Yellow Warning Triangle

[Mike05]

 

After a long year off the bike I am "Doctor approved" to ride again.  Anticipating that, in April (before I could ride) sent the bike by transport to the dealership & gone thru; inspection, new tires, fork seals & more.  Transported home, garaged & on a battery tender with intermittent time off & startups.

 

This past weekend early one morning I rode for an hour.   That said, two issues:

 

1.  Yellow triangle light w/explanation mark in the middle lit up immediately & stayed on.  All the lights/blinkers are working but ordered a new battery anyway (the existing battery is old) that

      arrives tomorrow.

2.  Fuel strip is out yet again, causing that ongoing warning as well.   Could this also cause warning light?  I don't have a GS-911 diagnostic tool to address warning indicators.
 

My questions are:

 

A.  Someone at the dealership told me to disconnect the battery for 24 hrs. & let the electronics "reset", hopefully turning off the yellow warning triangle.  Never heard of this before; does it work?

B.  Is it worth another $500+ to once more replace the fuel strip (no longer "grandfathered" by BMW)?  If not, any home remedies or suggestions to address this issue?  Have a GPS to track mileage,

      just don't want all the warning indicators on all the time.

 

[lkraus]

My yellow warning light comes on if fuel level is low.  So, if the fuel strip is out, and the ZFE cannot detect fuel, I'd expect to see the warning light. 

 

I feel lucky to have never had a fuel strip fail. I would not want leave the warning light on and just ignore it since it also calls your attention to other faults.  There are some DIY methods of bypassing the strip, and maybe one to use a float sensor - do some Googling to see if those would be within your skill set.  Otherwise, I'd gamble on a new strip. 

[Mike05]

Bought one of these, a "BMW FUEL Ribbon (Strip) Emulator":

 

https://hposkam.nl/en/product/tanklint-emulator/

 

Worth a try; receives decent reviews.

[dduelin]

The fuel strip in my 2007 has been working intermittently for a couple of months. There doesn't seem to be a pattern to it. Sometimes with 3/4 to 1/4 tank remaining the level slowly drops to empty while miles to empty slowly counts down until the warnings appear on the instrument panel. I fill it up and it might not work for two or more 200 mile rides then suddenly it correctly appears full while the miles to empty counts up slowly from 250 or so to 300+. Last weekend it went blank at 3/4 tank and reappeared at 1/4 tank only to go blank again a few miles later. It didn't work the rest of the day and I parked the bike with no fuel indicated and a piece of blue masking tape covering the yellow triangle. After a week it correctly worked all day.

 

Could the electrical wire connections inside and outside the tank cause the failure? I tend to think electronic devices are a pass/fail sort of thing but intermittent faults could be connections? Does a new or proven good used strip need to be calibrated after installation? This bike had the fuel pump recall performed 4 years ago.

[dirtrider]

Afternoon Dave

 

Could the electrical wire connections inside and outside the tank cause the failure?-- Yes it could but that is very unlikely, about all I have seen act like yours is the fuel strip failing.

 

I tend to think electronic devices are a pass/fail sort of thing but intermittent faults could be connections?--- When it comes to that fuel strip it can come & go until it finally totally quits (or worse yet, lies to you & you run out of fuel) 

 

Does a new or proven good used strip need to be calibrated after installation?--- I don't about "NEED TO BE", but it sure should be if you want it to be accurate. 

 

This bike had the fuel pump recall performed 4 years ago---  This has nothing to do with the fuel strip failure unless it wasn't plugged back in but then it would not have worked at all.

 

 

[dduelin]

3 hours ago, dirtrider said:

Afternoon Dave

 

Could the electrical wire connections inside and outside the tank cause the failure?-- Yes it could but that is very unlikely, about all I have seen act like yours is the fuel strip failing.

 

I tend to think electronic devices are a pass/fail sort of thing but intermittent faults could be connections?--- When it comes to that fuel strip it can come & go until it finally totally quits (or worse yet, lies to you & you run out of fuel) 

 

Does a new or proven good used strip need to be calibrated after installation?--- I don't about "NEED TO BE", but it sure should be if you want it to be accurate. 

 

This bike had the fuel pump recall performed 4 years ago---  This has nothing to do with the fuel strip failure unless it wasn't plugged back in but then it would not have worked at all.

 

 

Thanks DR. Bernie has a good used strip left from his hexhead days and I'm going to try that one. I included the comment about the pump recall as it relates to the wire harness connections on the top of the pump assembly being relatively new and not 15 years old.