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Flat battery after only one week!

marcus_b

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Oct 30, 2008
Messages
70
Hi all,

After a short ride out a week ago for myabe an hour (with a couple of stops) I parked the bike up in the garage and forgot to put the battery tender on. I came to start the bike up today and just got the click of the starter motor but there isnt enough juice left in the battery to turn the engine over. Is this normal seeing as i may have started the bike up 3 or 4 times with only an hour of running time? Ive only had the bike a few weeks and its always been plugged in so I dont know if it is normal.

Thinking back to when i bought the bike the sales guy said it had a new battery so maybe there is a fault somewhere causing it to discharge quicker than normal and they thought it was just a dud battery? Think ive got a few weeks left on the warrenty... maybe

Marcus
 
Hi, i would take it back its not normal get the charging system and battery checked out under warrenty.Hope it gets sorted for you.
 
I started the Griso up this morning after being on charge and it starts fine and jumps to 14V on the battery meter... so looks like it charges up fine when running... or do I need to check the current from the alternator... if so how (ive got a multimeter)?

Out of curisoity I left the bike for 30 mins , came back to start it up, it fired once or twice and died. I then just got the characteristic click when i pushed the starter.I turned of the ignition of an on and waited for the computer to do its needle thing and still just the sadening click. Tried this a few times then waited a couple of minutes and it started up (albeit a little laboured). I also noticed that the dipped headlight massivly increased in brightness once the engine was running... (is the nomal for the griso??? my car does the same thing... but only puts sidelights on unless the engine is running) also the charger said it was fully charged when I first came to it thie morning (after about 15hrs on an acuman acumax 900). So maybe its either the battery or the charger?

Anyone else had these symptoms? :(
 
Just had another 10 minutes in the garage. Started up three or four times in row this time...(looks like the battery is fine as it hasnt had long enough to charge if it was flat ) but then it went back to the click! Going to check the volatage with a multimeter this time just in case.

Maybe its the battery terminals... although it is a new battery... I'll investigate and see if any di-electric grease is on there...maybe they forgot to put some one... i know the sales guy actually fitted the new battery! If not Ill get some grease and clean the terminals and see if that works...

Keep your fingers crossed!
 
Looks like I may have found my problem, I think (or should that be hope!) it maybe the battery terminals for a number reasons:

There is no di-electric grease,
The positive terminal is a bit loose
There also seems to be a gap around the edges of the terminal (see photo) so it is only contacting on the top surface... is this normal?
and im no expert but i would have thought that the main bike lead should be the first one in contact with the battery, mine seems to have the battery tender lead stuck in the middle, further reducing the contact area.

It will take me a couple of days to get around to picking up some grease... and some new spanners.. my others have gone missing! But I will let you know how it works out.
 
My '07 Griso was starting fine and the terminals were clean (for a while) then one day after the bike sat for a few days in the garage, I noticed the battery terminals were getting all "fuzzy" - it was attacking the cable end terminals and I had a time brushing them up clean again and then spayed a little 'terminal protector' on them and used a prop of electrical grease on the battery terminals and all has been well since.

You should have around 12.5 volts from your batter from a meter when the bike is cold. The voltmeter shown on the speedo when the bike is switched on is measured after running through the electronics and will show lower than actual voltage. Could be you have a less than optimal connection to the battery cables or you may have a short somewhere. If it's a short then that's when the fun begins....
 
Cheers I'll give 'em a good clean and greasing. I get 12.7V directly from the battery so im half confident its not that...

Lets hope its not a short... its going back to the dealers if it is!
 
Looks like you found the problem with the loose terminal. Yes, the only contact is on the top surface of the terminal, this is normal on most bikes. Di-elctric grease? Don`t waste money on fancy names. When you`ve cleaned and tightend both terminals (with the optimate lead above the main lead), give them a good coating of good `ol vaseline, (petroleum jelly). It`s been covering battery terminals since batteries were invented. And yellow grisos are faster!
 
check out this thread https://www.guzzitech.com/index.php?op ... id=103#106

I had a similar thing on my Norge, but I encountered "The Click" only once. I didn't try to see how many times I could restart the machine after charging though - that's really a way to empty your battery.
I ended up changing my battery (be prepared that's going to be very expensive), even though the old one isn't fully dead. Will see at the end of the week how this new one has stood up to 2 weeks of doing nothing in temps under 10ºC. Should be OK (was never a problem last winter), unless I indeed have a leak somewhere.
 
I haven't had the no start problem, but right after I bought my Griso last year, the negative battery wire connector broke off at the right angle bend. I had to buy a new connecter and I crimped it and soldered the wire to it. MG doesn't give you a whole lot of extra wire to work with, just like the brake and m/c fluid lines.

Tightening the battery connections should solve the problem.

Ken
 
I must admit mine stood for most of the Summer with a solar charger on it and has been fine.

Having popped the tank side panels and lifted the tank whilst looking for that oil leak mentioned in the earlier thread I had the battery out of it's 'well' but still connected. On putting it back I noted one of the right angled connectors looked a bit odd. Gave it a wiggle and it snapped through at the bend. Suspect they might be a bit fragile in this area. Saved me considering whether to disconnect it for the Winter or not.

On the clicking front: My pal had this happen on the channel tunnel on attempting to start to leave the train. Not hugely convenient, but then managed to start it before the tow waggon turned up (though it would have been interesting to see how they dealt with it). His verdict was a slightly loose battery connection.

Sounds like these bikes have connectors that are prone to fatiguing through, and perhaps have generally not been pulled up too tight. Definitely worth checking.

On battery life I'd comment that I'd expect a quality modern battery to last ten years now, assume it's not been to horribly maltreated. My Bandit was nine years old when I sold it and the original battery was still going like a good un. And there were several Winters with that when it didn't sit on charge and then had a fair old job of cranking come the Spring.
 
Re: battery life: that's what one would expect at least. However, given reactions from several on this forum, that's not what's actually the case with modern 'advanced' AGM batteries. They can fail just as well before they're 2y old, and apparently tend to do so abruptly.
 
cyclobutch wrote:
On battery life I'd comment that I'd expect a quality modern battery to last ten years now, assume it's not been to horribly maltreated.[/quote]

And while there will ALWAYS be bad batteries Yuassa's are generally very, very good.

IMHO most of the people who are experiencing bad battery performance will be able, or not, to sheet it home to poor preparation before the battery is put into service.

Unlike conventional 'Dry-Charged' lead/acid batteries Gel Mat batteries need time to allow the electrolyte to fully impregnate the mats before they are used. If this isn't done they will simply spew the acid out. This has been such a problem for Guzzi that they put out a service bulletin saying that they wouldn't honour any battery claims unless the exact set-up was followed, and quite right too! The battery comes on a pallet with the bike WITH INSTRUCTIONS on how to put it into service. My own feeling is that these are a bit conservative.

The gist is though that you put the acid into the battery and leave it for a MINIMUM period, (Can't remember what but I leave it overnight.) but it is certainly longer than a few minutes. Then you install it and ride, (The ODO can be reset on digitek dashes ONCE in the first 200Km period. Does that tell you something about the percieved 'Test' period for the bike???) or, if you're lazy like me, you put it on a high trickle charge for an hour and then put it into service.

As I said at first, there will ALWAYS be bad batteries but in 90+% of cases I'll bet you bull's balls to bunyips that what has happened is that the battery has been filled with acid and then installed and within 20 minutes the bike has been started. The wonder isn't that it takes a while to fail to start the bike, it's that it even bothers trying.

Contact with the posts is also important, I have had mine on the 1100 misbehave a couple of times but a clean and vaseline smear of the terminals has always fixed it!

Pete

PS. My 1100, my 1200 and my Mana all use essentially the same battery. I never use a battery tender and they have all sat for up to 8 weeks without attention and fire the bikes up immediately with no problems. My 1100 which has gone to a new owner was about 2 years old still has the original battery and started on the button, first time, every time, as long as the contacts were clean.
 
Hello

Battery... I'll wager it's a bad cell in the battery... NOt the starter... Take the battery to get it tested
 
++

The startup sequence has become a true software algorithm on these modern machines, and thus, if the battery voltage drops under a certain value, it is stopped or not even started.

Just a question about installing a permanent charger connector: am I particularly left-handed that I didn't succeed in doing that? I couldn't get the bolt to 'bite' the rectangular nut on my new Yuasa battery. Is there a trick to that? I'd not expect a huge variability in the thickness of chargers' terminal connectors, yes?
 
Im not sure about your "left handedness" The wiring harness was already on my bike when i got it so the nuts may have been changed when this was done. Plus I think I have new battery which maybe another make. On my battery if you pull it out you can lift the nut up from the side with a screwdriver so that you can get it to bite...that might be the trick you need.
 
Yeah, that's the issue, and I tried to do that with what I had available when I was installing the battery. Will have to take it out to insert something properly which doesn't displace or tilt the nuts.
 
I like to wedge something in there BEFORE I remove the bolt in the first place. That keeps the nut at the top.
 
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