Battery dead on a 1 year old bike | GTAMotorcycle.com

Battery dead on a 1 year old bike

A

AlexGreat

Member
Forum Sponsor
I bought a brand new Yamaha FZ 07 last year in April. Took ownership of the bike a month later. To date, the bike has 1800 km. It was stored in a heated garage all winter, battery disconnected.

In February I installed a fender kit with a custom tail light, and the bike wouldn't start. I charged the battery, started right away, so thought it's fine, it just hasn't been used (although my 09 Ninja NEVER had any problems with this). I take it out 2 weeks ago, wouldn't start again. Charge the battery again. If I drive it twice/day (to work and back for example), it hesitates in the morning, but starts. If I don't drive for 2 days, it's dead.

So clearly this battery is dead.

Is this normal? I've never had a Yamaha before, but had 2 Kawasaki, a Suzuki and we have a Harley in the family and this hasn't ever happened to any of them. I also don't know if buying a new battery will fix the problem; if something is actively killing it, I don't want to be buying a new battery on a regular basis for a new bike. What to do?

Just a disclaimer, I don't know too much about bikes or what could be causing this... So if any ideas/suggestions, please share.

Thank you!
 
No, it's not normal. Either you have a short (unlikely), a key-off power drain (e.g. security system) or you somehow got a bad battery.
 
If its less than a year old it may be a warranty issue - take it back to the dealer.
 
Agreed if it is a new bike take it or just the battery to them and have it load tested after charging. That said, if the battery was near empty and sat cold all winter it could have been damaged. If it was fully charged before storage, then chances are much much lower.

Also, even if you ride it every 1-2 days, if the rides are super short (eg. 5km or say 10 mins), you might be taking more charge out of the battery to start than you are putting back into it while riding. Not saying this is the case, but it is worth mentioning.
 
I'm with conundrum - if it was left in a low state of charge, given the typical 10-15% per month self discharge rate even when disconnected, it's very possible it got critically low, froze, and is now trash.

Simply disconnecting it isn't enough - it should be on a tender for the winter months, especially if it's going to sit for extended periods in an already questionable SOC.
 
The battery is toast. It's sat dead for so long it's now permanently sulfated. Even if you did manage to charge it and bring it back to life it's damaged and unreliable. Try and claim warranty, otherwise get an AGM replacement, they can take more neglect.
 
Replace the battery, if it's on warranty then great. Get a battery tender and use it. I got 9+ years on my 1st OEM Yuasa and have 6+ years on the replacement Yuasa
 
So you did the "custom tail light" yourself.
Willing to put money down that you messed up the wiring and it is draining the battery.
New battery will also die within days.

Re-check your wiring, or have a professional check it.

No sense getting a new battery only to kill it as well.
 
Low rider said:
So you did the "custom tail light" yourself.
Willing to put money down that you messed up the wiring and it is draining the battery.
New battery will also die within days.

Re-check your wiring, or have a professional check it.

No sense getting a new battery only to kill it as well.
Click to expand...

Not sure how you can mess up wiring on a tail light in some fashion that it would kill the battery unless it was simply staying lit all the time, which I doubt is the case.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Not sure how you can mess up wiring on a tail light in some fashion that it would kill the battery unless it was simply staying lit all the time, which I doubt is the case.
Click to expand...



OMG. I just fell off the turnip truck......yesterday.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Kindly explain your reasoning then.
Click to expand...

First issue is that you assumed that everybody has the same basic mechanical ability as yourself.
Not always the case

I've seen some pretty screwed up projects.

ie. Morrets don't belong on an automobile.
 
Low rider said:
First issue is that you assumed that everybody has the same basic mechanical ability as yourself.
Not always the case

I've seen some pretty screwed up projects.

ie. Morrets don't belong on an automobile.
Click to expand...

You should get into politics.
 
The OP even says that this all started with the install of the fender kit:

"In February I installed a fender kit with a custom tail light, and the bike wouldn't start. I charged the battery..."
 
Low rider said:
First issue is that you assumed that everybody has the same basic mechanical ability as yourself.
Not always the case

I've seen some pretty screwed up projects.

ie. Morrets don't belong on an automobile.
Click to expand...

Fine and dandy, however we are talking a tail light – if it's a standard incandescent bulb it's pretty hard to screw it up in such a fashion that it's gonna kill the battery.

  • If you run positive to positive and negative to negative, it'll work.
  • Again, if incandescent, you can even hook it up backwards and it'll still work normally.
  • If you don't hookup the ground or the positive properly it just won't work, but it still won't kill the battery...because there's no circuit completed and therefore it's not drawing any power. .
  • If you short something out, it'll pop a fuse...not kill the battery.

Now, if it's LED the story is basically the same except most will not run on negative polarity, but it still wouldn't kill the battery.

The only plausible way the new taillight could kill the battery is if he somehow wired it to constant power, however as I mentioned one might assume he would have noticed the tail light was never going out, not to mention there wouldn't be any constant power circuit at that end of the bike anyways assuming he spliced into the stock tail light wiring.

This comes full circle to being a battery that suffered over the winter months because of being left in a probable low state of charge and then not maintained.
Forum Sponsor
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom