Dead battery


FrostHazer

New member
Hello guys, so I had my motorcycle standing out in the cold in my backyard (about-10/-12 celsius at night) for about 15 days (i was gone for vacation) and the battery just died. It doesnt start up, after 1 or 2 tries the battery has 0 charge. I havent contact my dealer yet, but I will tomorrow. Im just wondering what's the temperature range that a battery can work without probs. I mean my car started up imediatly so i guess its not the cold but the battery failure. Replacement should be in the guarantee right? Cause if the battery died once like that, it will do it again if not replaced...
 

Anthony

New member
I would be surprised if it needs a new battery. A jump start or bump start and a ride would charge it back up. The cells will still be good just no charge.
Battery's always last less in colder weather, and the battery on the bike will be smaller than your car. For long times of not using, It would be good to get a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up.
My Honda ran out of juice a few times, I fitted a amp and speakers and if I forgot to turn it off, no chance of starting the bike later. But a jump and away I went.
 

FrostHazer

New member
I would be surprised if it needs a new battery. A jump start or bump start and a ride would charge it back up. The cells will still be good just no charge.
Battery's always last less in colder weather, and the battery on the bike will be smaller than your car. For long times of not using, It would be good to get a trickle charger to keep the battery topped up.
My Honda ran out of juice a few times, I fitted a amp and speakers and if I forgot to turn it off, no chance of starting the bike later. But a jump and away I went.
Isn't a very short period of time (15) days for a brand new battery to discharge completely? Who tells me that it wont happen again if I let it standing 3-4 days or a week?Batteries aren't suppose to die if the vehicle isnt moved..(even more for brand new). If that was the case, in northen countries people wouldn't bother to use cars/bikes...
 

Ralph

New member
The battery on the 07 is quite small even for a bike
having said that mine started the other day having
been standing about 3 weeks in +5/-4 c just started
as it always as.
 

FrostHazer

New member
update on that issue; i jump started the bike. the ecu have gone mad, the throtle stucks, the tachometer shows 150km/h while the bike is standing still and it kicks while the rpm are about 2-2.5k...i dont know what's going on...i went to the dealer but the mechanic had a personal issue and wasnt there to tell me what this could possibly be...so i will go again tomorrow... i hope is not something serious but it seems serious. Also the battery doesnt charge form the engine,I must jump start it every time and is very hard cause it has 0 charge...im running like crazy in the neighbourhood..
 

xt660isgood2

New member
Don't suppose this will help but.....I'd be taking battery off the bike and giving it a long full charge. Then using a "optimate" or something similar in cold climes.
Your bike does sound like my ex wife! I'm sure you have already done above...if so it's got to be even a fugged battery or the charging of it not working. Hence dealer sort
 

FrostHazer

New member
Don't suppose this will help but.....I'd be taking battery off the bike and giving it a long full charge. Then using a "optimate" or something similar in cold climes.
Your bike does sound like my ex wife! I'm sure you have already done above...if so it's got to be even a fugged battery or the charging of it not working. Hence dealer sort
im not gonna do anything more, i tryed too much myself. the dealer will handle it from here...new bike doing things like this?..i wonder what the explanation will be...can a dead battery cause problem in the ecu??i dont think so..
 

Ralph

New member
Disconnect the earth black cable leave for a hour or so reconnect trying to connect it
in one go ie once it touches the terminal try to make sure it stays touching wile you tighten
it up, the less spikes and sparks the better then try that.
 

Noggie

New member
A low battery voltage can cause many utterly weird problems.

One of my cars is 25 years old, and was a technological showcase back in 1990, sporting gadgets and system that it took almost a decade for normal cars to have.
Having owned this car for 9 years soon, and being active on enthusiasts forums for this car for the same time I have seen countless threads on people with very odd issues. Everything from starting issues, rough idle, not running properly, half the instruments going dead, automatic transmission issues ect.
All caused by a bad battery, or to be specific, low voltage.
Modern electronics are very sensitive to power fluctuations and many components act weird when they get too low voltage.
You can measure your battery and it shows 12-14 volts and you think everything is OK, then you put a load on it and it drops to 8-10 volts and reek havoc with your electronics.

So in short, yes, a bad or depleted battery CAN mess up your ECU.

And since you don't know me, I am an electronic engineer, 10 years work experience with aircraft electrical systems, and 8 years of automation experience in staring up and commissioning automated drilling systems on the most advanced oil rigs built today.
 

FrostHazer

New member
A low battery voltage can cause many utterly weird problems.

One of my cars is 25 years old, and was a technological showcase back in 1990, sporting gadgets and system that it took almost a decade for normal cars to have.
Having owned this car for 9 years soon, and being active on enthusiasts forums for this car for the same time I have seen countless threads on people with very odd issues. Everything from starting issues, rough idle, not running properly, half the instruments going dead, automatic transmission issues ect.
All caused by a bad battery, or to be specific, low voltage.
Modern electronics are very sensitive to power fluctuations and many components act weird when they get too low voltage.
You can measure your battery and it shows 12-14 volts and you think everything is OK, then you put a load on it and it drops to 8-10 volts and reek havoc with your electronics.

So in short, yes, a bad or depleted battery CAN mess up your ECU.

And since you don't know me, I am an electronic engineer, 10 years work experience with aircraft electrical systems, and 8 years of automation experience in staring up and commissioning automated drilling systems on the most advanced oil rigs built today.
so can low voltage cause irriversable damage? is there a chance i'll need to change ecu?
 

Noggie

New member
so can low voltage cause irriversable damage? is there a chance i'll need to change ecu?
No your ECU should be OK.

Low battery voltage can throw out the calculations done by the ECU, and it can give the ECU wrongly scaled or corrupt inputs from various sensors.

To explain this easy.
there is a good chance the ECU is doing everything right, as the electronics usually have a 6v supply voltage..
but lets say the timing senor has too low voltage, and gives a wrong or too low pulse signal to the ECU, the ECU adjusts timing from this wrong signal and that messes up your timing.
or perhaps the air mass intake sensor is not providing the ECU with a correct amount of air so the air fuel mix is then wrongly calculated by the ECU and the engine runs rough.

I think a good charge would fix your issues, perhaps the battery has been damaged (internal short between cells, or defective cells), this way when measured the battery looks fine, but it has no capacity and drops to a low voltage when loaded by the bikes system.
The ECU generally stores data on senor ranges, and makes adjustments to make it self run right, sort of a self calibration.

What I think your bike need is a freshly topped up battery, and disconnect the battery from the bike for a few hours, perhaps over night, this should clear any stored data in the ECU, and it will start re-learning all the sensors, this may make the engine run a bit rough, or you may find a slight drop in power, but this is normal as the ECU re-learns all the sensors.
Doing a few runs through the entire rev band and a few start and stops should bring the bike back to normal.
 

FrostHazer

New member
problem solved,after i fully recharged the battery on the rechager the bike runs as smooth as before.no problems. it seems that the alarm i have installed was discharging the battery little by little.not gonna do the same mistake again.its good to unplug the battery if you leave for a long period of time as i did. The thing is that i dont know if this battery will hold or it has been "damaged"...time will tell.
 

Noggie

New member
problem solved,after i fully recharged the battery on the rechager the bike runs as smooth as before.no problems. it seems that the alarm i have installed was discharging the battery little by little.not gonna do the same mistake again.its good to unplug the battery if you leave for a long period of time as i did. The thing is that i dont know if this battery will hold or it has been "damaged"...time will tell.
Good thing everything worked out.
I doubt the battery is damaged, if it happens a few more times it may get damaged though, batteries don't like to be fully depleted.
As for the MTs battery, it's 12v and just 8,6Ah (amp hours), it's able to deliver 8,6A for one hour, on a car these are typically around 75Ah or more.

Let's say your alarm has a consumption of 0,1A, this means it will drain 0,1Ah every hour off your battery. so it will drain your battery in 8,6Ah / 0,1Ah = 86 hours, 3,5 days.
My guess is that it's much lower, perhaps 0,01A, which will make the battery last 860 hours, 36 days.

On a car, it will typically enter what is called sleep mode after about 15 minutes, at this point the typical battery drain is 0,015A, meaning a car can sit for 75 / 0,015 = 5000 hours, 208 days before its completely drained.
Before the sleep it's typical to see 0,5A, which will drain the battery in 150hours or just over 6 days.
Sometimes extra equipment like alarms and tracker systems may prevent a car to enter sleep mode, and you will drain the battery in a few days.

Also note that these figures is at what point the battery is depleted. The bike or car will not be able to start long before this time. Low temperatures will shorten this time further.
So that your bike sat outside in low temperatures for 15 days is probably right at the limit for the MTs battery, the manual actually states that if the bike is not to be used for a month, remove the battery from the bike, and make sure it's fully charged when reinstalling it.
 
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