Battery keeps dying on 2016 R1200GS

[rtsteve]

Had the bike all packed up for a weekend tour through Utah a week ago when Friday morning I went to hit the starter and nothing. Well not nothing, everything came on and it turned over once and quit. Turns out a dead battery. So I jump started it and took some jumper cables just in case and no problem the whole weekend. Parked the bike in the garage on Monday afternoon after an 800 mile weekend. By Thursday it was dead again.

Took it right to the dealer, they checked the battery and said it tested fine. The only thing electrical I have installed are the Darla Clearwater Lights. They are connected to the battery and controlled through the CanBus, just like Clearwater suggests.

I connected a new Battery Tender Sunday and within three minutes it showed fully charged. I plan on leaving it off the tender to see if it drains again this week. If it does, I'll charge it up and disconnect the Clearwater Lights and see what happens then. I'm wondering if the Clearwater lights might be causing a slow low current drain through the CanBus.

 

[wilderwest]

I'm having the same issue. Just installed the Clearwater Erika lights and Billie brake light and 2 days later the battery charge is insufficient to crank the motor (10.9 volts showing). I suspect the Clearwater setup has a small constant current draw. Any ideas?

 

[marcopolo]

I have Clearwater Darlas and a Billie Jr. on my '15 GSA, and I have had no battery issues. Just don't ask me how they're wired; my independent tech installed them.

 

[vtbob]

I have Clearwater Darlas and a Billie Jr. on my '15 GSA, and I have had no battery issues. Just don't ask me how they're wired; my independent tech installed them.

+1 I have the same set up on my R1200RSW. (May 15 purchase) Battery is fine. I'd check your installation for low level battery drain.

 

[yeehastephen]

General Module "Light"

Charge the battery and then have the dealer check for an excessive milliamp draw. It seems there's a new "Final Drive" issue for BMW to ignore.

A friends GSA was doing the same thing. And then this week my RS started doing the battery-drain thing.

The culprit seems to be a bad batch of control modules - General Module "Light" Part #61358566461

Diagram # 61-5399 on the fiche...

Good Luck!

SS

 

[yeehastephen]

ADV Rider has been talking about it... http://advrider.com/index.php?threads/2016-gsa-parasitic-battery-drain-resolved.1173435/

 

[roger 04 rt]

Had the bike all packed up for a weekend tour through Utah a week ago when Friday morning I went to hit the starter and nothing. Well not nothing, everything came on and it turned over once and quit. Turns out a dead battery. So I jump started it and took some jumper cables just in case and no problem the whole weekend. Parked the bike in the garage on Monday afternoon after an 800 mile weekend. By Thursday it was dead again.

Took it right to the dealer, they checked the battery and said it tested fine. The only thing electrical I have installed are the Darla Clearwater Lights. They are connected to the battery and controlled through the CanBus, just like Clearwater suggests.

I connected a new Battery Tender Sunday and within three minutes it showed fully charged. I plan on leaving it off the tender to see if it drains again this week. If it does, I'll charge it up and disconnect the Clearwater Lights and see what happens then. I'm wondering if the Clearwater lights might be causing a slow low current drain through the CanBus.

As other have said, check the current drain at the battery negative terminal with the key off. To do this you have to put a milliammeter in series with that terminal by disconnecting the battery, connect the black ammeter lead to the ground cable and the red ammeter lead to battery negative. Measure that current for a minute and report the last reading. It should be only a few milliamperes.

If it is high, disconnect the add-ons one at a time.

 

[beemermyke]

I had a parasitic voltage draw on my 2016 R1200GSA last year that was causing the same issue. I took it to my dealer in Jacksonville, and the guy troubleshooting was very meticulous about it, and noted a current draw that was out of limits. I have a Fuzeblock fuse block, radar detector and hyperlites as farkles on my bike, he also verified that these items weren't causing the issue. Well, after some considerable head scratching, he noted that I needed some software updates to the bike. After installing those updates, the problem disappeared. He said he'd never seen that before. No issues with the bike since then, probably 5000 miles ago.

 

[rtsteve]

Sorry I didn't follow up on this thread...

I don't have my GS anymore and under agreement that's all I can say. It's not my bike anymore and I didn't get around to resolving the battery drain issue. I now have a 2016 R1200R and did the exact install swapping my Clearwater Lights from the GS to the R. That was 5 months ago and no battery drain problem on the R. I'm thinking it was a software issue on the GS. It's definitely not a fault of the Clearwaters. Anyway, loving the R. Feet flat on the ground is a nice feeling for the short legged people. .