Faulty Motor Temp Sensor

[HadesOmega]

Another problem with my Empulse TT.  I've notice my motortemps have been incorrect.  Generally it runs 100F-200F but it reads way too high AT FIRST.  I notice it will flash the temp light under 390F.  390F is the max I guess and it just stops complaining.  I know the motor isn't that hot because I will feel the water jacket housing and it's not hot but it says it is. 

Now i am having opposite problem it's reading too low like -30F.  I could care less if the temp is right but since  the water pump is activated by how hot the motor is the water pump doesn't run and I'm sure the motor will overheat.  Anyone run into this problem.

I might try topping up the coolant again i guess.  Does Anyone know the location of the motor temp sensor?

[siai47]

I haven't been watching this forum for a little while and don't know when I will be back.  I have a Victory Empulse service manual, however it shows the IET motor in the service manual that I don't believe was ever used in the Victory.  In any case, it just shows a simple two wire thermistor for the motor temperature monitoring.  The manual shows three Deutsch connectors going to the motor behind the plastic cover on left side of the motor.  there is only one two pin connector at this location which is the thermistor.  The connector has a thermistor + and - terminal going to it.  The positive side ends up at the P85 motor contoller connector and ends up at terminal #33.  This is the Sevcon controller.  The - end of the wire goes to a common ground point which is shown as splice SP604.  If there was something wrong at this splice you would have a number of problems way worse than just a temperature indication issue as most of the motor controller, BMS, charger and VCU grounds also terminate there.

So, seeing how thermistors are pretty common things that provide a junction voltage when heated, it should be easy to check it by hooking one up to the Sevcon terminal and grounding the other lead.  At least you will see if you have a temperature indication of some sort.  Again, this is a Victory Empulse which has quite a few wiring changes from the Brammo but I would expect that the end points (terminal 33 and ground) would be the same across the board.  BTW--the positive thermistor lead should be white and the negative lead orange. Both are .56 square mm in diameter. 

[HadesOmega]

Thanks siai47 for the info.  So I think I found the wire it's a black and red wire and I believe the problem is maybe the connector is corroded.  Everything behind the plastic cover is starting to corrode because of my coolant leak.  I couldn't actually find the sensor but I believe I found the wire.  I will try cleaning it and everything behind the cover and see if it'll work properly again.  That sound right because it's intermittent the sensor works properly.  It's probably a faulty connection due to the corrosion.  It looks like I will have to try and fix this coolant leak problem sooner than later O_o'

I found out how to remove the plastic cover is to stick a prybar into the rectangular holes in the cover.  Pull the pry bar inward of the cover to get it to release.



Inside the cover


The motor wires connectors/bolts are corroded


The encoder and the bolts are corroding.  I believe the black and red wire going to the white connector is the temp sensor wire/connector.  Everything behind the cover is wet.  I believe the reason the coolant is a orange color is because of rust.  The coolant should be a green color, I verified this when I topped the coolant off.   



Tomorrow I will try and spray everything with electronic parts cleaner spray to get that coolant out.  The motor wires are only hot when the bike is on right?  Would it be safe to unbolt the wire so I can clean them when the bike is off?

[HadesOmega]

I am also surprised how bad the documentation for the motor is in the Victory service manual.  In fact I don't even think that is the same motor it looks different.  That's probably from the Brammo. 

So as long I don't remove that encoder the part with the white wire going to it and the plate that slides around when you loosen the bolts I should be fine right?  I don't want to brick my bike.

[Leander]

the black and red wire are the right ones.
trouble is the sensor termister itself is embedded inside the motor and cannot be removed.

I worked aroud this problem by getting a new termistor in the right range and just stick it into the motor.

temp is now of by 10 deg celsius (low) but the pump will stop and start when needed.

maybe you can use the ambient temp sensor for this

[HadesOmega]

After I cleaned everything up and dried everything.  I took the bike out for a spin.  After about 10 miles of mostly freeway riding the motor appears to be overheating.  When I parked the bike it puked out some coolant out of the reservoir port (if you can call it that) the coolant must have boiled.  It might have done that because I just topped off the cooling system. Anyway it's running way hot and the temps I think never got above 70F indicated, so I'm pretty sure the pump never turned on.  So I took a slower route home.

When I got home I was thinking maybe I can short the wire and it'll trick the computer into thinking it's too hot and kick the pump on.  So what I did was make a wire jumper and short the connector going to the bike's computer.  But it was the same it was -30F now.  So when there is no resistance at all the computer see's that it's too cold.



So what I did is simply just leave it disconnected and now the bike thinks the motor is super hot 390F and the pump kicks on.  So forever the waterpump will be running when the bike is on but I would rather have than it not running when the motor needs cooling.  The motor temp will always display 390F also, but hey it's one less thing to worry about =P.  So I will just disconnect the wire and shove it next to the other connector in the case.  Solves that problem.

[Sabinn]

I see that pesky B9 error. I've been staring at mine on the dash for a year now. Apparently related to moisture.

Did your's go away after cleaning those bolts?

[Leander]

B9 means to high of a percentage of moisture in one or more battery modules.

[HadesOmega]

I've had it for about a year now.  At first it was intermittent but it just stays on all the time now.  I wonder where the moisture sensor for that is so I can unplug it =P  It's kind of annoying because there could be something else wrong and it's hard to tell with that fault on the screen >.<  It didn't go away when I cleaned up the side of the motor

[HadesOmega]

I've been riding the bike for about a week now and no problems riding with the temp sensor disconnected.  The motor runs nice and cool now.  Amazing how well the cooling system works and how fast it will heat up when it doesn't. 

[PaulHMartinez]

Mine is also now showing the B9 error
Had not run it in about month, have had no issues before this.
Seems to run as normal after 15 mile ride this morning.
closing in on 14,000 miles
I don't understand the fix.
 Little help?
Thanks

[HadesOmega]

Sorry I'd like to know the fix for the B9 error also it's so annoying seeing it all the time.  =(

From what everyone says it is a moisture problem with the battery.  I wish I knew where to check for the moisture.  Supposedly its not a big deal and you can run the bike no problem.

[PaulHMartinez]

Maybe no big deal, but yes, bugging the crap out of me.
Not on all the time but flashes for few seconds every 5-10 seconds and defaults the display
If it is a battery issue, should be warranty

[HadesOmega]

Hmm you know what that could be a good point, maybe I should take it in.  Maybe they can find a way to remove the warning or something =/

The manual doesn't even mention this code

[HadesOmega]

So I took it to Spirit Motorcycle in San Jose today and scheduled a day to take my bike in for service.  They are really busy so I won't be able to drop it off until next month.  I was doing Door Dash on the Empulse and I was in the area so I said ahh might as well have em look at it. 

Hopefully they can fix the B9 error.  Like I mentioned the pack is under warranty for 5 years or 100k miles (good luck with the 2nd one) so hopefully it gets fixed under warranty, because it seems like a battery fault.  I just don't want to stare at that fault all the time.

I will probably tell them about the motor temp sensor and the leaky/steamy motor when I bring it in and see what they say about it.  I don't know how much it'll cost but I'm willing to shell out $100 to have em look at it.  They said they have to keep the bike for a day to do diagnostics.