reason they stayed on is the heaters are hooked direct to the battery and the controller. It sounds like you have a newer type controller as it would be more susceptible to moisture effecting the electronic control. The electronic control is likely an SCR (silicone controlled rectifier) that is used as a slave. The SCR 'on and off', duty cycle is varied by a pulse width or variable frequency. Good chance that moisture got into the controller allowing a small current path and caused the the SCR to operate. When it dried again the controller released the SCR.
If correctly wired there will be a wire to the positive battery terminal and there should be an 'in line' fuse assembly. You only need to remove the inline fuse to stop the runaway grips.

If your grips are now behaving because the moisture has evaporated then sealing the controller from moisture should prevent a repeat of the runaway grip heaters.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

The reason they stayed on is the heaters are hooked direct to the battery and the controller. It sounds like you have a newer type controller as it would be more susceptible to moisture effecting the electronic control. The electronic control is likely an SCR (silicone controlled rectifier) that is used as a slave. The SCR 'on and off', duty cycle is varied by a pulse width or variable frequency. Good chance that moisture got into the controller allowing a small current path and caused the the SCR to operate. When it dried again the controller released the SCR.
If correctly wired there will be a wire to the positive battery terminal and there should be an 'in line' fuse assembly. You only need to remove the inline fuse to stop the runaway grips.

If your grips are now behaving because the moisture has evaporated then sealing the controller from moisture should prevent a repeat of the runaway grip heaters.

So is this product a good sealer for moisture?:
Molybdenum polyoxometalate buckyballs (NH4)42[MO 72 VI MO 60 V O372(ClCH2COO)30(H2O)72] · 250H2O · 15ClCH2COONa (Mo132Cl) were synthesized; some of their properties were studied, namely, purity, spectral and crystallographic parameters, buckyball aggregation in solution, and interaction with water-soluble nonionic polymers (poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(vinylpyrrolidone)). The newly synthesized polyoxometalate was shown to have a lower stability than its analogue containing acetate instead of chloroacetate groups, both having similar thermal destruction pathways. At the first heating steps, water is eliminated from Mo132Cl. Thermal destruction at higher temperature produces chloroacetamide, chloroacetonitrile, and other compounds. :BLAA:

 

[Motogiro]

So is this product a good sealer for moisture?:
Molybdenum polyoxometalate buckyballs (NH4)42[MO 72 VI MO 60 V O372(ClCH2COO)30(H2O)72] · 250H2O · 15ClCH2COONa (Mo132Cl) were synthesized; some of their properties were studied, namely, purity, spectral and crystallographic parameters, buckyball aggregation in solution, and interaction with water-soluble nonionic polymers (poly(vinyl alcohol) and poly(vinylpyrrolidone)). The newly synthesized polyoxometalate was shown to have a lower stability than its analogue containing acetate instead of chloroacetate groups, both having similar thermal destruction pathways. At the first heating steps, water is eliminated from Mo132Cl. Thermal destruction at higher temperature produces chloroacetamide, chloroacetonitrile, and other compounds. :BLAA:

LOL! Paybacks!

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Its probably a fancy term for H2O!!!! :thumbup:

 

[Archeon]

I don't tend to feel the cold that much (even in england), so I am going for the low hassle option of taking the stupid things off completely lol.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

On the rare days it cold down here, there's nothing like a heated vest and heated gauntlet gloves to keep you toasty!!!

On the FZ, I just make sure I'm underway, 4K RPM's+ before switching them on.. Never had a problem with charging as long as I turned them off at traffic lights..:thumbup:

 

[Cloggy]

I don't tend to feel the cold that much (even in england), so I am going for the low hassle option of taking the stupid things off completely lol.

I would (personally) leave the grips on for now but simply disconnect or remove the controller, then wait to see what winter throws at us this year, you may as yet want to buy that new controller.

Unless,of course you don't ride any distance or below 5 degrees then it doesn't matter :thumbup: