[Hesptg]

Hope someone has some insight on what could be going on. I have installed a new battery thinking my old one of 5 months was bad. Thanks Honda for the replacement.However it went dead over night. I don't have extra lights installed, I do have fog lights on a switch, disconnected them, a bustec wiring harness , disconnected that also and still there is a draw on the system.Any ideas out here is this vast knowledge base.
Thanks for taking the time to look and maybe have some ideas.
At a loss in Jersey
Gator

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[BACKDRAFT]

Most dealerships I have found is that when you buy a battery, they take it off the shelf, add fluid and stick it in the bike. never putting a charge on it. The voltage is so low that you will have a dead battery not long after getting it home.

Put it on a charger and then bring it up to a full charge. Then see how things go. Not a bad battery, just a very low charge.

Hope this helps

 

[BigD]

Most dealerships I have found is that when you buy a battery, they take it off the shelf, add fluid and stick it in the bike. never putting a charge on it. The voltage is so low that you will have a dead battery not long after getting it home.

Put it on a charger and then bring it up to a full charge. Then see how things go. Not a bad battery, just a very low charge.

Hope this helps

Ditto! This may be coincidence but the same thing happened to me
and after a full charge it was OK. :shrug:

Good Luck

Ride Safe
Dick

 

[KJ5IX]

The last battery I got had the filling and charging instructions with it, and if you don't charge it for at least the recommended time at the 2 amp rate ( working on memory here) for 4 hours ( again memory) it certainly wont last, particularly in the cold country.

 

[galewing]

Gator, Yon need to have some testing devices. A 12 volt auto tail/brake

lamp and wire and solder gun, etc. VOM.

Connect lamp between battery and neg. (-) cable. Lamp will likely burn.

Then pull one fuse at a time, thus knowing which circit is draining the

battery. And as said battery must be charged.

Mice can eat on wires and do much damage.

Or trailer bike to dealer.

 

[Pigeon Roost]

There is a small ongoing load from the GL1800 even when the key is switched off, but its just a matter of a few miliamps. Remove your current battery and DO get it on a Battery Tender. It may never be what it could have been though. Once your battery has recovered use it and an amp meter to check the "quiescent" drain of the bike. If excessive, you much trace it down and a good strategy is to simply pull fuses one at a time in a process of elimination. When replacing a battery, always check the bike's electrical system first -- the dealer should have done that.

prs

 

[LarryM]

Although you guys might be correct, I think you are all being a bit premature in your diagnosis. More information is needed before assuming that there is something causing excessive drain on the system. We need to know what conditions the battery had seen before it was put to bed for the night.

A poorly prepped new battery would not explain why the original 5 month old battery took a dump. So I don't think you should be blaming prep, but instead should look for a problem that would be common to both batteries going dead.

Excessive leakage current could indeed have caused both batteries to go dead. What I need to know is, was the bike ridden at all when the new battery was installed? If the alternator is having a charging problem, the battery may have already been nearly dead when the bike was stopped, and that would explain why it was dead in the morning.

Before doing any other troubleshooting, follow the advice mentioned earlier and fully charge the battery. Start the bike and see if the alternator is charging by putting a voltmeter on the battery. You should see somewhere around 13.5 volts with the engine running.

If there does turn out to be something that is killing the battery, there are two primary causes for this.
1. An incorrectly installed accessory
2. A stuck relay.

Leakage current problems are rare. Don't jump the gun and make assumptions that could send you on a wild goose chase.

 

[GWNorman1800]

New batteries come dry charged and adding the acid makes them ready to go. The chances of two new batteries failing in a short time are rare so I would be out with the meter.

 

[murf]

New batteries come dry charged and adding the acid makes them ready to go. The chances of two new batteries failing in a short time are rare so I would be out with the meter.

Just adding the acid to the battery does not make them ready to go at a 100% fully charged level. After adding the acid and sealing up a maintenance free battery, a short time is needed for the acid to be absorbed into the plates. (AGM type battery.) An equalizing charge is then needed to bring the battery to a fully charged state. Yea, you can just add the acid, seal up the battery and it will start the bike. If you do this however, the battery will usually never reach its full capacity.

 

[CAWing78]

Just adding the acid to the battery does not make them ready to go at a 100% fully charged level. After adding the acid and sealing up a maintenance free battery, a short time is needed for the acid to be absorbed into the plates. (AGM type battery.) An equalizing charge is then needed to bring the battery to a fully charged state. Yea, you can just add the acid, seal up the battery and it will start the bike. If you do this however, the battery will usually never reach its full capacity.

What Murf said is the proper procedure to put a new battery into service. Most MC shops don't do this or the customer doesn't have the time to allow them to do it.

 

[cycledude]

well i suspect the battery would b fine but there is something draining it, kinda sad that so many want to blame the dealer

 

[Waldo]

Check for a pinched wire in your right trunk hinge. There's a wire (red & yellow) that is always hot runs through that bundle and you may have just enough of a pinch to drain power, but not enough to cause a short & blown fuse.

 

[Hesptg]

Update

Ok , so I am sorry that I did not give all the details. New battery was properly charged at the dealer and I also put it on a smart charger before I installed it here at home. Next morning dead battery, alas the plot thickens
Yes something was draining the batt, I did all the tests that I could with the service manual but to no avail. Off to the dealer and they have it for almost a week and it seems ok , but then they go another day and it is dead. Seems that the radio system is shorted out and causing the problem. Only to me .Has anyone heard of this before. Now the dealer is more than fair on a repair that is not the problem , just wonder if anyone has heard of this type problem
Thanks to everyone and the correct way of installing a new battery and some good ideas for testing
Thanks again
Gator

 

[galewing]

Gator, Things happen. Local had to replace the wireing (bundle)

due to mice. Dealer charged $3,000.00+. New bike. 4:

EDIT: I would have taped the wires and gone riding.

 

[LarryM]

Gator, it is not common, but it can and does happen periodically. We used to get car stereos in quite often with complaints that the radio was killing the battery. 99% of the time, there was nothing wrong with the radio, but once in awhile we would find one with a bad microprocessor that had an internal short that was drawing excessive current through the battery backup line. On Delco/GM radios, the problem was actually quite common. They used a battery backup regulator IC that would get leaky.

I am not going to hold my breath on this one though. To do the test properly is a bit time consuming, and I question whether a motorcycle tech is going to take the time to do it properly. He may just be guessing.

Since it is intermittent, this makes me even more skeptical about the radio being the problem. I would bank on a stuck relay being the culprit.

Either way, this can be a difficult problem to troubleshoot, especially if electronics is not your game.

 

[WingWing]

...just wonder if anyone has heard of this type problem

... I seem to remember that Fred H. recently reported his Nav system (2009) was staying "hot" after he turned the key off...

Dennis