Battery going dead

[Hogan624]

Hello,

I recently had the shop replace the battery on my bike. I went on a 5 day trip where I experienced some weird little issues. Once or twice the electronic display dimmed out when I was starting the bike and once my trip meter zeroed out randomly. Bike was parked for a couple of weeks and when I tried to go for a ride the battery wouldn't start the bike.

Things done so far:

- Charged the battery over night on 0.75 amp setting which worked well. The battery was at 13.3 volts steady with no drop over 5 min.
- Performed the current leakage check; muti-meter in series on the negative side and a 0.8 reading with the dial set to 20m. Tolerance is 2.5 milli amps.
- Performed the charging system check; bike warm and running and headlight on high beam; multi-meter reading 14.2 VDC. elevated the RPM to 5000 with no change in voltage reading. Book says it should be 15.5 VDC.
- I'm going to pull the battery and bring it to the shop to have them do a load test.

My question is before I start removing side panels and such are there any other quick checks I can do.

Thanks in advance to all that reply
Pat
2003 ST 1300

 

[dwalby]

do your own load test. Make sure battery connections are tight and free of corrosion. verify battery voltage is 12.7-ish with igntion off. Then turn key on and see what your battery voltage is. If its anything less than 11v then that is suspicious. If its 11+ then hit the starter button and monitor voltage while the starter is turning. If the battery is bad you will likely see a very low voltage while cranking the starter. I'm not sure exactly what you should see with a strong battery while cranking, but I'd expect at least 10 volts. Someone else may be able to provide a more accurate number on that.

 

[drrod]

Not unheard of to have a bad battery off the shelf. I would suggest taking it back.

 

[T_C]

temperatures below 5c I would advise to take the battery out and store it in the house until it's needed again. The cold is one of the worst enemies of the batteries.

When not in use, cold is one of the best ways to store batteries. A battery is just a chemical reaction, cold inhibits the reaction.
Film stock is the same way... if anybody uses non-digital film any more.

 

[Trapperdog]

14.2 is good. I have onboard voltmeters on all of our bikes and 14.2-14.4 is the norm unless running heavy loads which will lower the V. You need to wait much longer than five minutes after charging to check standing V. Also, check running V when the bike is good and hot, charging systems can behave differently then. My money is on the battery or connections being problematic though.

 

[Hogan624]

Update,

I took the battery out of the bike and found damage on the upper right back corner. Looks to me like someone dropped it or its shipping damage. I brought it back to the shop that sold/installed it to get them to load test it. They seem to think the damage is heat related (melting). They are going to test the battery and get back to me. Hopefully they will replace it for me.

Just a note it is a First Canada AGM battery so it should perform a lot better then it has I would expect.

I will post another update after battery testing.

Pat
2003 ST 1300

 

[dwalby]

wow, two bashed in new battery corners in the last few days, somebody must be kicking them around the warehouse or delivery trucks.

 

[ibike2havefun]

Wow does this sound familiar... Just went down this *exact* road myself, except I had done the battery replacement myself, and also converted to LED headlights. See thread "I think I created an electricity leak"...

But same progression otherwise. Still waiting to really test the new replacement battery. Work and weather are interfering with progress.

Hope you get it sorted out.

 

[ibike2havefun]

wow, two bashed in new battery corners in the last few days, somebody must be kicking them around the warehouse or delivery trucks.

Was thinking the same thing. But different brands and vendors. Probably an alien conspiracy.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

The cold is one of the worst enemies of the batteries.

As far as temperature goes heat is a much bigger enemy of a battery then cold is. A battery that is not in use stores much better in cold temperatures. I actually used to store my motorcycle batteries in the freezer at -18 deg. C all winter while they were not in use. It was not unusual for me to get eight to ten years out of a battery.

 

[dwalby]

As far as temperature goes heat is a much bigger enemy of a battery then cold is. A battery that is not in use stores much better in cold temperatures. I actually used to store my motorcycle batteries in the freezer at -18 deg. C all winter while they were not in use. It was not unusual for me to get eight to ten years out of a battery.

you live in Montreal, putting it in the freezer is no different than leaving it in the bike all winter, no???

 

[Andrew Shadow]

you live in Montreal, putting it in the freezer is no different than leaving it in the bike all winter, no???

Not really. It is true that Montréal is subjected to brutally cold weather on a regular basis every winter and sometimes for extended periods. The reality however is that we spend most of the winter around the freezing point which does not slow down the chemical reactions of a battery anywhere near as effectively as constant -18 deg. C (0 deg. F) does.

 

[dwalby]

Not really. It is true that Montréal is subjected to brutally cold weather on a regular basis every winter and sometimes for extended periods. The reality however is that we spend most of the winter around the freezing point which does not slow down the chemical reactions of a battery anywhere near as effectively as constant -18 deg. C (0 deg. F) does.

I know, I was just joking with you, probably should have put an imoji in there to make it clear I was just kidding.

 

[ST Gui]

to make it clear I was just kidding.

I laughed when I saw it. Thought it was funny regardless but the three ??? clued me as to intent.

I've read about 0˚ weather in history and science books but have never seen any. :grin:

 

[Kevcules]

I completely clued out and missed your jocularity. Probably an instinctive reaction because I am so used to so many people from your area of the world who really do think that we are a frozen wasteland up here that is constantly caught in the grip of frigid winter weather. It is not as uncommon a perception as one might think.

LOL...I agree. I live in NB and get the same weather as Mr. Shadow. Some think we live in igloos and skate to work everyday.
It amazes me though that other humans on the same earth as me, have never seen a snowflake and have "summer" weather year round. I'd like to have that someday too! Must be nice.....
I talked to a lady on the phone 2 years ago who was from Louisiana and she asked me in a soft voice "if it was cold in Canada?" I said "sometimes" , as I looked outside at my thermometer which read 97 F We don't see that heat often or for very long , but we do get it. We also get -31F and more with the wind chill. Not so nice weather....
For us the COLD is what determines when we replace our battery , but we still get 7-10 years from a battery.

 

[Trapperdog]

And here I thought y'all had mush teams or rode Harley's with outriggers (Eric Lobo) in winter.

 

[ST Gui]

I was all of seven years old when I found out that not everybody in Alaska lives in igloos.

 

[MajorTom]

Or as we say here on the Prairies, "But it's a dry cold."

I've ordered my last two sealed AGM batteries from saskbattery.com in the Queen City if anyone is looking for a Canadian mail order battery. The last one lasted me 3+ years and was cheap like borscht, as we also say out here on the Prairies.

 

[Kevcules]

Or as we say here on the Prairies, "But it's a dry cold."

I've ordered my last two sealed AGM batteries from saskbattery.com in the Queen City if anyone is looking for a Canadian mail order battery. The last one lasted me 3+ years and was cheap like borscht, as we also say out here on the Prairies.

I got my bike battery from Sask batteries as well off ebay. It was much cheaper than directly through the web site and especially cheaper than buying locally.

 

[Andrew Shadow]

Or as we say here on the Prairies, "But it's a dry cold."

I've ordered my last two sealed AGM batteries from saskbattery.com in the Queen City if anyone is looking for a Canadian mail order battery. The last one lasted me 3+ years and was cheap like borscht, as we also say out here on the Prairies.

I just changed my battery this year. The bike is a 2009 that I bought new in 2012 so I don't know if the battery was 9 years old or 6 years old. Either way I would not be impressed with a battery that only has a three year life but I assume that it is significantly cheap that the math works out for you even if you change it every three years.