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2020 Triumph Scrambler 1200 XC TFT/dash moisture failure and disassembly - Captain's Log

5.8K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  sdk  
#1 · (Edited)
This is a personal story of what not to do if you ever find an issue where moisture got into your dash on your triumph scrambler 1200 2019- and neither it nor the bike will turn on/start. I made an account and am writing this because I could not find a similar thread anywhere that attempted disassembly of the TFT module itself.

Personal recommendation/tl;dr: If you left your bike out in the rain, or a crazy humid/foggy day, and now the battery is dead and the tft wont start but the main lights will (with a fresh battery), its likely the tft. Water/moisture got in somehow, condensed in the bottom left corner inside the tft (maybe because of the way the bike leans when parked), shorted a couple of critical power rails inside the connector-pcb area which in turn bursted some critical capacitors and caused the whole board to fail. The module is likely FUBAR unless you're really good at cleaning up multi-layer pcb burns, and even if you are getting in is completely destructive and creates way more points of failure than it fixes. If you are outside warrenty+goodwill period, either ask the nearest dealership to order you a new dash or lookup T2502972 and order the part yourself. When it arrives, if you're willing/allowed to, install it yourself (only need a hex set) and ask the dealership to just flash the module. The part itself is already $1200 and almost no one domestic (US) keeps stock of it, you don't need to spend any more time/money than absolutely necessary.


Context: ~13 Days ago, left my bike in the outdoor parking spot next to my house instead of the covered parking garage down the street I use normally. I was in a rush and told myself the moment I get a chance I'll put it back. While I was busy lying to myself, the next day had near constant rain, followed by a day of clear warm weather, followed by another day of rain. On the 4th day, My bike would not start when I wanted to go for a joy ride.

[start of unnecessary background/rant section]

Day of incident: The Bike wont start. After charging the battery using my roommates' car, the headlights and taillights come on, I can hear a few faint clicks, but no tft, and fuel pump wont start. Looking online, TFT display likely got moisture in somehow, and caused a short. My adventure heritage bike doesn't do well in the rain... go figure. I'll try to dry the module itself in a hot dry spot in my apartment then plug it back in, see if it fixes it.

Day 2: It didnt work, the condensation I saw on the TFT originally was gone when i brought it back to the bike, but after 30 min there's already visible condensation again. No visible openings to the module, so i think its fully sealed except for a crack somewhere and the water vapor isn't escaping properly, so its stuck in there. Time to call dealership for a quote. "You have reached the vo-" the dealership is closed on Mondays... go figure.

Day 3: Had to get my bike towed to the place, maybe I should get an old small truck with a tow ramp. I give the go ahead for the dealer to run like a 30 min diagnostics to confirm its the issue I think it is, because you never know. I tell the tow guy and mention briefly on the phone that the battery is charged but it the TFT drains the battery quick, if you're not gonna see it for a bit, just disconnect battery.

Day 6: 'your battery is at 3 volts, calling in to ask your go ahead to install a $160 battery' What? I thought I mentioned not to leave it connected... its fine, honestly it was probably a bricked battery anyway. I have a spare lithium battery I got for my roommate who ended up not needing it. I'll drop it off. at the dealership "Ok, just a heads up the battery voltage is 11.4v when I last saw the built in meter, I can check now to confirm, but be sure only to install it when you're checking."

Day 10: 'yea battery is no good. Its at 8 volts.' Ok now I'm confused, I confirmed with someone there it was 11.4v when I left it, and I'm being told you only installed it 10 min ago and its already at 8 volts? Fine, the internal meter is probably low quality, but apparently the dealership doesn't have a li-ion battery charger anywhere? Fine, maybe they work with only OEM parts, but that same dealership don't have a good battery around to just diagnose with? 'oh yea we have some good batteries we can use' ... then why wasn't that the first path forward? Ok communication issue on my part, but after 30 extra minutes I have confirmation that its likely the tft module like i thought. and the quote for a fresh OEM one is ... $1200?! Not to mention, a part that specific and expensive yet 4 years old now almost no one keeps stock of so I have to get it from manufacturer, which at miracle best is a week from now. Labor at dealership is $170/hr, so I'm already $85 in for the diagnosis. Apparently to install a new one is 1hr of install labor and 30min of flashing the module labor. I've taken the thing off and put it back, so im not spending $170 for that. Sucks I have to get it flashed and no one but the dealership has the proprietary software needed.. there's a Right to Repair lesson here somewhere. Honestly, still no one to blame but myself here, but I do seriously find it odd a scrambler of all bikes has this issue since its supposed to be designed for the elements. I agree for the part to be ordered, and count the days that I still have motorcycle mod money saved in the bank 😭.

Day 11: ... I am an engineer, I have a proper solder/rework station, and my roommate has a Dremel. I should be able to fix a darn pcb. Even if it needs expensive components, nothing is $1200 expensive, and even if I completely destroy it in the process, its a dead board anyway, I got nothing to lose. I can't even find schematics of it, so maybe someone will find this helpful someday. (Future me: I've heard oldhead engineers occasionally say the phrase 'I know just enough to be dangerous'. I understood the concept of it, but looking back at this situation, this was definitely what that phrase meant)

[end of unnecessary background/rant section]

Day 13: OK, current status is I'm going to the dealer to pickup my broken tft module from the bike, and go no-holds-barred disassembly on it. Its sealed on all sides (I imagine to keep water out) so I'm throwing non-destructive goals out the window, worst case I get plastic or rubber sealant/adhesive and new clear plastics which is still less than $1200.


Hour 0: Made it home, meetings all afternoon for work so I'm free to work on it while listening in. Here's the current state of the module. Dear god look at all that moisture.
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ok, there's a distinct line where I imagine the two plastic sides of the case were sealed together, i could tackle that with a Dremel... no too risky for now, lets just see if i can pop the front plastics open and start from there.

Hour 0.5: ... this isnt gonna work, I cant find how to go from here. On another note, while all the other plastic pindowns were still strongly in place (i broke them, they are not meant to be popped, do not go from this way, matter of fact don't do any of this at all) the bottom left one wasn't there... and also there's a suspiciously giant crack that was hidden till now in that exact spot. I imagine that has something to do with this.
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Ok, front didnt work, and back has nothing of indication for opening... Dremel it is.

Hour 2: ... That was my first time using a dremel. Do not use a Dremel for this. I mean, I cant think of a better tool to use, but there has to be a better way I dont know about.
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Anyway, theres a solid amount of plastic depth before I hit what I assume to be white sealant or adhesive, so its hard to believe that moisture got in through anywhere but the crack. Maybe Triumph relied on this seal being good enough that they didn't conformal coat the pcbs to i guess save money? Im not a motorcycle engineer, so I cant say for certain, but I'm guessing its not too far off. gonna see if I can pry it from here.

5 min later: ... oh sweet christmas, that wasn't sealant, that was a second plastic bracket... shoot.
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Well at this point the idea of somehow sealing it back together if I fix it is out the window... but in for a penny. Looks like next thing to remove is the tft border... gotta be real delicate yet all I have is a metal driver kit and a metal pocket knife. Seriously, this was a terrible idea.

15 min later: somehow got it off without permanently deforming it, only held by adhesive. back of the border has some part info as well... thats nice. There's four screws and a ribbon cable holding the tft in place, so I guess that's my next step. Feels like I am working backwards from the expected path though.

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10 min later: ... yo there's still moisture in here... yea its gotta be the moisture that shorted the board.
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Hour 3: Yea I might've went backwards. You can't see it in this photo, but on the outer sides of the plastic are two clips holding the plastic to the pcb, and the clips are facing the back that i haven't opened. Gonna need to really work my way around this. What IS in the photo though is something that suspiciously looks like the traces of a short. and its located suspiciously close to where the red wires are on the connector you plug into the tft. Further prying required (ha).
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Hour 4: Somehow got all the black rubber sealant finally cut, managed to open the clips, removed the plastic piece, and oh...
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... oooooh nooooo...

[continued in follow up post]
 
#2 ·
Hour 4.5: ... oh man, it really is that section huh...
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Well, might as well pry the pcb away from the rest of the casing and clean things up with alcohol to get a better idea of what happened... sigh.

hour 5: Yep, ok my leading theory is the power rails shorted another pin from moisture that got into the module through the connector via water vapor from the rain evaporating during the sunny 2nd day. That short caused the capacitor to literally explode (seen similar in my electronics lab a couple years back, ah fond memories), which inside the sealed enclosure likely cause the massive crack in the same corner. Essentially, I was right in what happened, but I got the symptoms and causes essentially reversed.
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Guess the only thing to worry about from here is finding a potential schematic or datasheet for any recognizable chips in here. Will update later when I find info. All this being said, I felt no type of coating when touching the pcb, so I defnintely thing having the thing at least conformal coated if not completely filled with clear sealant would've helped. I imagine it would also mess with potential wire impendences if not tested ahead of time, and I'm not a automotive pcb engineer, so who's to say; I'm sure they have their reasons.

Leftover pics for future reference:
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#3 ·
My new 2019 Scrambler 1200 suffered this issue of moisture intrusion into both the TFT screen and the left hand handlebar block....both caused complete shortouts and failure to start stranding me......FAIL

Bike was under warranty so I didnt suffer a financial hit but the bike sat in jail at the dealer for 6 weeks waiting for parts.

Further....the bikes IMU and ECU both failed that same year...so did the key fob system....was a complete disaster of technocrapd the experience of an otherwise brilliant bike with awesome physical build quality.

I bailed outa that sled before warranty expired.....I certainly hope they addressed those outsourced components but it doesnt appear so......
 
#4 ·
The failure rate of TFT clusters and associated electronics, especially the keyless systems, on models so equipped, is really alarming. The 2017/18/19 Street Triple R/RS seems to be the absolute worst culprit. It's made all the worse by the high cost of replacement TFTs because no one has come up with a surefire way to fix the things. Some Street Triple R/RS owners are looking at their third cluster failure, a huge expense with the warranty long since expired.
 
#8 ·
The failure rate of TFT clusters and associated electronics, especially the keyless systems, on models so equipped, is really alarming.
The KISS OF DEATH for electronics, regardless of the marketing appeal and the manufacturer's love of whistles and bells, is EXPOSURE TO THE ELEMENTS AND VIBRATION.

BOTH OF WHICH motorcycles are motorcycle constants. Big surprise this stuff is failing at an alarming rate and GREAT expense if the bike is out of warranty. An added plus for these failures is that you can be stuck on the side of the road.
 
#9 ·
I have a 2019 XC and have done 19000miles on it, and last week the TFT display suddenly started showing blanks I've never seen before where there should have been the usual symbols and figures. Not totally blank though. I stopped and tried to scroll through the menu to see if I'd accidentally pressed the joystick thing (I have big hands!). It didn't do anything. So I turned the bike off (it was still running OK) , waited a minute or two, and turned it back on - all seemed OK again! And it's been fine since.
So my question really is, is there anything I can do to stop moisture getting in to the TFT unit? Obviously trying to keep it dry is the start, but here in Scotland it does rain nearly every day or so it seems. But I do have a dry garage. I have had the small OEM flyscreen fitted from new, which does protect the back of the TFT (and the connector block) from driving rain as you ride, which might be a help, but if the case is sealed up as shown above , it doesn't look easy to improve the sealing from the outside. Maybe I need a supply of these disposable clear plastic shower caps to cover the TFT when it does have to be parked outside!
A big thumbs down to Triumph for this issue on what should have been a brilliant bike.
 
#10 ·
This is scary, all of it! I'm kind of glad I didn't know about any of it before I got a 1200xe, then bought a second one for my wife! I love these bikes, but she cracked her tft falling in a creek on Fitzugh road here in central Texas. I can't believe the only course of action is to replace that whole unit.... can't quite accept that. I have to seal that crack somehow. Does anyone have any ideas?