Fogged up instrument cluster - a fix

[alexis291]

Hi,

I'd like to share my experience of sorting out my fogged-up K1100RS instrument cluster, which I see has been written about by others. I tried a few of the suggested fixes and mine seems to work, so here it is:


I bought my 1995 K1100RS in the summer and have been riding it to work daily since then through an English winter - rain and cold mainly, then more rain and a bit more cold. And some fog. When the weather started to cool down I noticed that the instrument cluster started to fog up inside and I discovered that it appears to be a common problem for those of us who use our bikes in cold weather.

The cause of this is pretty straightforward - the air inside the cluster always has moisture in it, the inside of the cluster is warmed up by the instrument lights, the moisture is evaporated and then condenses on the inside of the cold glass of the cluster. In my case the fogging was so bad that it obscured the bottom of the speedo and the trip counter. Aside from not being able to read my gauges I was not happy with the thought that there is moisture sitting on the circuits and connectors in the cluster so I decided to try and cure it.

The suggested fixes I read online seemed to go down three routes - seal the cluster completely to keep the water out,  ventilate it so that the moisture is driven away, or fit LED instrument lights to reduce the heat produced by them.

My cluster has what I believe to be a BMW fix for this problem, which is two holes on the underside fitted with a membrane that should allow air to circulate but not water. This clearly does not work. I have not tried to add extra holes (as some suggest) but my view is that doing this is risky unless you are geared up to reverse the procedure, eg by getting some rubber grommets and drilling your holes to a size that you can use them to plug up again. No doubt some experimentation will be needed to get the holes the right size and in the right place (ie somewhere where there is airflow but not where water will be blown in). If the BMW R&D department didn't get this right then I didn't expect that I would so no holes were added.

The next fix is to seal the cluster and this is easily done with electrical tape over the joint (in addition to the gasket that is there already) and over the BMW-added holes. However, the unit is still not sealed completely because the pins for the electrical connector pass through the casing and the connector is not designed to be waterproof. Nevertheless I did try this, having spent about 20 minutes carefully drying out the cluster with the back removed using a hair-drier. I noted the comments by another owner who had put his unit into the oven and destroyed the LCD gear indicator so I was careful not to overheat it. Most automotive electrics are designed to be good for up to 50°C so if you can still touch it, it should be OK.

This did not work, though the fogging was reduced.

My conclusion then was that even with the warming up procedure, either there is still enough moisture in the warm air to be a problem, or the fact that cluster can't be completely sealed means that the water gets back in. So the simple and cheap fix was to spend £1 on 5 sachets of silica gel and fit four of these into the spaces in the back of the cluster (being careful not to place the sachets where they will be pierced by the screws that hold the back on). Since then I have not had the problem, despite using the bike in pouring rain and cold bad enough to need my heated grips on. The tape is still on the seal for the back of the cluster but it may not actually be needed now. I don't know how long the gel will keep absorbing but it's a quick, easy job to replace it if the problem reappears.

I believe that fitting LED lights will give a false sense of fixing the problem because the moisture will still be present in the cluster, it is just not being evaporated by the heat of the lamps and condensing on the glass. The LEDs may look nicer and last longer than filament bulbs but they will not stop moisture sitting in your gauges. You just don't see it condense on the glass.


I hope this helps someone!

[tsnap]

This sounds like an excellent solution.  Here, we get a lot of morning rains to get those gardens growing, fog down in the river and stream areas in the morning and evenings,, and warm afternoons in the hot sun, as well as torrential rains during the spring any time of the day or night.

Have you had to replace the Silica bags yet?

I will be adding this to my K1100RS

Thanks for a great solution.

tom :clap:

[alexis291]

Hi Tom, glad you found this useful. I haven't replaced the silica gel bags yet, they are still working fine. I have gone through the UK winter with this fix and not had any fogging up problems at all. My instruments have been crystal clear the whole time. I will take the bags out and dry or replace them in the summer.
I think the main benefit of this set up is that any moisture in the instrument cluster is held in the silica gel, rather than somewhere else. The LED solution simply lets the moisture sit somewhere else in the cluster, possibly causing corrosion problems.

[Elipten]

Crud now I have pull those LEDs in the cluster.


2014 CB1100 DLX
2013 CB1100 Std
1990 BMW K75 RT

[alexis291]

You can still put the silica gel in.

[Photog]

You can renew the silica gel when it is saturated by baking it in an oven at very low temperature.
(I'm not sure how low, but a google search will probably get some good recommendations.)