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No start? Check the battery! No, CHECK the battery!

R

robertllr

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Oct 11, 2014
Messages
45
Location
Virginia, USA
Time and time again I read here about starting issues. I've had them myself, and every single time, it's been the battery.

Example, I replaced the factory battery in my 2013 V7 Racer with the exact same Yuasa battery--the sealed AGM type. Less than 9 months later, the bike would not start. Mind, I put my bike batteries on the battery tender the first of every month during the off season. The Tender said the battery was fully charged. The multimeter showed the voltage was 12.4 v; still, no start. Surely it couldn't be the almost-brand-new battery! So I went around checking fuses, starter, solenoid etc.

Now faced with taking apart the starter switch I balked. It simply COULDN'T be the new battery...but one more try: I used old-fashioned jumper cables and hooked the bike up to one of the the cars. Bingo, instant start.

I then bought one of those electronic battery testers you can get for about $40 on-line. Aha. It showed a battery with almost no charge and a "state of health" of nearly nothing as well. (I don't know how the meter works, but somehow it calculates the available CCA as a percentage of the nominal CCA--which you enter manually--and gives you this "SOH" number.)

So my battery charger thinks the battery is fully-charged, and the multimer says it's putting out 12 volts. True, but with about only 1% of my original 200 CCA I am going nowhere.

So my WARNING: If your bike does not start, the FIRST thing you do is you use one of these meters to verify your battery is putting out the CCA listed on the battery-or at least a good percentage of it. Do NOT rely on your battery tender or your multimeter to tell you if your battery is good.

And FWIW, this is the second time this year I bought a new vehicle battery, only to have it test REPLACE in less than a year. Am I just unlucky, or do modern LA batteries have poor quality control?
 
Ah...

SEARCH is always your best friend here!

I have written extensively about this. The 4th post shows exactly what you are talking about. SOH is computed based upon CCA and Internal resistance, which is the most useful information you could get about a battery condition.

www.guzzitech.com

Battery Tenders - Yes/No and What size to get?

This issue rears its ugly head every so often so I thought I'd write about it. When you decide to utilize a Battery Tender (or other manufacturer) type charger to maintain your battery, (and I strongly recommend it), please do not waste your time and money on the 750mAmp wall plug in model. It...
www.guzzitech.com www.guzzitech.com
 
robertllr said:
Am I just unlucky, or do modern LA batteries have poor quality control?
Click to expand...
I too have written extensively on this. AGMs will get worse as time goes on. Simple facts of modern times. Buy a lithium battery and be done with it.
 
scottmastrocinque said:
SEARCH is always your best friend here!

I have written extensively about this.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you have, but many members continue to post "my bike won't start and my battery is good." I'll bet real money most of them are mistaken about their batteries (as I have been--till now) and that the so-called "startus interruptus" phenomenon is an probably an un-diagnosed battery failure, MOST of the time. (And yes, I've seen the post about the starter switch with the broken wire, and I suspect that that is rarely the cause of the my-battery-is-fine-but-my-bike-won't-start complaint.)

A bad battery is also deceptive because--even with a flat battery the lights and horn, and instruments will all seem to work just fine.

Is any of this new information? Of course not. But I posted because it seems you can't tell people (and I include myself in that group) often enough to be 100% sure--via proper diagnostic tools--that the battery is in fact good--and because, without the proper diagnostic tool, you might be like me and chase your tail over a dirt-simple solution.
 
Batteries can certainly be an issue.
But my experience gives another possibility.
Did the wiring mod years ago, but still had problems. Battery was well charged.
I replaced the wire from the start relay to the solenoid with one twice the gauge (and twice the current carrying ability).
Not had a problem since, even when the battery is not fully charged.
 
Just wanted to echo the fact that you can’t assume a battery is good because it was “new”. Our V7III came home in fall, spent winter on a battery tender, and come spring - was dead. Tender thought it was charged, meter showed it was charged, putting any load at all in it killed it. Cooked cell. Batteries are warrantied for 6 months, and this was something like month 7. Sucks.

__Jason
 
Maybe a bit of a nuisance on some models , but the +ve lead of the multi-meter to the battery lead on the
starter solenoid ( the other to ground) and simply pressing the starter button will give a quick battery load
test , much under 9 v and you've found your problem . Hey, it's a cheap test. Peter
 
jwtucker said:
Just wanted to echo the fact that you can’t assume a battery is good because it was “new”. Our V7III came home in fall, spent winter on a battery tender, and come spring - was dead. Tender thought it was charged, meter showed it was charged, putting any load at all in it killed it. Cooked cell. Batteries are warrantied for 6 months, and this was something like month 7. Sucks.

__Jason
Click to expand...


I've been saying for years that for a bike in storage the battery should only be charged for 24 hours once a month. Others disagree, but you cooked cell is the result of prolonged living on a charger.
 
john zibell said:
I've been saying for years that for a bike in storage the battery should only be charged for 24 hours once a month. Others disagree, but you cooked cell is the result of prolonged living on a charger.
Click to expand...
With some chargers, I would agree. However, Battery Tenders drop into float mode when the battery is charged, and float mode _should_ be able to be sustained pretty much indefinitely. Been using them for many years with no issues previously (and on batteries that would last 10+ years). However, when this happened I did end up getting a new Tender that is supposed to work better with the likes of newer AGM batteries and such, but... I don't really think it was the Tender's fault. At any rate, I'm going to be more proactive about checking my batteries going forward.

__Jason
 
I would echo John's point, charge it every 3 or 4 weeks. Unless you pull the main fuse or disconnect the battery the ECU will discharge it in little over a month.
The one thing which kills these tiny batteries is deep discharge, but also they contain very little fluid, so any heat build-up from over charging will dry them out, and that's what probably happened to yours.
 
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