Speedo reading 3x actual speed after batter change.

My ever faithful WR250R has just got a new trick.
I ran the battery flat. Standard 12V 6AH. So I removed it from the bike, recharged it, replaced it, ignition on, set clock, bike starts, runs, goes, no problem.
Except then out on the road I notice the speedo reads 3 x actual speed.
Seriously. I'm doing 60km/h and the bike thinks it's doing 180km/h. The odometer also increments at 3x rate.
It was fun for a while.
Tried battery disconnect/reconnect. No change.
Tried holding reset button and various other things. No change.

Has anyone ever seen this?
Does the sensor get upset by power removal.
And how do I fix it (apart from the obvious call to the Yamaha dealer)?

I have just found out more about this issue.
One of the service guys at the local Yamaha shop is Japanese and had to talk to his mates at Yamaha in Japan to get the story.
The displays on the WR250R have a design fault. If the power feed voltage drops too low for too long then something pops and messes up the receiving of the speedo sensor signal to 3x actual speed. Otherwise the display seems to work fine.
The fix was to replace the display. At >$AUD1050 for another display with the same design fault waiting to happen again - I don't think so.
If anyone has this fault after leaving your ignition on and letting the battery run flat then this is the cause.
Lesson: Dont use the kill switch - use the keys to switch off and remove them from the ignition.
Request: How do I source a 2nd hand display (metric/km) for a WR250R at a reasonable price?

nickh wrote:

The displays on the WR250R have a design fault. If the power feed voltage drops too low for too long then something pops and messes up the receiving of the speedo sensor signal to 3x actual speed. Otherwise the display seems to work fine.

How long ? What if you remove the battery for storage ? I'm guessing no voltage is better than low voltage..............

The fault arises with 'low voltage for a long time'.
My experience indicates that the time it takes for the battery to discharge (ignition on, engine off) leaves it in that state for long enough to do the damage.
Battery disconnect/reconnect is not a problem.

Interesting, I must have been lucky then when my battery drained back when I didn't have my acc stuff on a relay. I got a push start, and ran the bike until it charged. Display hasn't had a hiccup.

nickh wrote:

I have just found out more about this issue.
One of the service guys at the local Yamaha shop is Japanese and had to talk to his mates at Yamaha in Japan to get the story.
The displays on the WR250R have a design fault. If the power feed voltage drops too low for too long then something pops and messes up the receiving of the speedo sensor signal to 3x actual speed. Otherwise the display seems to work fine.
The fix was to replace the display. At >$AUD1050 for another display with the same design fault waiting to happen again - I don't think so.
If anyone has this fault after leaving your ignition on and letting the battery run flat then this is the cause.
Lesson: Dont use the kill switch - use the keys to switch off and remove them from the ignition.
Request: How do I source a 2nd hand display (metric/km) for a WR250R at a reasonable price?

Don't know about you guys down under, but if it was in the states, one could make the argument that the odometer is no longer accurate, and force MamaYama to replace it for free. The Departments of Transportation around here tend to be very serious about accurate odometer readings.

Looks like the same thing just happen to me.
My battery was going weak and had to bump start it a few times..
A few times while riding the lcd would just go blank, high beam and N light still work.

So i go to replace my battery, speedo working fine.. soon as i put the battery in the lcd hasnt worked since

Trail Tech makes a speedo/trip meter for around $109-$139. Easy to use and install. I have the Vapor on my bike and love it. That would get you speedo etc but to bad that the stock cluster is wrecked.

http://www.trailtech.net/computers.html

This whole speedo head dieing thing is freaking me out a little. I wake up in the middle of the night and go down an check to make sure my battery tender is hooked up. I've heard about this happening way too many times now.
I guess just be really careful, and don't screw up. Unfortunately not my strong suit.

There were a couple of units on ebay last month, but nothing now. I wonder what it would take to repair one?? A handy fellow could do well changing a diode or something, and bringing them back to life.

SheWolf wrote:

Interesting, I must have been lucky then when my battery drained back when I didn't have my acc stuff on a relay. I got a push start, and ran the bike until it charged. Display hasn't had a hiccup.

Just thinking out loud........................................

When you ran your battery down the key wasn't on so the head unit never saw the low voltage until the key was turned back on..... Is this correct?

That would be the difference from leaving the key on and running the battery down while the head unit was powered up.

I'm bumping this up too see if anyone else has had this problem and to post an ebay link to a nice low mileage used one.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/09-WR250X-WR250-WR250R-Odometer-speedometer-cluster-guage-NEW-6-/200751133874?pt=Motorcycles_Parts_Accessories&hash=item2ebdb334b2&vxp=mtr

Bumping this one up.

Huh. This seems to have hit me too; anyone got any documentation on it, or what causes it?

The new speedo cluster is ... fairly pricey, and I'd like to avoid replacing it unless I have to. My local Yamaha dealer didn't seem to heave heard of it.

Tried disconnecting the battery; going to replace it, just in case, but it's not looking good.

I hope this isn't in bad taste...
But one of you guys should take some footage of your bike doing 0-150 mph in record time!
Only positive i could think of for the situation...

xy500 wrote:

I hope this isn't in bad taste...
But one of you guys should take some footage of your bike doing 0-150 mph in record time!
Only positive i could think of for the situation...

Nice! :) Be pretty funny.

Anyone have any more info on this? I had a battery connection get loose. After tightening it I noticed this behavior. Speedo read about 120 when I was going with traffic on a 45 MPH street. Mine is a 08wrr. I did a factory reset of my speedodrd hoping that was it but have not ridden it yet to see if that fixed. Now I'm paranoid I have the head unit issue.

jgia wrote:

Anyone have any more info on this? I had a battery connection get loose. After tightening it I noticed this behavior. Speedo read about 120 when I was going with traffic on a 45 MPH street. Mine is a 08wrr. I did a factory reset of my speedodrd hoping that was it but have not ridden it yet to see if that fixed. Now I'm paranoid I have the head unit issue.

I removed my 12'oClock DRD; no change. Changed battery; no change. I'm assuming it's the head unit and -- from everything I've found -- you have to replace it. I haven't taken it to the dealer, because I'm pretty sure they'll take more than 3 hours to diagnose it, and that's the cost of a headunit.

*sigh*.

expatbrit wrote:

jgia wrote:

Anyone have any more info on this? I had a battery connection get loose. After tightening it I noticed this behavior. Speedo read about 120 when I was going with traffic on a 45 MPH street. Mine is a 08wrr. I did a factory reset of my speedodrd hoping that was it but have not ridden it yet to see if that fixed. Now I'm paranoid I have the head unit issue.

I removed my 12'oClock DRD; no change. Changed battery; no change. I'm assuming it's the head unit and -- from everything I've found -- you have to replace it. I haven't taken it to the dealer, because I'm pretty sure they'll take more than 3 hours to diagnose it, and that's the cost of a headunit.

*sigh*.

Just took mine for a short loop. Same behavior. Going to sit down and do some math. The Odometer was off about the same as the speedo. I'm going to see if the multiplier function of the speedodrd can be used to correct it. Rode 4.4 miles according to GPS. Trip odometer said 11.1 miles.

Did the math and it came out to a divider of about 2.5. Went into my DRD and entered 2.5 as the divider. Went for another quick spin. Trip odometer vs GPS, both said 3.8 miles. Speedo read roughly 10% high. I still had the -15.2% correction factor programmed in from before the head unit went crazy. A little tweaking and I'll have it back to normal without having to buy a new head unit.

Hopefully this helps anyone else with this issue.

jgia wrote:

Did the math and it came out to a divider of about 2.5. Went into my DRD and entered 2.5 as the divider. Went for another quick spin. Trip odometer vs GPS, both said 3.8 miles. Speedo read roughly 10% high. I still had the -15.2% correction factor programmed in from before the head unit went crazy. A little tweaking and I'll have it back to normal without having to buy a new head unit.

Hopefully this helps anyone else with this issue.

Good description on how your head went south, and info on the work around. Much better than buying a new head. Here is something that shows a little of what you are talking about for people like me who don't have a speedodrd........... yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikH6Shk3u44

had a flat battery over last winter and the speedo and mileage is out by 25% did any one find a cure for this problem or is it a new speedo head

phroenips wrote:

The Departments of Transportation around here tend to be very serious about accurate odometer readings.

I wished they were serious about it. Its well known that WR250's (the US models at least), have very inaccurate speedo's from the factory.

You're not on your own, USA people. Our Australian ones are woeful, around 10% out on speedo reading, but not too bad on odometer.

That is a piece of rubbish design on Yamaha's part A) because of accuracy, and B) because of the tendency to sh1t itself in circumstances that a lot of owners will find themselves. Bad.

does the drd speedo healer cure this problem

Same thing after deep battery discharge.
OEM speed sensor, speedometer and ECU are expencive, and nobody knows how long it will work after replacement.
So i've bought old 3.1x SpeedoDRD Y1 and installed it.
After a couple of test runs with GPS i moved to ratio -67,2 from initial -66,7.
-67,2 is not exact too, but i specially left 1 km/h more for not been caught on speeding.
SpeedoDRD tuning is quite precise to come very close to ideal.
So it works. 
 
My speedometer/ECU version can not be switched between km/h and miles/h.
It does not react on long SELECT2 pressing at all.
So if you have the same issue and  speedometer/ECU version with ability to  be switched between km/h and miles/h - try to do it to fix the problem!
It looks like speed coefficient is placed in one of ECU registry blocks and long battery discharge eliminates it. While changing from km/h to miles/h and back - right coefficient could be placed in right block again.

Also it seems to me - speedo head replacement is not a solution.
It is just plastic box with LCD and buttons.
I think that the problem is in ECU.
Does anyone tried to replace speedo head to fix the problem ?