Parasitic Battery Drain

[KennyM57]

Has anyone else experienced this with their FJR? I have a 2009 and have had problems with the battery draining and not being able to start my bike after a few days in the garage. I live in SoCal so cold weather should not be a factor. I am running Mobil 1 20w/50 all year round. I have to keep it connected to my Deltran all the time, after I start it and ride for awhile it starts right up for the entire ride no problem. I had it in to the dealership for this very problem before as a warranty problem. After the dealer and Yamaha easter egging, replacing the LCD display, entire main wiring harness, and finally the sub-harness from the headlight to the main harness they said they fixed the problem. Well it's happening again, last time and now the battery tests fine. The only farkles I have connected to the battery are the Fuze-Block and my Garmin ZUMO 665 cradle/harness. Any suggestions from the collective brain trust? Thanks, Ken

 

[ionbeam]

The FJR has a quiescent current draw of around 0.002 amps, barely a spec and should take weeks to drain a fully charged battery.

Is the Fuze-Block ignition switched?

If your Zumo has a battery (the Zumo 550 does) and remains in the cradle the Zumo may be trying to keep its own battery charged at the expense of the FJR's battery.

If you have a multi-meter this isn't too hard to troubleshoot and find what circuit is draining your battery. There aren't too many items that see battery power even when the key is off. If you have a long time you can start pulling fuses one at a time and see if you can find the culprit but this should be a last resort.

 

[Bungie]

Two things.

Why do you list the oil viscosity as a factor?

and two. Shut off the GPS.

 

[wfooshee]

Two things.
Why do you list the oil viscosity as a factor?

and two. Shut off Remove the GPS.

Fixed.

A failing battery will behave as you describe. You say it tested fine, but what was that test?

But it is more likely a current drain somewhere. Remove everything not original and see how it does. Add stuff back one thing at a time until the short life reappears. Of course, that means letting it sit just for sitting's sake.

If you want to be more aggressive in tracking it down, you'll have to get an ammeter out and find how much current comes off the battery, then go to the fuses and measure each circuit, and continue that until you find something. Of course, that assumes that the first check, right at the battery, shows more than the microscopic draw that should be there.

 

[KennyM57]

Thanks for the input fellas. I mentioned the oil Viscosity because someone said that maybe the heavier viscosity was causing the more drag on start up, I thought that a bit far fetched but threw that info in there anyway. The Fuze-Block is switched through the ignition and the ZUMO doesn't get any power until I turn on the bike. Upon ignition shut down the ZUMO switches to it's own battery and asks if I want to shut it off or keep it on, I always shut it off, and it shuts down after 30 seconds anyway if I don't choose to keep it on. The dealership said the battery cells all tested good, Now keep in mind this battery may have been the OEM installed in 2009 so it could be 5 years old, or at the very least a new one was installed when I bought it as a new leftover in 2010. I just bought an Antigravity AG1601 16-cell lithium ion battery with 480 CCA so hopefully it will have some extra Ummph although the instructions do say it should keep a full charge for at least a year providing there are no parasitic drains. I do have a multi-meter so I'll keep an eye on the new battery very closely and start trouble-shooting should there be any noticeable drain after I switch to the new battery.

 

[Fred W]

If this is a parasitic drain issue, here's how to find the culprit.

Disconnect the negative battery cable.

Put your Multimeter in current measurement mode (Ammeter). You'll want to start out on a high scale and then knock it down after you see what's there.

Complete the circuit between the negative cable and the battery at the negative terminal with your ammeter. Leave the key OFF for the entire time.

When you first make the connection the bike will draw more current as the instrument cluster wakes up and the gauges sweep, but then it should drop down to the very low drain current ionbeam mentioned.

If you see much more than a few milli-amps start disconnecting stuff, or pulling fuses, until it goes away.

If you do see only a few milli-amps it confirms that you do not have a parasitic draw issue, just an old battery that is discharging internally (you won't read that discharge on your meter).

 

[KennyM57]

Thanks Fred I will give that a go before switching batteries.

 

[Geezer]

I had the same thing happen to me while on the road one time. I parked the bike for a couple of days unused and found the battery too low to start the bike. I removed the negative battery cable and as it came free I heard a relay click. I touched the cable back to the terminal a few times to verify and each time the relay clicked. It was a relay that I had just replaced for my aux. lights, so I probably got the wrong relay.

So, what did you change just before this problem started? Was it right after you installed the Fuzeblock? I don't know the details of a Fuzeblock but there has to be a relay, either in the Fuzeblock itself or in the circuit that feeds power to it.

 

[KennyM57]

Okay Fred and other followers of this post, I performed test as noted by Fred. Initial meter setting was at 20A DC, the meter bounced around .02-.03A, When I swithched to milliamps and guages finished sweeping meter bounced anywhere from .56 mA - .68 mA with a spike to 1.3mA and then just settled down to the 5-6 mA readings. So does this mean that my 4-5 year old battery is just old and tired?

Thanks, Ken

 

[Bokerfork]

The very fact that you have a 4-5 year old battery means your battery is old and tired. Just replace the damn thing. Too much thought and effort is going into this.

 

[Fred W]

A battery costs upwards of $100. I don't really see where making a 5 minute test with a DVM is excessive thought or effort considering that.

Kenny, yes current draws that low would not discharge a good battery in the times you are seeing. It is time to go battery shopping.

 

[RossKean]

+1

Why replace a battery that might be OK? My '07 OEM is still going strong. More to the point, don't put a new battery into a bike that might have an electrical problem! The parasitic draw (if present) would just flatten the new battery and quite possibly damage it. AGM batteries do not like to be fully discharged.

 

[timk]

I wish the bikes had master disconnects on them.

 

[ionbeam]

I wish the bikes had master disconnects on them.

Ya, but the ECU doesn't.

 

[RaYzerman19]

See post 5..... put the new Antigravity in and see what happens.

 

[supertankerm60a3]

Another, simpler test:

1 Charge battery.

2 Disconnect negative, wait 1 week, reconnect & try to start.

3 If it don't start: Bad battery

If you are ever up in Pismo, PM me.

 

[Fred W]

Do you really want to sit around and not ride for a week?

 

[HotRodZilla]

Well, during that week, he should have a fresh battery in there. Since we all know his old battery is crapped out and he's in denial.