EWS failure this weekend 110 miles from home. 07 gs 22k, orig. owner. Ring was replaced lil over a year ago but not with the 247 module. Now I'm 1) trusting BMW for solving the problem. 2) not doing my homework and carrying a spare ring, right beside the spare final drive and fuel bypass wiring. I have to laugh, mins before I stopped for lunch I thought I love this bike, I dont care if they are prone to breaking down.
Just amazing ! What if another brand was having all these troubles ? We'd be making fun of them big time !!!
I had my EWS replaced. Been OK so far and not sure, but think it was the new part #. Do you know the part number for the new one? Seems I heard there was a hard wiring work around in emergency??? anybody know how to by-pass this thing to get home?
It is likely that if we knew of such a procedure, this thread would not have 3200 messages in it. [TaSK]
I remember seeing a work around posted when this was a big problem. No idea where it hiding/younger and smarter members will have to find it. My failing memory tells me that one could attach the spare without undoing the old one till you got home. TaSK, as an aside I am now riding my GS to Knoff in orlando to be shipped to Heidelberg. Late may to Toscana!
There is no work around unless you consider replacing the existing antenna with a replacement that is temporarily cable tied to the bike a workaround. Some did that until they could get to a place where they could drill out the safety screws. If your antenna goes you MUST have a replacement antenna if you want to start the bike. That was true up to the '09 models. I assume it is still true today.
That is what I was referring to/a temp fix to get you home. I never had a problem but others found it useful and they posted.
My daughter and I met Miriam from Brescia when she was in San Francisco on her ride. I look forward to meeting you and your wife as I visit. We are so lucky to be able to ride our moto's and make new friends! Oh yes, very OK!
I would be interested in the same if there is a work around. Surprised the wife Friday with a 2012 Special Edition F650GS Twin. Man was she excited. She immediately put 150 miles on it yesterday. Today she is getting the EWS warning. Second day on the bike. It is scheduled for break-in service on Tuesday so I guess I will be having a talk with the service guys.
As stated and explained in many posts, if your antenna dies and you get an "EWS" then you can uplug the wiring to your installed antenna around the key switch and put your "spare" [you do carry a spare? #-247] over the key switch, plug it into the wiring harnass for the antenna, insert the the key through the temp antenna and start the bike...once started you can either remove the spare antenna or zip tie it in place until you can remove the dead antenna and replace it with the temp... I believe the most current, non-defective antenna version part number ends in -247. I carry one. And the T10 to remove the wiring needed to attach to the spare antenna...ain't BMW engineering grand! Oh, don't forget, 'EWS' can also indicate a bad battery..read the zillion [I know that is not a valid measurement] posts of this..
Same issues turn the bike off then on it starts some times I carry the plastic key it fires up . Have the same warnings same bike plastic key works fine when the stocker dosnt . Now if I can get the right turn signal working that would be something too.
After reading the manual a little closer, we removed the stock key from the ring and used it by itself. She was still using the dealer key ring that had all the keys on it so we suspect it was just interference with the other keys. Everything is working as normal for the moment.
Can anyone offer advise for getting going again with an EWS fault. I don't have a spare.with me as I was told the problem no longer occurs. My bike is a 2012 GSA. Any help much appreciated.
I thought that the problem was eliminated in the 2012 and not a good way to reply. I had multiple bikes with EWS problems and was never able to resolve in the field. I eventually bought a spare to install in the field. BUT TRY ANYTHING. Disconnect the battery wait thirty of so seconds. Re-connect battery. As I best remember the Torx to remove the 'Ring' is a T25 (could be wrong), fiddle with the wires after ring removed, but not sure any of this will help. The damn thing is a nuisance!
Thanks, do you know if there is a detailed procedure for getting the wiring out of the old one and plugging into a new component as a temp fix. I think I can simply re,plug into the new one and tie wrap it to the bars close to the switch. thanks for the prompt response, dave
Yes Dave, the procedure likely written somewhere but it's fairly intuitive. i have a spare new model RING that I did what you are going to do a long time ago, and it's fairly intuitive as I best remember. That is, bypassing existing, and wiring in new one, and affixing with tape, tie wraps, zip ties, whatever. Just to get you home or on your way. Good luck . . .
Hi, I saw your reference to bad battery. I have a new (2 actually) antenna and have tried to start the bike with them. I'm getting an intermittent fault that is getting worse for sure. The antennas did not help although I thought it was a bit better, ie frequency of good starts improved a bit. Do you know what else I could try. What defines a battery problem, the bike was starting first time even after being stood for months and just prior to this problem I had covered 2000 miles in about 5 days so I assume it's charged. I've disconnected the battery for the night to see if the ECU needs a rest, can't hurt. Any help anyone can offer will be much appreciated as I'm about to stick the bike on a truck or boat to Buenos Aires. Unless it's something trivial I'm concerned about using the bike further for this kind of thing. I generally travel alone and it could have been a lot worse as I was on very remote roads. In addition both shocks are now leaking. Cheers dave
When the ignition is turned on the engine management checks for a known key. It sends some kind of signal that is radiated by the antenna and reads the response from the key. If a valid response isn't received you'll get the EWS warning. If the response is valid the system lets you start the bike and the circuit will not be checked again until the next time you try to start the bike. That leads to several possible failure modes: There is not enough battery power to run the BMS-K The BMS-K is not sending the signal due to an internal failure (unlikely, IMHO) The signal is not getting to the antenna (wiring?) The antenna is broken (but you say the spare is doing the same thing) The key is broken (do you have a spare key?) I'm guessing that your antenna was never the problem. I'd swap keys first, because that is easy. Then I'd start tracing the wires looking for a place where cable ties and vibration have done some damage. That is not an unknown issue with some bikes.