• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

  • Beginning April 1st, and running through April 30th, there is a new 2024 BMW MOA Election discussion area within The Club section of the forum. Within this forum area is also a sticky post that provides the ground rules for participating in the Election forum area. Also, the candidates statements are provided. Please read before joining the conversation, because the rules are very specific to maintain civility.

    The Election forum is here: Election Forum

Battery Life

jgoertz said:
No computer required, tho' you'll need to reset the calendar and clock (menu settings)
Click to expand...

I understand that newer bikes, maybe 2016 and up, have the OBDII diagnostic port. I have an OBDII cable that I attach to an old Odyssey PC680 and then to my car to maintain power and presets when I change the car battery. Any risk in doing the same thing when changing the battery in a bike?
 
lenweiss said:
Thanks Greg. No obvious progressive issues. There is an on-board voltmeter, which I look at on occasion. Never needed a jump start. The recent failure was over the winter idle, with no issues before the bike's last use. I'm not sure when the battery went bad. It maintained a surface charge of over 14. When I tried to start it recently, the initial load brought it to 12.4, then dwindled to 9.6. Removed from the bike, it reads about 12.4.
If replacement 2.0 has a short life (warranty goes through November 2020), I'll go non-OEM replacementšŸ˜Š
Thanks again.
Click to expand...
Well, on September 13, while preparing for my first extended trip in this Covid-affected riding season, I determined that replacement 2.0 failed. Five months and four hundred miles on the bike since installation, but I don't know the actual date of failure. Max BMW ran diagnostics, determining that there was no electric system issue that would have caused the failure, including the auxiliary lighting and Fuzeblock. Cause of death - bad battery! So under warranty replacement 3.0 is being installed. That's four "factory-bad" batteries in a row, in less than two years; seems actuarially implausible!
HELP!
Thanks in advance.
 
lenweiss said:
Well, on September 13, while preparing for my first extended trip in this Covid-affected riding season, I determined that replacement 2.0 failed. Five months and four hundred miles on the bike since installation, but I don't know the actual date of failure. Max BMW ran diagnostics, determining that there was no electric system issue that would have caused the failure, including the auxiliary lighting and Fuzeblock. Cause of death - bad battery! So under warranty replacement 3.0 is being installed. That's four "factory-bad" batteries in a row, in less than two years; seems actuarially implausible!
HELP!
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

That sucks. The warranty replacement part is good, but at this point I would be thinking about where I might be on the bike when #4 kicks the bucket. If your charging system is working correctly that points a lot of fingers to bad batteries.
 
Thanks for the empathy. My gut tells me the issue is more than bad randomness to experience four bad batteries. I suspect there would be other riders with this experience, and there would be a lot of noise on this forum and elsewhere in the community. Or that dealers would be aware of an issue.
 
Another dying battery?

First off, I'm thankful I found this thread.

I have a 2016 RT with 30,000 miles, I bought it as a demo, therefore has the original battery.
The bike lives on a Battery Tender Junior when not being used, but I do ride year round (used to be daily until about March of this year).

A couple of days ago, after about 10-15 miles, I stopped for gas, and after filling up, I pushed the starter.
Nothing but silence (not even a complaining starter). Pushed again, engine started.
This no-start-then-start happened three times during the day. One instance required three attempts dead, dead again, then start.

Next afternoon (bike left overnight without the Tender), I pulled the battery out, no sign of damage or corrosion
The only accessories attached to the battery are a pigtail (for Tender) and Clearwater Darlas
Sprayed some contact cleaner under the starter button (actually WD40 because it's all I had)
Tested the battery with a multimeter off the bike, it read 12.9v.
I tightened all connectors down and added dielectric grease for good measure.
Reassembled, and bike started first time, readout on dash went from 12.9v to 14.1v

This afternoon, after sitting on Tender overnight, bike started first time.
I had the Darlas on, Nav V in the cradle and bluetooth radio to helmet speakers.
Readout on dash went from 12.9v at start to 14.1v when idling
I rode around my neighborhood for about half an hour and the readout on the dash fluctuated from 13.8v to 14.0v.
Got home, as a test, the bike started twice without problems.
I hope it's not a regulator or starter problem, and the numbers seem OK on this four year old battery.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on a new battery, but would appreciate sage advice as well. Thanks.
 
The first thing I thought of when I started reading your post was "poor battery connection." From the experiences I've had I think you did exactly the right things; test then clean and tighten the connections and test again. Sounds like success to me. I think the thing to do now is keep up w/ the trickle charger and be prepared just in case of more problems, but ride on. As your success level increases your trust will as well. Good luck!
 
ebell said:
First off, I'm thankful I found this thread.

I have a 2016 RT with 30,000 miles, I bought it as a demo, therefore has the original battery.
The bike lives on a Battery Tender Junior when not being used, but I do ride year round (used to be daily until about March of this year).

A couple of days ago, after about 10-15 miles, I stopped for gas, and after filling up, I pushed the starter.
Nothing but silence (not even a complaining starter). Pushed again, engine started.
This no-start-then-start happened three times during the day. One instance required three attempts dead, dead again, then start.

Next afternoon (bike left overnight without the Tender), I pulled the battery out, no sign of damage or corrosion
The only accessories attached to the battery are a pigtail (for Tender) and Clearwater Darlas
Sprayed some contact cleaner under the starter button (actually WD40 because it's all I had)
Tested the battery with a multimeter off the bike, it read 12.9v.
I tightened all connectors down and added dielectric grease for good measure.
Reassembled, and bike started first time, readout on dash went from 12.9v to 14.1v

This afternoon, after sitting on Tender overnight, bike started first time.
I had the Darlas on, Nav V in the cradle and bluetooth radio to helmet speakers.
Readout on dash went from 12.9v at start to 14.1v when idling
I rode around my neighborhood for about half an hour and the readout on the dash fluctuated from 13.8v to 14.0v.
Got home, as a test, the bike started twice without problems.
I hope it's not a regulator or starter problem, and the numbers seem OK on this four year old battery.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on a new battery, but would appreciate sage advice as well. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Why not consider a switch failure?
 
ebell said:
First off, I'm thankful I found this thread.

I have a 2016 RT with 30,000 miles, I bought it as a demo, therefore has the original battery.
The bike lives on a Battery Tender Junior when not being used, but I do ride year round (used to be daily until about March of this year).

A couple of days ago, after about 10-15 miles, I stopped for gas, and after filling up, I pushed the starter.
Nothing but silence (not even a complaining starter). Pushed again, engine started.
This no-start-then-start happened three times during the day. One instance required three attempts dead, dead again, then start.

Next afternoon (bike left overnight without the Tender), I pulled the battery out, no sign of damage or corrosion
The only accessories attached to the battery are a pigtail (for Tender) and Clearwater Darlas
Sprayed some contact cleaner under the starter button (actually WD40 because it's all I had)
Tested the battery with a multimeter off the bike, it read 12.9v.
I tightened all connectors down and added dielectric grease for good measure.
Reassembled, and bike started first time, readout on dash went from 12.9v to 14.1v

This afternoon, after sitting on Tender overnight, bike started first time.
I had the Darlas on, Nav V in the cradle and bluetooth radio to helmet speakers.
Readout on dash went from 12.9v at start to 14.1v when idling
I rode around my neighborhood for about half an hour and the readout on the dash fluctuated from 13.8v to 14.0v.
Got home, as a test, the bike started twice without problems.
I hope it's not a regulator or starter problem, and the numbers seem OK on this four year old battery.

I'm just about to pull the trigger on a new battery, but would appreciate sage advice as well. Thanks.
Click to expand...
It sounds as if your charging system is working as expected. No worries.
I too think you did the right thing by securing the battery connections. You should still have the battery load tested.
Mine failed after 3 full seasons. It didn't survive the next winter storage even though it was on a battery tender. It would show 12.8 vdc on my voltmeter and drop to 8 vdc after trying to start.
 
Iā€™ve been wondering for some time now if anyone has ever had to jump start a 1200RTW? Even when the battery is partially slid out of that tight space, it looks like a pretty awkward undertaking.
 
ebell said:
Iā€™ve been wondering for some time now if anyone has ever had to jump start a 1200RTW? Even when the battery is partially slid out of that tight space, it looks like a pretty awkward undertaking.
Click to expand...

On three different BMW motorcycles I have use 2 gauge wire to extend from the positive battery terminal to a point under the seat. With a screw-on wire nut to cover the stripped end this provides a convenient location to attach the positive jumper cable. A location for the negative jumper cable is easy to find.

Belt and suspenders folks can add a wrap of electrical tape to keep the wire nut from somehow working loose.
 
ebell said:
Iā€™ve been wondering for some time now if anyone has ever had to jump start a 1200RTW? Even when the battery is partially slid out of that tight space, it looks like a pretty awkward undertaking.
Click to expand...

Don't you have an exposed remote "Positive" somewhere near the exposed "negative" terminal of the battery?
 
lenweiss said:
Thanks for the empathy. My gut tells me the issue is more than bad randomness to experience four bad batteries. I suspect there would be other riders with this experience, and there would be a lot of noise on this forum and elsewhere in the community. Or that dealers would be aware of an issue.
Click to expand...

Been remiss in closing out my issue. Turns out my trickle charger was the issue - overcharging and frying the battery. New charger and new battery. No issues with the bike. Whew!!!
 
stinkypete said:
I've just replaced the OEM battry on my '16RT, so I reckon five years must about what you'll get
Click to expand...

Same here, with a 16RT. A new ā€œBoxflyer approvedā€ battery will be here by Tuesday (as long as OnTrac isnā€™t the delivery service).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

akbeemer
Battery Woes
Replies
17
Views
950
globalrider
globalrider
globalrider
Batteries, I must be doing something wrong...
Replies
16
Views
2K
globalrider
globalrider
M
BMW 1250 GSA Battery
Replies
11
Views
2K
318iii
3
K
99R1100RT starting electrical gremlins
Replies
11
Views
1K
pauls1150
pauls1150
S
1989 R100RT Charging Voltage and AC Ripple
Replies
3
Views
522
Scarletswirl
S
Back
Top