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ABS failure warning

5580 Views 4 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  jam20ster
Hey all,


I was out shredding some trails yesterday when I stopped to talk to some dual sport riders in an open area. After switching my bike off, I forgot to re-disable MTC and ABS, which caused me to launch into the side of an embankment when I tried to power slide around a tight turn at speed. Needless to say the bike went down and tossed me. I'm fine but I smashed my OEM mirror and snapped the OEM handguard in two. This is fine because it's just an excuse to get the aftermarket upgrades but on the way home (about 30 minute drive), I got an ABS failure warning and a check engine light. I pulled over immediately to inspect the bike but couldn't find any discernible damage other than the broken mirror and hand guard. After turning the bike back on the ABS failure warning was no longer displaying, but the check engine light was and I got a new warning that was something like "front brakswitch". The front brake works just fine but I'm wondering what else I might have damaged? Is it possible the lever switch got tweaked when the hand guard broke? It doesn't appear to be broken. Any advice?


I just checked again and it also looks like I have a slow leak in the front tire as well. ****... I guess I'll have to be a little more gentle next time :frown2:
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I would check the brake lever. A while back I replaced my levers for shorter aftermarket levers and even though they looked indentical in design and bolted right up, the new brake lever threw a engine light just as you described. As soon as I replaced it back with stock it went away. I tried this atleast 3-4 times and every time it did the same. So very possible a small tweak of lever could cause your problem.

Also when you pull brake lever off you will see not only the plunger, but in front of it is a switch (black plastic piece). This is what I believe was my problem as the new lever clearance may have been off. Check this to make sure mud or dirt isn’t in this area which will cause possible clearance issue.

Hope this is of help.
I would check the brake lever. A while back I replaced my levers for shorter aftermarket levers and even though they looked indentical in design and bolted right up, the new brake lever threw a engine light just as you described. As soon as I replaced it back with stock it went away. I tried this atleast 3-4 times and every time it did the same. So very possible a small tweak of lever could cause your problem.

Also when you pull brake lever off you will see not only the plunger, but in front of it is a switch (black plastic piece). This is what I believe was my problem as the new lever clearance may have been off. Check this to make sure mud or dirt isn’t in this area which will cause possible clearance issue.

Hope this is of help.



For sure! Thanks for the reply! Definitely going to have to see what's up there. If what you say is true then it very well could be the switch was crushed considering the bar end hit pretty **** hard and the lever was wedged against the bank. Looks like I also got a slow leak in the front as well. I'm relatively new at trail riding this behemoth so I guess I should just be easier on it and not try to send it every chance I get... that or the marketing campaign must have been really successful in making me believe it was the perfect weapon for off road adventures even if it is a little more fragile than they let on lol
Looks like it was actually the little black plastic box on the front side of the bar where the lever rests in its "open" position. Good looking out! I guess i landed hard enough that it knocked it out of place so all I had to do was snap it back in.
Glad it worked out. That’s the exact part I was talking about.
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