"Error" and all dash lights flashing, Fan Turns on, No Start...

My hypers too......

I replace Coils-Bbs-ecu but dashboard on way to Vietnam!

So sad! My hypers is famous on viet nam ...jkiding

weczerniczek said:

So the flashing dashboard issue happened this morning to me, same symptoms as described here on this thread: engine light, neutral light, oil light flashing, RPM bar flashing, engine temp just three dashes(---) flashing, ABS and TC randomly displaying or showing dashes, engine fan ON, rear break light flashing together with read indicators.

As I haven't seen this thread this morning when the issue happened my first thought was that yesterday drive in the rain has caused some electric short-cut. Called Ducati Snell and they recommended to let the bike dry on sun - left whole day, but same issue in the evening. One thing I noticed was that in the morning the ERROR tab was displaying all sorts of different problems: Engine, Dash, this evening its just CAN Line. also the bike wont start (which did in the morning).

So I booked Ducati Assistance pickup for tomorrow morning, emailed Ducati Customer Service with the explanation for root cause of this issue and also to confirm parts availability for UK. This is mostly annoying as: 1. weather is superb! 2. my second bike Ktm Supermoto is broken down with starter issue! Back to public transportation I guess!.

Bike is from May 2013, 6500miles on the clock. Recalls done: steering seal installed, Ducati confirmed no other recalls needed to be done on my bike (they checked over the phone against VIN).

Will keep you posted but knowing the quality of London's Ducati garages (they have thousands of customers so couple of unhappy ones are no big deal), I am actually scared what will happen.

I am hoping to get the bike back on the road before end of July for Ducati TrackDay on Silverstone :/

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So i have my Hyperstrada back from repair. Guys at W.M Snell in Alton (UK) did a great job. They read this forum as well when i mentioned this to them, they made Ducati UK aware of this situation which helped and speeded up the delivery of new parts.

Issue was overcharge on front (horizontal ign. coil), which caused around 40V overcharge on the main network, killing ECU and DASH. Second coil was replaced as well. From what i've been told, Ducati UK had so far 2(+mine) bikes with the same issue, strange as more ppl here had the same issue, but obviously ppl live all around the world

New ECU came with some fix that should prevent this happening again+new redesigned coils.

All done under warranty and bike drives like new.

Will be using W.M.SNell in the future, going to Ducati Day on Silverstone on 31.7. with them and I need them to look at my clutch later.

Another Disco Hyperstrada

So my well behaved Hyperstrada electrocuted itself. To be fair, it took me from east coast to west coast of the USA without any problems. That was like 8k miles with nothing more than gas. But less than a mile from home it suddenly went into "disco" mode. All the dash lights, indicators, break lights and more randomly flashing. It did go into a sort of limp mode, so I was able to get home, even video it performing. But after switching it off it would not start again and the flashing even persisted after the key was removed. Next day after leaving the battery off, still no joy and this is why I found this forum thread. So I knew what I was in for, used my Ducati recovery for a tow to the local Ducati Dealer.
The dealer experience was not the best, first Ducati denied the warranty, then did an about turn because they said this was the first bike in the NE USA with the problem they did not recognize it, all power to this forum for making that point an easy sell. They ordered and replaced the ECU, Display and coils, but then still could not get the keys to work reliably. They ordered up new keys, another week without the bike, then when they arrived they discovered it was not the keys but the Black Box/ immobilizer. So after that was replaced I was back on the road. Just over for weeks since she electrocuted herself!
Now some questions to the forum:
[1] OK my bike had 1m on the odometer. Probably just has to be that way, but others did not mention it and of course now we are limited because it thinks it is being run in again, so performance sucks and will continue for 600 miles. Was this the case for other riders who had this problem?
[2] My dealer "forgot" to enable the alarm and heated grips, maybe understandable, but any way of checking if all the other updates to the ECU were done, or do we just take their word for things?
But overall I still love the bike, my wife and I share the 1199 and the Hyperstrada and truth is we both love the hyper more. You will never take the street appearance away from the 1199 but for driving and performance, up to about 100mph the hyper just wins.

ukphotoguy said:

You will never take the street appearance away from the 1199 but for driving and performance, up to about 100mph the hyper just wins.

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Dude, the Panigale forum just puked and had kittens at the same time. I remember my sport bike years well enough to know that the few long stretches of asphalt you get to stretch it out do not make up for the sore wrists and back around town. This bike is just fun everywhere.

I asked my tech's once about checking software version and they said nope. Has to be hooked up to the Duc CANBUS thing and then it checks your system against the stored almanac. How often they update the almanac, don't know. You could always take it to another shop and have them scan it.

If my cars ODO reset, I'd probably use it for resale. Integrity check on your part, I guess.

i asked my dealer about the Odometer when they told me that dashboard will need to be replaced. apparently, there is some chip at the back of the Dash that contains all the information, the just moved it over to the new dash so all the info incl. trips, petrol consumption etc. was there, transfered from old dash. in fact my ducati dealer was in touch with Ducati uk all the time and Ducati uk sent proper guide of what needs to be done. they also enabled the heated grips and if you have the slip on or high end can Termignoni, they should load the proper maps for each exhaust pipe. i recommend to go back to the dealer and get them to fix this? unless you are ok with brand new bike of course

Thanks for the information

That is good information. If it is possible to transfer the information then my dealer needs to know that and make the change. tempting as it is to have a "new bike" I know the vin record at Ducati has the records and since the bike has done over 10kmiles the change in miles id too much to be plausible. Also have to run it is again is a real problem.
Any more help people can give me on if the transfer of mileage is possible will be gratefully received. I plan to talk to Ducati USAA today and see if they have a position.

Transfer Display Mileage to a new unit

So after talking at length to Ducati USA I have some news.
[1] Apparently the Hyper 2013 range is the first bike that has the ability to transfer the mileage to a new display.
[2] Less clear is how that is done and any limitations. Seems to make sense that you need the Ducati computer software and ability to connect to the system. In my case I am told that because the ECU and BBS were changed that no transfer is possible. Makes less sense that I was also told if either one was OK then the transfer could be done??
So I am still stuck with incorrect miles. Now since the bike was almost returned to me with the original BBS but held because the two keys did not work reliably, I am left wondering if there was sufficient life in the system to have made the transfer. Guess I will never know.
If anybody has more information please share.

I had Dash and ECU changed (not BBS) and trasfer of the milage was done without any issues. dont know, i just have a feeling that your Ducati dealer havent done their job 100%? in the UK the milage is recorder every year when MOT is done (annual service) and this is written in the VOSA certificate so any shizzle wizzle with the milage can be seen straight away. if your were in the UK and had to sell the bike, you will struggle - not many people will believe the story with mileage not being transfered. it also makes it harder for Ducati to keep a track about service records etc.
i would create a pressure on your dealer, maybe try to contact Ducati USA yourself (via custormer service) and share your story. they should be able at least to program the approx. mileage back... just my opinion.

I'm wondering, if this is a Hyperstrada specific problem. I havn't heard of any affected Hypermotard. At Ducati.ms I havn't seen any thread about this problem.

Does anyone know about an affected Hypermotard?

my dealer sqaid, that this problem could come up at some of the first Hypers.

Mine registration date is 03/2013 so it is one of the first.

Now I get a new ecu (not the ecu but the other thing for all the electronic) and 2 new ignition coils. Ducati updated this mean while so the newer ones do not have this problem.

Milage Transfered?

Does your display have your original Km traveled?

Yes it has.

Normally, Ducati would change ecu, 2 coils and the dashboard but my dashboard was changed before so I only need the other 3.

But I got a good Tipp from a friendly Ducati dealer:


Look weather the metal-thing on the rubber-strap on top of your battery is mounted correctly.
If you only place the battery with the rubber it's not enough - the battery could move and the +-pole could touch some parts so your dashboard would call an error.

theres a little metal-thing with which you can stretch the rubber so this wont happen anymore.


Was a nice tip for me cause mine was not stretched since I removed the battery last winter

Second Major Dash Issue

Well sad to say my 'Disco Mode" came back, just 400 miles into a complete electrical replacement (coils, ecu, BB and Display) almost identical issue, same flashing and limp mode but this time it would start again (just after enter key-code errors and various other faults it started) so I got to drive it to the dealer.
So I am in panic mode myself, the dealer is suggesting a second replacement display but I am worried that there is a root cause still to be found. I have just about a year of warranty left but don't feel like trusting the bike unless something more tangible is found. This is my long distance bike so being several hundred miles from home and breaking down would not be fun.
Anybody have similar experience of suggestions?

In reply to the last post, yes my clip was correctly placed and all the wires correctly routed, that was a good tip because the first time the bike was returned without the clip and badly refitted ECU including the cable for the release stopping the seat fitting correctly.

sorry to hear that you are having the same problem, ukphotoguy :-( i was assured by my dealer that Ducati introduced a fix in their ECU (and/or dash) that prevents damage when overvoltage is presented on the main electric circuit. maybe worth checking if they used such a dash/ecu and push them to get clear answers from Ducati. hope you'll have your bike back on the road quickly!

ukphotoguy said:

Well sad to say my 'Disco Mode" came back, just 400 miles into a complete electrical replacement (coils, ecu, BB and Display) almost identical issue, same flashing and limp mode but this time it would start again (just after enter key-code errors and various other faults it started) so I got to drive it to the dealer.
So I am in panic mode myself, the dealer is suggesting a second replacement display but I am worried that there is a root cause still to be found. I have just about a year of warranty left but don't feel like trusting the bike unless something more tangible is found. This is my long distance bike so being several hundred miles from home and breaking down would not be fun.
Anybody have similar experience of suggestions?

In reply to the last post, yes my clip was correctly placed and all the wires correctly routed, that was a good tip because the first time the bike was returned without the clip and badly refitted ECU including the cable for the release stopping the seat fitting correctly.

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Hi. Just curious, UKPhotoGuy, what's the latest with your bike? Any update on what happened?

As the dead coil-dash-ecu problem appears to be due to transients I am wondering it is worth wiring in some transient protection devices: e.g.

http://www.littelfuse.com/~/media/e...tection_using_tvs_diodes_application_note.pdf

This could be wired in across the main fuse to ground.

Thoughts ?

Disco Mode Update

So as of today I have had the bike back almost two weeks from the dealer. This time they only changed the display and transferred the 400 or so miles I had done since the last melt down. I have added about 100m to it so far and only one "suspect" incident where the display seemed to flicker and the theft alarm came on whilst riding.
Fair to say that discussions with the dealer have not gone well, they will not say what the cause of the issue is or if they have taken steps to stop it happening again. So I am left wondering if the bike is reliable. This is a shame since it is primarily the wife's bike and she is now reluctant to go long distances on it. She went NY to LA and back on her own this season but now does not want to stray more than 100m away.
I too am an engineer and spent much of my working life on high reliability electronics, the sort that stay in orbit and are hard to service. So when I put together the story of what happened to my bike I have serious questions. For me rule 1 is do not assume that if something works it is not damaged. Electrical surge problems are well known to damage circuits but not immediately destroy them, they are just weaker and may have burned up some of the surge protection diodes. The dealer told me they had decided what was faulty by swapping ECU, BB and display with another bike, so red flag 1, could that process have paired a partly bad unit with a good one, done some damage and then been left on my bike? Red flag 2 is if there was an update to the ECU to help solve the issue, presumably not just software but a modified unit. Well Ducati USA have me down as having a new ECU, but I think the dealer used the one from the another bike and put my warranty unit on that new bike. I asked the dealer and their story changed, first it was from the other bike then it was I had all new units. How can I tell? The paperwork has no s/n data.
Overall we still love the bike, it has another year of warranty and I am still waiting for Ducati USA to call me back and discuss what has happened. For sure if this problem happens again outside the warranty period I want enough paperwork to record I was concerned the issue had not been corrected.
I hope this forum keeps recording incidents and this helps Ducati find a cause. It seems from reading and Google that I may be the only person that has had it twice so either I am unlucky or my dealer did screw up the re-build. But this bike has done just over 11,000 miles in under a year so it may be a high mileage reason, I simply had more opportunities for this to occur.
So please spread the word and lets get all the data we can. My thanks to all those who have posted and the forum for just being there.

Thanks for the update. Based on what you've written and what I know about the world of dealers and warranty claims (two years under dealer employ in the '90s), I'd say it's a safe bet that the when you came in the first time the dealer swapped parts with another bike they had on hand until the bike started and ran without errors. Then they put the claim in on the other bike and waited for replacement parts from Ducati. You more than likely got parts with the potential for the same problems, from another bike in the same production run. If there's been an update to the way the replacement parts are made, you don't have those.

The suspect incident could be a loose connector, but I'd be concerned. Maybe you need to contact Ducati North America and let them know what happened.

That sounds flaky to me. My dealer has told me that they can get any part they need in about a week. I don't understand why a dealer would swap parts like that. He would end up with 2x the work and have a disabled bike on his sales floor that he could not demo or sell. And as was pointed out, there is a chance that the 'new' bits could be damaged. Don't they have proper diagnostic tools? This is a rolling computer!

If this were your daily commuter, with no alternative, I might understand it. But Wifey and I are both retired and have other bikes and cars, so I would prefer a standard warranty repair, and would be willing to wait for it.

Swapping parts with a working demo isn't that far fetched. We do it with military aircraft all the time. You take off, get a warning light or code, bring it back for troubleshooting. Clock is always ticking to complete the mission, so, we canibalize the closest working donor, swap it out, do some checks and off you go. If the donor aircraft was working properly on shutdown, you have no reason to suspect it's component is faulty. However, if we suspect a production line issue, it's a much bigger ordeal.

I'd have to agree with Zippy that there really is no reason we are privy to that would stop the dealer from using the official warranty process. I went through 3 sets of rotors and pads and my dealer still smiled and shook my hand when I left. They actually hinted that warranties are free and clear, as long as it passes the criteria for a legit swap out.

Do you have a Lemon Law in Jersey? If you've lost confidence in the bike, get a refund or replacement though, it's usually not an easy road to go down. I have 8500 miles on mine and have complete confidence. You yourself seem to agree this is a somewhat isolated incident. I feel for ya.