Start Button Rapid Clicking no Starter Engagement

Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
3
Location
Great Britain
Brand new to the site - I am sure for many this is a well known issue, but just in case this helps someone else, here's something I encountered yesterday.

Never had a problem starting my ST1300 before. Symptom was that everything powered up normally (could hear fuel pump, dash lights ok, etc) i.e. normal so far. Hit the start button and no starter engagement, just a rapid clicking.

Figured out the clicking was the starter relay raidly making/breaking contact due to low battery voltage. Despite keeping the battery on a trickle charger it had obviously had enough (original battery on an 11 year old bike; that's a pretty good service life). A jump lead from the car got the bike started no problem which confirmed the diagnosis. New battery and all is back to normal.

Thankfully an easy fix.

Cheers
 
Joined
Apr 25, 2007
Messages
4,954
Age
62
Location
New Jersey
Bike
st1300 '04
STOC #
7163
Err yup the classic dead battery sound.
Disconnect the tender it may show a good voltage (charged) but has no capacity (load test/voltage under load) to start the bike.

11yrs is pretty good :)
 
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Messages
829
Location
Medina, Tennessee
Bike
2021 Tracer 9GT
STOC #
375
Brand new to the site - I am sure for many this is a well known issue, but just in case this helps someone else, here's something I encountered yesterday.

Never had a problem starting my ST1300 before. Symptom was that everything powered up normally (could hear fuel pump, dash lights ok, etc) i.e. normal so far. Hit the start button and no starter engagement, just a rapid clicking.

Figured out the clicking was the starter relay raidly making/breaking contact due to low battery voltage. Despite keeping the battery on a trickle charger it had obviously had enough (original battery on an 11 year old bike; that's a pretty good service life). A jump lead from the car got the bike started no problem which confirmed the diagnosis. New battery and all is back to normal.

Thankfully an easy fix.

Cheers
St1300s are hard on batteries, load test yours, it will probably fail. Replace with the most powerful one you can afford. I have been using these for years, best AGM out there for the ST1300 in my experience:
http://www.batteryweb.com/motorcycle-batteries-detail.cfm?model=PTZ14S
 
OP
OP
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
3
Location
Great Britain
Well here we are 6 weeks later and the same faultreappeared, i.e. press the starter and just a rapid clicking from the starterrelay. However, the bike started with ajump from the car.

I fitted a new battery though………….and I leave it charging ona maintenance charger.

My thoughts on possible faults:

1. A dud battery
2. A faulty battery charger
3. Parasitic battery drain
4. Faulty bike charging system

Diagnostics:

1. Battery voltage 13.4vwhich held steady. Not been able tocheck voltage drop during start which I will explain why in a minute howeverthe battery appeared to be sound.
2. With battery charger plugged in battery voltage peaked at13.8v and dropped to 13.6v after a few minutes. Just to be sure I plugged in 2 other chargers which both gave the sameresult so it wasn’t a faulty charger.
3. A total of 0.9mA drain which is much less than theservice limit of 2.5mA.
4. I rode the bike for about 40 minutes, stopped it andrestarted it, no problems. It wasn’t thecharging system.

I put the bike back into the garage and left it while Ithought over other possible problems but was officially confused.

The last check to carry out was to measure the voltage dropduring starting, so yesterday I went out to do this. No response from the alarm/immobiliser, i.e.press the key fob to disarm the immobiliser and nothing happened. Now the bike is completely dead. I have a Meta M357TV2 fitted so contacted Meta who passed me onto Sam of Abacus Alarms (mobile:07930332362, office: 0208 677 1999). Really helpful guy who told me this alarm has an internal lithiumbattery that lasts for about 10 years. Once it is dead the only fix is a new unit. My Pan is 11 years old so I had no choice butto go down this road. I asked Sam if myproblems with the bike not starting could be related but he hadn’t come acrossit before.

The new alarm was posted yesterday afternoon (?131 incl VAT& p+p) and arrived first thing this morning which was reallyefficient. It was a simple job (exceptfor the anti tamper screws which were a bit fiddly to undo but Sam provides asecure U-tube link tutorial). Unplug theold unit and plug the new one in.

Now for the magic moment: would the bikestart………………….YES!!!!

So, it must have been the alarm that was draining thebattery or rather the alarm’s internal battery charging system. It all makes sense now: I was checking thebattery voltage prior to starting the bike when the alarm was in sleep mode; whenI had run the bike and stopped it, I didn’t turn the ignition off so thealarm/immobiliser hadn’t kicked in; the system goes into a sleep mode after afew days which is why I didn’t record a high parasitic drain.

So, if you have similar symptoms and you have the samealarm/immobiliser, check how old it is; 10 years or older and you might havethe same problem starting to develop.
 
Joined
Aug 25, 2014
Messages
56
Location
Bristol, UK
Bike
ST1300A2
Doh, hopefully that's it solved now eh? My ST has had an alarm fitted at some point by the looks of it, as there are various plugs and what have you that are no longer connected to anything, my guess it was removed due to a similar problem. Every bike alarm I've ever had has caused battery drain issues in one way or another :(

where abouts in the UK are you?
 
OP
OP
Joined
Sep 23, 2014
Messages
3
Location
Great Britain
Doh, hopefully that's it solved now eh? My ST has had an alarm fitted at some point by the looks of it, as there are various plugs and what have you that are no longer connected to anything, my guess it was removed due to a similar problem. Every bike alarm I've ever had has caused battery drain issues in one way or another :(

where abouts in the UK are you?
In North Lincolnshire not far from Doncaster. The wife and I had a wonderful few days inthe Cotswolds this summer, not far from your neck of the woods. The highlights were a ride up Cheddar Gorge,a visit to Bath (sitting outside the Roman Bathswhilst eating a lovely meal listening to some amazing buskers was memorable)and even went to Weston-Super-Mare for astroll down the promenade! You live in abeautiful part of the UK. I have to ride a bit further afield to get tosome good riding – the Peak District is worth a visit if you are ever up inthis area.

Cheers

Pete
 
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