I know I haven’t ridden in a few months, and the winter has been quite cold, but thought that my Oximiser would help keep my battery alive. It hasn’t.
Jumped it earlier today and took a few goes to catch, but then idled smoothly for 20 minutes or so whilst I got on with other stuff. Came back this evening, and had to jump it again - this time it caught immediately.
Took it out, and 1/2 mile down the road everything died. Managed to get in a bloody good workout pushing it home. ‘Thankfully’ the pouring rain meant that I didn’t overheat too much.
So now I’m looking for a replacement for it. It’s the F variant of the ZX9R (2002), and ideally I’d prefer not to mess around with topping up acid and such.
Currently I’m not doing a massive amount of riding, so something that will be alright if I’m not riding for a few weeks would be best. I do have Datatool S4 and heated grips fitted.
Am based in NW London, so happy for either dealer/shop location suggestions, or else best website/s.
Get an AGM (absorbed glass mat) rather than your traditional lead acid battery. They’re more expensive, but they self-discharge slower, are less damaged by being run flat and are completely sealed so they turn up ready-to-go and never need topping up.
Motobatt are popular AGM battery manufacturers, and are very available online, but there’ll be others. It’s not really something anyone does badly as far as I’ve been able to tell, so just get something that fits.
Yeah! Check the bike is charging the battery. Charge the battery, run the engine, and check the volts across the terminals at idle and at revs. Volts should be above 12 at idle, and max out at about 14.5 when you rev. If not, the charging circuit could be the problem, not the battery.
A multimeter will tell you the voltage, but not the available charge. It’s a good way to tell if the battery’s charged, but not really how useful it is. That said, re-reading the OP,
> Jumped it earlier today and took a few goes to catch, but then idled smoothly for 20 minutes or so whilst I got on with other stuff. Came back this evening, and had to jump it again - this time it caught immediately.
If it’s a carbed bike, then idling’s probably not enough to charge the bike - the voltage put out by the alternator rises with the revs as far as the regulator lets it. Often that’s about 10-11V at idle, and it doesn’t reach 12V until at least the sort of speed you’ll crawl at. 14.5V is the normal charging voltage. So you’ve not really given it a chance to charge before noticing that it’s flat.
> Took it out, and 1/2 mile down the road everything died.
If the battery was fucked but the charging circuit’s fine then you’d not expect this; if the bike’s capable of charging the battery then it’s also capable of running the electrical systems. As Art says, it’s worth getting the multimeter out, but you really want to measure that with a known-good battery.
I’d charge the battery externally (stick it on the optimate, off the bike, overnight and check it’s at >13V in the morning) and put it back in the bike and start it. If it starts immediately, open the throttle until the engine’s about halfway up the rev-range and check the voltage across the battery; if it’s more than about 13V then your’re probably charging the battery fine; turn the bike off and check the battery voltage again in several hours, if it’s dropped by more than half a volt then the battery’s bad. If you don’t get more than 13V then your bike’s not charging the battery probably, and that’s likely partly why the battery’s so poorly.
Managed to get my hands on a multimeter this afternoon. The bike’s been connected to the Oximiser since around 8pm last night, so about 23 hours of further charging (above the 12 hours that it had yesterday on it). Carried out the following tests (readings next to each one), though the Oximiser was still attached, and the Datatool active
Ignition off - 12.76
Ignition on/headlights off/engine off - 11.67
Ignition on/headlights on/engine off - 11.34 (and dropping quickly)
Fired up the bike, and she started first time
Engine on (idle) - 14.55
Engine on (revved halfway) - 14.57
So I’ve now turned everything off (Oximiser still connected), and will check again in a few hours to see what the reading is. From the look of things it seems that the charging circuit is working without issues.
It could just be that the battery was so drained that I should have left the Oximiser plugged in for longer initially. Will see - assuming all is alright, my first ride is going to be keeping in the immediate area, and not going down any steep roads (that I’d have the push the bike back up, ha)
What is the output amperage of this optimizer thing you speak of? Whether a battery charger has had time to fully charge a flat battery can be calculated by dividing the battery’s Amp hour rating by the battery chargers charging Amp rating and adding 10%, the product is the number of hours required to fully charge a completely flat battery. Some typical multimeter readings for a serviceable battery are:
· 12.6v – 12.8v fully charged
· 12.2v – 12.4v partially charged
· 11.8 – 12.0v flat
· 10.5v under load (starter motor spinning up) or dead cell
· 35mA standby current drain by ECU, alarm, clock etc.
Just checked it again - with ignition off, it’s reading +13.76v (Oximiser attached). Also turns out that I made a mistake before, and the original igniton off reading was +13.76v
So thanks to everyones help, looks like the battery is alright.
I’m planning on doing a small runaround on it tomorrow, to see what happens
National Treasure - I repeated the tests this evening after having disconnected the Oximiser
Everything off - +12.76v
Ignition on/lights off - +12.73v
Ignition on/lights on - +11.73v (and numbers started dropping quickly)
Engine on (started first time) - +14.33v
Revving to 6K - +14.42v
So all in all, it seems to be looking alright. I’ve connected the Oximiser back, and will hopefully take it out over the next few days (when it’s not pissing down with rain)
Good job, there are five diagnostic tests you can carry out on the battery charging system with a multimeter
Everything off +12.76v indicates the battery is holding a charge
Engine on (started first time) +14.33v and 5. Revving to 6K (no need to rev it over 3,000) +14.42v indicates the charging system is doing what it should
While your there the other two tests are
A) Test the battery’s CCA (cold cranking amps/battery load test). Disable the ignition and fuel systems and turn the engine over on the starter motor for 10 seconds while checking the voltage at the battery terminals. The voltage on a good battery should not drop below 9.4v – 9.5v during this test. If the voltage drops below 9.4v then recharge and retest before writing the battery off.
B) Test the battery for standby current drain (Note multimeter settings for reading amps - connect the red probe to the 10A DC socket and connect the black probe to the COM/Earth socket and set the dial to the 10A DC range). With the ignition off remove the battery negative lead and connect the multimeter between the negative lead and negative terminal. Standby current drain should be less than 35mA (0.035A). If the current drain is higher than that you need to find out what is draining the battery.
Yeah, that all looks like the charging circuit’s working, is the battery holding charge if you leave it disconnected completely? You’d expect no more than about a volt (which is about the accuracy of your average multimeter anyway) over the course of several hours.
And if you’re really only expecting milliamps you don’t need to be using the 10A range on the meter. If your meter’s got a continuity testing mode I’d just use that (or the resistance one), personally. You don’t much mind what the current is, but with everything off there shouldn’t be a circuit.
Yeah.