Code S85 - what is its cause? Also coolant leak at entrance block

[stig]

Folks,

My new to me Victory Empulse TT with only 2.3K miles threw ts first code yesterday.

Background:  I bought this bike in May and have only ridden it sporadically. I'm in the US Public Health Service and have been deployed due to COVID 19.  Anyway,  I have put on about 300 miles and it runs fine -  no issues that I was aware of until....

Before the code S85, I had just added coolant which I thought was going to be a no brainer. But it turns out, it  was very low on coolant -   maybe 750ml low which 3/4 of its capacity! While adding coolant it began leaking just from gravity at the lower coolant entrance block. Not good.

I must have been running this bike for 300 miles and who knows how much longer the previous owner ran it with very low coolant because there were no drops in my garage and the previous owner did not notice any either.  BTW the coolant pump runs all the time and at startup the motor temp is 104F which is not accurate.  When cold in the morning the motor temp should be around 70-75F this time of year in Georgia.

Here's the coolant leak:

and coolant block:

Anyway, I cleaned up the coolant block and epoxied a part I damaged, put in a new O-ring and RTVed it with gray water pump gasket sealant.  Attached it,  snugged it down after and hour and added coolant a few days later.  No leaks! Rode 50 miles.  Parked it overnight -  no leaks. Good.

Then on my next ride  -  nice day in the mid 80s (cool for us this time of year) and after about 25 miles of country roads/city roads, the Empulse threw the code S85 and the motor shut down.  No warning.  Just shut down.  Luckily I was going 50mph on a straight country road (no traffic) so i just coasted and pulled off the road on the shoulder.  Not knowing what to do, I just restarted the bike and carefully drove on back home -  about another 8 miles.  No codes, acted normal. At home, I looked up the code in the owners manual: 

S85   Service Req'd S85  System Fault S85  Motor Controller - Encoder Fault

So what does that mean? 

What causes this code S85? and

What can I do to address this code?

BTW the firmware on the startup screen is V 02.11.

Is this the most current firmware and if not how I can I upload the newest?


I'm concerned that this bike can just shut down with no warning, so I hope this forum can help in this situation. Shutting down in a low speed turn or in an accident avoidance maneuver can result in a very bad day.  Any advice would be appreciated.

[HadesOmega]

You might want to check this thread out
http://brammoforum.com/index.php?topic=3963.0

Check behind the plastic cover there is the encoder.  See if it looked like my bike in those pictures.  Everything was corroding or oxidizing behind that cover because of some coolant leak and the encoder is in there taking a sauna bath in it.

Also my coolant thermistor has malfunction so I just unplugged it so the water pump runs all the time.  It's better to have it run all the time than not at all.

[KaFr]

You don't have to worry about S85 errors at all. This is a random error of the Sevcon encoder that occurs only rarely.
I experienced it only once on my Brammo Enertia Plus, so it's definitely not related to a coolant leak (the Enertia electric motor is air-cooled).
There are several other Sevcon bugs that have a similar consequence as S85. It should come as no surprise that the electric motorbike may stop suddenly while riding from time to time, so you must be prepared to react safely to this situation.

Firmware 2.11 is the latest version.