Electric gremlins - own goal

[UKDucatiman]

Been out on a fully loaded (luggage and misses on back) shake down run on my 06 RT ahead of my Italian tour which kicks off in a couple weeks. So a couple things have played up. Firstly after a few uses of the horn it stops working completely. It come back to life if you stop and turn the ignition on and off. But only last a few goes before failing again. Secondly since fitting the BMW comfort seat the activation of the heater elements have taken on a world of their own. If I put my heated grips onto position 1 everything comes on at maximum; grips, front and rear seat. I can only think by introducing the new seat something is being overloaded somewhere. Any ideas would be much appreciated.

[rglassma]

Have you tried to go back to the original seat to see if it goes back to normal behavior?  It may just be a coincidence . 

[guest2360]

The horn is nearly in the direct line of fire for road grime. Try just cleaning up the connections first. The other problem is probably the switchgear except the rear seat has a switch in the seat. The centre position is off. If it comes on with that off there is something very wrong with the seat elements. Switchgear on your age of bike is ultra reliable, not like the newer versions.
This time of the year though you could just unplug the seat and see if your grips  properly.  If they don't that would confirm the switch was defective.

[UKDucatiman]

So so farI've found the following:

1. If I only hit the horn for one blast then it's fine. It's when I do a double blast in quick succession that it fails and this happens after 3 - 5 goes. I've un-plugged the connector to the horn and squirted in some contact cleaner but the Problem remains. So not sure where to look next, new horn?

2. The answer to the heated seats issue is the ownet should have RTFM. I got cofused by the display settings, doh. I can only put this down to pre-tour jitters :-\

[guest2360]

A new horn would be the fraction of the cost of a new switch. Can you put power directly to the horn to test it.

[UKDucatiman]

A new horn would be the fraction of the cost of a new switch. Can you put power directly to the horn to test it.

I took it apart again, de-gunnked the whole horn, applied WD40 and guess, what, it's working again. So I think you were spot on with the road grim analysis, thank you. So time to go up the pub whilst the sun is shinny again