OEM heated grips ist kaput

[Maybert]

Just an FYI, for those of you with the OEM heated grips

My dealer installed grips died about a month ago at 5100 miles, just in time for the cold! I finally got around to having them replaced this morning under warranty and the technician discovered the cable had been worn through on the throttle side grip.

Strangely, this power cable is tucked into the throttle assembly (Yamaha heated grips require the use of a special throttle assembly), instead of hanging off the bottom of the grip like most of the systems I've seen. If anyone has a copy of the grip installation instructions this is clearly illustrated.

The tech seemed concerned that the problem would reoccur and is sending the failed unit back to Yamaha for evaluation. I've not seen this problem mentioned anywhere before, so hopefully this is a one-off occurrence.

Ride safe!

 

[markjenn]

Hard to know for sure, but looks to me like perhaps the grommets weren't positioned correctly in the throttle housing - this is a fiddly assembly to get everything in their correctly, properly aligned, and not pinched. Anything is possible, but I'd view the most likely cause as installation error.

- Mark

 

[RMac]

I wonder if your dealer forgot to add grease on the inside of the heated grip cable housing in the throttle assembly? It is stated in the assembly instructions and is needed to lubricate the folded heated grip cable otherwise it will chafe, jam or break. I added gobs of silicon grease during my assembly.

 

[Mike Sisson]

Strangely, this power cable is tucked into the throttle assembly (Yamaha heated grips require the use of a special throttle assembly), instead of hanging off the bottom of the grip like most of the systems I've seen.

I was a bit concerned about this when I put it all together. Jamming a rubber coated wire that will be twisted constantly into a metal housing that it WILL rub against doesn't seem the best of ideas.

I did grease up the cable so we'll see....

 

[Maybert]

Thank you for the responses fellas! ::012::

The broken cable did not appear to be lubricated, and that may indeed be the cause if the failure. I'm going to take it apart today and make sure the new cable is well lubed with silicon grease.

 

[markjenn]

Properly installed, I don't think lack of grease would cause a failure in 5K miles.

- Mark

 

[SpeedStar]

I can see how you could mess up the placement of the cable in that housing. It needs the lube too.

 

[GoNotShow]

Uh oh! Good thing I saw this thread because I missed the grease. Although, I'm partially faulting the instructions. When I first re-read them after seeing this thread, I thought WTF are these guys talking about cuz it doesn't "say" anything about grease. I had to look at it for a couple minutes before I saw the little grease gun icon in the diagram. Funny that the instructions say to add loctite to the little screw that holds the cover on and it shows a loctite icon in the diagram. However, regarding the grease it says nothing in the written instructions about adding grease, it only has the icon in the diagram. Bummer. Hopefully not too much of a PITA to reopen that thing and add the grease.

 

[limey]

Man this forum is a wealth of information first the rubber plug on the swing arm is missing and now the grips, I installed mine dry. Thanks for the heads up guys..

 

[markjenn]

I bet a dollar to a donut the failure in this thread is due to one or both of the rubber grommets not being properly seated in the throttle housing. And I bet more than half of the Yamaha OEM heated grip installs out there don't have grease. It just doesn't make sense that lack of grease would cause such an early failure.

Suit yourself, but if I had one that I thought was properly installed except w/o grease, I doubt I'd take it apart to add grease.

- Mark

 

[motodude]

Reliability issues aside, does anyone notice that the temperature settings seem meaningless? Mine feel like they're on "roast" all the time....

 

[markjenn]

Reliability issues aside, does anyone notice that the temperature settings seem meaningless? Mine feel like they're on "roast" all the time....

They're definitely toasty, even on the lowest setting. But mine definitely get hotter on high. With colder weather (around 40-deg), I can occasionally find times when I turn them past low to maybe half-scale, so perhaps when it's 20-deg out, high might start to be useful.

I'd prefer low to be a little lower so they'd have a "simmer setting" for times when you're in coolish weather when you really don't need heated grips, but a little heat would be pleasant.

- Mark

 

[Tremor38]

Reliability issues aside, does anyone notice that the temperature settings seem meaningless? Mine feel like they're on "roast" all the time....

No. On warmer days I definitely have to crank it toward the lower end of the range, but they're definely controllable. Check yours out carefully to make sure you don't have a faulty control.

 

[rem]

Mine show a definite temperature gradient from low to high. As Tremor38 pointed out, most days I have to set it on the lowest setting, and I get just a nice, barely perceptible little glow of warmth. High, you can roast your chestnuts on it. R ::012::