Help! I've got the D4 "DMC Not Communicating (Disable Drive )" error

[Andy]

Hello Enertia owners,

I'm in tough spot. Friday while riding home I made quick errand stop only to find the D4 error being reported when I turned my Enertia back on. A Brammo service agent took a look at my diag logs and found nothing pointing to a major equipment failure. He instructed me to check the fuses and look for any loose wires. I did that last night and found nothing amiss for the fuses in the fuse box (but I noted there are ~4 other fuses located throughout the wiring). I did not see any loose wires either.

Does anyone have any first hand experience diagnosing this problem? I am willing to try and find out if getting my Enertia serviced in Idaho is a possibility. But unfortunately I had hoped to show off the Enertia in a Earth Day display tomorrow morning. My only hopes now are diagnosing and fixing the problem tonight.....or trying to scrounge up a trailer at last minute to try and haul the non-working Enertia to the Earth Day display. Obviously I'd much rather just ride the Enertia there!

Thanks for any pointers people can share

[Brammofan]

Not sure if anyone can help you in the timeframe, but we'll see.  I've never had this error before. 

Does the bike not move at all?  Have you tried to charge it?  I know it's weird, but have you cleaned the sensor that tells the kickstand is either up or down?

[protomech]

Here's what the 2010 owner's manual states:

SERVICE REQ'D D4 DMC Not Communicating (Disable Drive ) Contact BRAMMO Service

Sounds like a good place to start. 1-888-48-BRAMMO or 1-541-482-9555

Someone reported a similar problem two years ago:
http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=265.0

he said he had to replace/update a few wires that was too thick causing it not to go in a certain slot well causing moisture to get it which caused my bike not to work, it made sense because it was the first time I left the bike outside the garage and morning dew had dampened the particular said wire.

If the bike has been exposed to moisture or dew, might be worthwhile (after contacting Brammo support) to try letting it dry out.

[Phantom]

I may have had that error before, but it was only temporary as re-charging, then a re-start seemed to do the trick.

Please let us know what you find out from calling Brammo Service.

[Brammofan]

Here's what the 2010 owner's manual states:

SERVICE REQ'D D4 DMC Not Communicating (Disable Drive ) Contact BRAMMO Service

Sounds like a good place to start. 1-888-48-BRAMMO or 1-541-482-9555

Sounds like he already did that, although I might be mistaken:

A Brammo service agent took a look at my diag logs and found nothing pointing to a major equipment failure. He instructed me to check the fuses and look for any loose wires.

[FreepZ]

As an aside:

It may be helpful to update the wiki page with the errors/problems people got, and what they did to solve their problem.

[Andy]

Hello all,

Thanks for the quick responses. Your posts tell me that at least this doesn't seem to be a common problem with the Enertia. With only 470 miles on my Enertia I was worried this might be common and unfortunate.

I did contact Brammo and they instructed me to email my diagnostic logs from Friday to them. They took a look and replied

"there is no information identifying a specific component failure. A D4 error code typically indicates an issue with the motor controller. It is possible that there may be a blown fuse or a faulty wire connection to or from the motor controller. Have you checked the fuses?"

My thanks to Brammo for responding to me so fast as well.

I'm going to charge the Enertia tonight to see if that will fix the problem. It's definitely not related to moisture as I store the bike indoors and I rode it on the first 80 degree day in Boise with clear skies. It's been sitting inside for 5 days now with still no luck avoiding the D4 error on startup when the drive should engage. Another odd symptom is that the chain currently does not move as freely as it did before when manually pushing the bike around. There is a small catch in the wheel turning and a clicking sound I've not noticed before. Perhaps the motor controller is engaged but without power.

I'll keep you posted on anything I find out. Right now the bike turns on, power is available to everything, but when the drive should enable the LCD instead shows the D4 warning. If I get any resolution soon I'll also post to the wiki what I've learned. Thanks

[Brammofan]

I heard from one of the brammoles that, like me, you benefit from the fact that a very capable Brammo Tech shares the same home town as you, and that he will be visiting this weekend.

Go Broncos!

[Andy]

Brammo == great service!

I'm happy to report that a Brammo service agent stopped by Boise and took a look at my Enertia. We removed the DMC controller and replaced it with a new DMC controller to see if it was the controller that was bad. With the new DMC controller the Enertia started right up. We were curious if the new DMC controller fixed the problem or if there was a look connection that was fixed when we replaced the controller. We put the old controller back on and the Enertia still appeared to start normally.

So it looks like it was a bad connection issue somewhere between the controller and the engine.... I'm going to ride my Enertia this week and see if that hypothesis holds true. I hope my bike keeps working. I don't want to replace the controller if I can help it! I also learned that if you get a new controller, a Brammo service agent needs to be there to tune it to your particular bike.

Thank you Brammo for going above and beyond to help me get my Enertia running again!

[Phantom]

Thanks for the update. I am glad to hear that Brammo Service gets another A+. It is easy to keep singing the praises of a company that stands by its product and fulfills customer expectations.

Your information may help other Enertia owners who might find the same issue someday.

[Brammofan]

As an aside:

It may be helpful to update the wiki page with the errors/problems people got, and what they did to solve their problem.

Wiki updated: http://brammoforum.com/wiki/index.php?title=Error_Code_D4

[werm_works]

I've had the d4 issue for a while now, and after having the DMC replaced twice and paying Bartels Harley Davidson $140 for half of the labor and them cracking one of my tabs on the body cause of over tightening which they are used to with those giant vibrators, my bike is still having a problem, I was riding a few hours ago and as I was accelerating from the stop light the bike took off a bit then just cut off which almost caused me to be rear ended.


So my question is..... Has the d4 issue you once had reappeared?