Reintroducing ESA to bike

[BeemerBerg]

When the first Hexheads hit the US shores, I bought a brand new 2005 RT with all the goodies. Even ESA! having been a huge fan of Wilburs on my '99 RT, I was hoping BMW's new ESA would be of that class. Unfortunately, they caused nothing but heartache--the rear shock had seized up while wifey and i were on tour (REALLY rough ride).

 

Fortunately, the bike was still under warrengy (2006), and the dealer ordered up a new set. UNfortunately it was going to take months to come from the Fatherland. So I ordered up another custom set of Wilburs, and shelved the factory shocks when they arrived.

 

When I bought my 2010 RT, I transplanted the Wilbers. Great move. But I installed the [virtually new] BMW ESA shocks on the 2005, and put the bike in storage.

 

Fast forward to today. I am bringing the 2005 out of storage, and have a problem. The bikes computer doesn't think it has ESA--the button doesn't do anything--nothing on the display when pressed. My GS911 reports that there is no ESA on the bike. Yeah, I reattached all the wired on the front & rear shock.

 

Thoughts? Does the bike have to be "told" it has ESA by the Dealers Magic Computer??

[dirtrider]

When the first Hexheads hit the US shores, I bought a brand new 2005 RT with all the goodies. Even ESA! having been a huge fan of Wilburs on my '99 RT, I was hoping BMW's new ESA would be of that class. Unfortunately, they caused nothing but heartache--the rear shock had seized up while wifey and i were on tour (REALLY rough ride).

 

Fortunately, the bike was still under warrengy (2006), and the dealer ordered up a new set. UNfortunately it was going to take months to come from the Fatherland. So I ordered up another custom set of Wilburs, and shelved the factory shocks when they arrived.

 

When I bought my 2010 RT, I transplanted the Wilbers. Great move. But I installed the [virtually new] BMW ESA shocks on the 2005, and put the bike in storage.

 

Fast forward to today. I am bringing the 2005 out of storage, and have a problem. The bikes computer doesn't think it has ESA--the button doesn't do anything--nothing on the display when pressed. My GS911 reports that there is no ESA on the bike. Yeah, I reattached all the wired on the front & rear shock.

 

Thoughts? Does the bike have to be "told" it has ESA by the Dealers Magic Computer??

 

Afternoon BeemerBerg

 

It might take a trip to the dealer for the ESA update to be able to use those new shocks. The early 2005 RT's came with a HALL type shock & the later (plus early replacement shocks) used more of a digital type control so the dealer had to flash a shock control update for them to work.

 

I'm not real sure what you have going on but it does sound like your system isn't recognizing your replacement shocks.

[lkraus]

The bike would have known it had ESA, or it never would have worked, and I would have expected it to "remember", reporting ESA faults ever since you disconnected the struts. (As mine has done since the rear ESA preload was disconnected.)

 

Was the software upgraded/modified by a dealer after the Wilbur's were installed? Maybe they deleted the ESA option to eliminate the (harmless) fault code? If that is the case, the dealer would be the only one who can change it.

[BeemerBerg]

The bike was serviced at the dealer about 2 years ago (fuel pump recall). Maybe they disabled the ESA then? Problem is: dealer is 4 hours away. But bike needs new fuel strip anyway.

[Dann]

When I replaced the rear ESA strut on my 07 with one that came from an 08 the ZFE would not register that my bike was equipped with ESA.

I had to have my ZFE reprogrammed by the dealer for the bike to recognize the ESA function of the new strut.

The original strut of the 07 used a potentiometer and the 08 uses a HALL sensor.