Faulty battery?

[yoyo]

I fitted a BT14S in August after my original battery started to fail, everything has been great, I wouldn't say it was massively better than the BT12S but the bike started and that's all that matters.

I went to go for a spin yesterday but the bike would barely turn over, I jumped it and off I went, it was a surprise as I'd been out last Sunday and I would have expected the battery to hold its just in the garage for a week. I was out for an hour and would have expected the battery to have charged but nope still very sluggish. I put it on an Optimate overnight and tried it today but again very sluggish, I took it for a spin on the motorway for 40 mins before returning home as I was running low on fuel, it started (see video) but its not right.

When the engine is running I'm seeing 14.3v with the engine off the battery is 12.93v. There is a warranty on the battery, are there any other tests/checks I need to make before taking it back? There's no alarm on the bike, it's kept in a garage and is used weekly. //cloud.tapatalk.com/s/61ab7550d7fdd/VID_20211204_122422.mp4

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[Sierra1]

That's a bad battery. Did the optimate show that it was above/below 50% charge? Did it go into "desulfate" mode? I've had mine five years. Years two, and three, had a gap in riding. It didn't get put on a 'Tender regularly until the last year, and a half. So, a four month old battery should not have any issues.

 

[cyclemike4]

Be sure to check the connections on the starter relay. they will get just a bit loose and it looks just like a weak battery. I have seen that mentioned in this forum a few times and mine has done the same thing once.

 

[Cycledude]

After the battery has been fully charged have it load tested, if you don’t have a load tester of your own most dealers have them and are usually happy to test your battery for free with hopes of possibly selling you a new battery. Load testing is the most reliable way to tell what condition a battery is in.

 

[yoyo]

That's a bad battery. Did the optimate show that it was above/below 50% charge? Did it go into "desulfate" mode? I've had mine five hears. Years two, and three, had a gap in riding. It didn't get put on a 'Tender regularly until the last year, and a half. So, a four month old battery should not have any issues.

I have an old Optimate which only has 3 lights but it went green very quickly.

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[yoyo]

Be sure to check the connections on the starter relay. they will get just a bit loose and it looks just like a weak battery. I have seen that mentioned in this forum a few times and mine has done the same thing once.

Thanks Mike, I'll have a look at that before I faff around removing the battery.

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[yoyo]

Thanks for the help, it's the battery, all of the relay terminals were clean, I connected a meter to the battery, it dropped to 9.8v when the pump primed and 7.7v when it tried to start.

I had the battery from M&P and took their advice on a middle of the road model (JMT) I think I'll put my hand in my pocket and upgrade to a Yuasa one. Thankfully they're only 5 miles down the road.

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[Sierra1]

. . . . Load testing is the most reliable way to tell what condition a battery is in.

For the most part yes. But I've had a few test good, but be bad. To me, the hard start, but quick-to-green said it all.

 

[yoyo]

Well it was definitely the battery, lots of people talked about how much better the YTZ14S is over the 12S but I didn't find it any better, that changed when I fitted the warranty replacement. The old 14S would still see the bike turn over for a second or two before starting but not with this one, it fired right up.

For those thinking of changing the 12S battery, going to a 14S is a great upgrade.

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[sandro1973]

Well it was definitely the battery, lots of people talked about how much better the YTZ14S is over the 12S but I didn't find it any better, that changed when I fitted the warranty replacement. The old 14S would still see the bike turn over for a second or two before starting but not with this one, it fired right up.

For those thinking of changing the 12S battery, going to a 14S is a great upgrade.

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I had a similar issue with a 3 month 14S, the bike barely got started twice in the same day. But it never held a stable charge as i expected when the bike was parked for a few days and didn't feel particulary stronger while cranking a cold engine. I ended up going for a Skyrich Lithium battery, much stronger cranking, charges faster just by riding the bike, keeps at 13.34V even after a week in the garage.