2005 Royal Star Midnight Venture Highway Lights Don't Come On All The Time

I have a 2005 Royal Star Midnight Venture and I have noticed that sometimes the highway lights are just on and other times they are not. Is there a switch for these somewhere on the bike I don't know about? On newer models there is a switch down on the lower left of the instrument panel, but not on this bike. Are the highway loghts just supposed to be on automatically on this year model? Do I have a short? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Have you tried cycling between hi and low beam on your headlight to see if they are wired against one or the other?

Yes I did try that several times. I thought maybe they just came on during the day too and a sensor turned them off when it gets dark, but that's not the case either.

Likely a short inside the front faring. That happened to mine and that's what the cause was. Anything that comes and goes like that is usually a short in the circuit due to a broken wire or bad connection.

Probably in the passing lamp fuse holder. Check and clean both ends of the fuse.

My bike had a dealer installed passing light when I got it. I went in to add a relay and found the glass fuse holder (really a glass fuse???) melted and just about to loose contact. Somewhere here on the site there is some pictures of it. Also wires run down at the bottom "hinge point" of the forks. There are stops there for side to side, it is close tolerance and wires get pinched easy if not tied and routed correctly. I could tell you how I know this, but you might be board. lol

So are the passing lights supposed to be on all the time then? Later models have a switch to cut them on and off. The Yamaha dealer told me there was a switch on the fairing, but it's not where he said it would be. Does anyone know if this 2005 model has a switch somewhere I don't know about as well? I think you guys are probably right it has a short somewhere and I will check the things you recommended. Thanks.

They are not all wired the same as the passing lights are an aftermarket item. Most dealers will install with the switch as per Yamaha instructions so you can turn them on and off. Some will direct wire to either the low or high beam of the headlights so that they are on either on low of high beam. Some (like me) will run them off of a relay with a separate switch. You will need to dig in and take a look behind your fairing to see how yours have been wired.

If you have a set of Yamaha passing lamps from a RSTD the switch will be a small toggle switch on one of the light housings. My Venture has that since I took them off my RSTD when I traded it in. I wired mine to be on all the time with key on. The switch on the housing will override that and turn them off if desired.