Battery Problem - Again?

[jasonbc]

Electrical equipment has a mean time to failure - basically an average of how long it lasts. Some units will fail almost immediately and some units will last hundreds of years but it averages out. It may be unusual for a reg/rect to fail in a couple of years, but, based on experience, I'd say it's far from unbelievable.

I could well be prooved wrong, but i still don't beleive this problem is a regulator/ rectifier fault it's too intermittent a regulator either works or it doesn't and fails and the problem would be permanent if it had failed not coming and going

[StumpyFingers]

I still think it could be a loose connection on the Earth.
That would be where I would start looking, also check the fuse holder, before replacing other items.

[jasonbc]

I still think it could be a loose connection on the Earth.
That would be where I would start looking, also check the fuse holder, before replacing other items.

I would be more tempted to look down that road first

[AlanH]

I could well be prooved wrong, but i still don't beleive this problem is a regulator/ rectifier fault it's too intermittent a regulator either works or it doesn't and fails and the problem would be permanent if it had failed not coming and going

If a fault in an electrical unit is due to differential thermal expansion, then often it will be intermittent and work at certain temperatures but not others.
Eventually they tend to fail completely but often there is a period of time where their performance is simply "flaky" working one minute and not the next. CDI units are another favourite for intermittent thermally affected faults. Electrical items, unless a very simple and sudden component failure, often have intermittent faults prior to giving up completely. I've worked on enough practical examples of Reg/Rect and ECU faults to know it's entirely possible.

I still think it could be a loose connection on the Earth.
That would be where I would start looking, also check the fuse holder, before replacing other items.

Ditto. I'd be looking for loose connections and corroded connectors that are reducing the charging efficiency rather than a massive power drain pulling several amps. That flowchart I posted also covers checking for loose connections first.

Multimeter time...

[Dave]

Hi All

Thanks for all the ideas/suggestions - some were easier to follow than others!

I now have the bike at home and put it back on charge using an Oxford Maximiser an after an overnight charge it came back with green lights indicating a 'strong' battery.

I then changed the Oxford charger for an Optimate and got the same result. So I may be being naive here but the battery must(?) be OK.

I have (per Haynes) warmed the bike up, connected a voltmeter across the battery terminals and it read 13.94 volts I then increased the rpm to 5000 and there was no change in the measured output. The output is within the stated 'regulated voltage' range so I assume this is good.

I then switched the bike of and disconnected the -ve lead and put the multimeter in series and got what I think is something like a 0.6 to 0.7 amp drain - is this OK or not?

I've checked the battery terminals (no problem) and the connector blocks under the LHS cover. I could get one apart (white one) and it was absolutely spotless, the whole assembly was clean so have assumed the other connector block (flat brown one) would be OK as well. It looked clean and both connectors are shrouded in the same rubber cup.

Dave

[StumpyFingers]

Check the Earth cable is Connected securely at both ends.
If it persists then try your spare key incase the HISS is playing up.

[jasonbc]

Hi All

I then switched the bike of and disconnected the -ve lead and put the multimeter in series and got what I think is something like a 0.6 to 0.7 amp drain - is this OK or not?

Dave

Mine draws about 200mA and doesn't have an alarm, if yours has an alarm fitted i guess that would be around 1/2amp so figures seem about right so 200mA+500mA would be roughly correct

[Dave]

I dont have an alarm fitted. The only electrical things fitted after manufacture are:

Heated Grips - Dealer
Gear Indicator - Acumen
Chain Oiler - Acumen
Garmin - Dealer

Dave

[jasonbc]

I dont have an alarm fitted. The only electrical things fitted after manufacture are:

Heated Grips - Dealer
Gear Indicator - Acumen
Chain Oiler - Acumen
Garmin - Dealer

Dave

Ok, what i would suggest would be to do the same test with the multimeter and disconnect each device one at a time and see if the reading drops, because in theory none of those devices should draw any current with the ignition off.
If you do find that one device drops the amount of draw leave it disconnected for a while and see if you have a reaccuring problem

[AlanH]

I'm with JasonBC on that. There shouldn't really be any drain other than an alarm that you don't have. There is very little powered when the ignition is off. One of the items that is still connected is the regulator/rectifier. If all the other items draw a blank, try unplugging the regulator/rectifier and see if the drain disappears.