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Battery overheating?

K

kenr745542

Guest
Guest
This sucks to be my first post but had an issue this weekend with a bike I just bought and need some advice.

I did a fly and ride on a 2019 with 900 miles on it. Made it about 800 miles on my way home when I started getting warning lights and then the gauges went dark. I was able to keep it running and get off the freeway to a farm store.

It died and wouldn't restart. Battery appeared to be dead so I pulled it and it was too hot to touch without gloves. I noticed that it sits pretty much on top of the engine and was wondering if the heat just fried the battery.

Luckily the store I was at had a battery that worked so I put it in and everything was back to normal. Rode it two more hours and made it home. Seemed to be charging fine and running normal.

When it died it was 80 degrees and I had been riding for 6+ hours with only stops for gas.

I guess my question is this a known issue or maybe just a fluke? I hate to not trust a new to me bike but I'm not sure I want to venture far from home at this point.
 
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The battery may have just gone bad. A internally shorted battery would probably get hot.
or; Thinking about it,,,, possibly your hot wire from the battery shorted out against the frame?

These bikes are known for the dealer not tightening the battery cables correctly, and the ground wire has sometimes been corroded at the frame.
I suspect you had a poor ground somewhere, and so the battery wouldn't start the bike. (the battery may have been fine)
After you bought new, you corrected that poor ground. (either at the battery, or at the frame by moving it.
Go back and check your grounds.

Ride safe, Ted
 
I didn't have any way of testing the battery but when things started flashing I toggled to the battery screen and saw it was at 9.0v. Shortly after all gauges died so I was assuming it was a pretty rapid failure. Hopefully I didn't toss a perfectly good battery.

The PO had added a Battery Tender cable to charge from and all connections were tight. I'll clean up the ground just in case but the bike is pretty much spotless so hopefully grounds are still good.
 
I really hate to agree with Ted, but he's probably right. That 800 mile ride had nothing to do with it, even if was 110*.
 
Fluke battery failure, imo.

I and two friends have used non-motorcycle batteries on our bikes when needed, and in all three cases the batteries lasted fine for two years only ... failing the next year. YMMV, but that's my experience for the lifetime to anticipate.
 
That is what I'm hoping for. It was a fun ride until that point.

Bought it with 900 miles and up to 2,000 two days later. Hopefully many more to come.
 
The Battery does sit in the airflow from the radiator and I took a tour last week without the battery plastic cover on and was surprised how HOT the battery gets.
If had one of those temp guns thingys I'd see how hot it actually gets cruising but I don't own one.
Nick
2014 C-14
 
I think your clue is the 9 volts reading. I would have been interesting to see
what the electrolytic level was. I think you might have had low level and boiled
a cell or two dry or very low. The regulator would have kept dumping more
current into the battery trying to bring the voltage up, till well it just boiled away.
Hot battery, low voltage not enough capacity to restart. Farm stores are always
helpful.
 
Definitely still under warranty but the PO had the ECU flashed so I'm not sure what if any effect that has on the warranty. Hopefully I don't have to find out.
 
Well, I guess I spoke too soon when I said it was fine after I put a new battery in. I rode it two days ago and no issues at all. Went to ride it again this morning and volts are at 9 and dash is lit up like a Christmas tree with errors. It did start but I didn't want to risk being stuck on the side of the road so I jumped on my Bandit.

I don't see anything aftermarket that would be pulling power when the bike is off. Is there anything obvious to check or should I just get it down to a dealer hopefully for warranty repair?

Has a whopping 2k miles on it and warranty is supposed to be good until May of 2023.
 
Almost sounds to me that your voltage regulator took a dump. And something is pulling juice. Mice?

That said the bike does use the battery to run the clock and the interrupter. (red flashing light after shut off) The battery is good but needs a tender stuck on it about every 2 weeks if sitting for a long period of time.

Anything electric added on by the PO? The ECU flash would not have any thing to do with the issue. It controls motor management. Not the charging system, clock etc.
 
This is why I want a nuclear powered motorcycle.
Yeah, new problems like radiation and all, but then again, no stopping for fuel, makes it very attractive.
 
I'm waiting to hear back from the PO about anything added. He didn't mention anything. I don't see anything obvious but I'll take a closer look tonight.

I did leave a GPS plugged into the charging outlet but from what I understand there is no power to that plug when not running so I don't think that is it.
 
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