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Draining Battery!? Help??

ScottWise

Guest
Guest
Hello Everyone,

This is my first post on here. I've had my 2011 Concours 14 for a little over a year. I crossed over from big V-twin cruisers and couldn't be happier with the ride and performance-especially because I commute a lot on a twisty mountain highway! I am really frustrated with the bike electronically, though! I have experienced some of the KIPAS issues but the main problem now is my battery keeps getting drained. I recently replaced the battery, and got on my bike after not riding for a few days, and it was almost dead (not enough power to crank the engine). I have a battery tender so I charged it back up, it started fine, and then a few days later it's dead again!?

I have already spent too much money at my local Kawasaki shop on it recently, and am not taking it back in there for this. With the weather getting cold, I'm OK trying to tear into it myself, but don't know where to begin. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! If I can't get it figured out, she's going up for sale...for cheap! If that's what ends up happening, I'll be sure to post it on here, but I'm going to give it one more shot!

Thanks! ;)

Scott Wise
 
No need to throw the baby out with the bath water. You have a "parasitic short" that is draining the battery. Somewhere you have short that continues to drain the battery after you turn the bike off and remove the key. The process for finding what circuit on the bikes electrical system causing this is done disconnecting the NEG battery terminal, connecting a digital volt meter (one lead on the battery, the other on the black wire you disconnected). Turn the meter dial to read DC Amps. You should start this with a fully charged battery also. Not sure what the normal spec DCA drain is, I think around .5 is normal? Lets say your seeing 1.0a drain. Now with the meter still connected you want to start pulling the little blade fuses, pull one out, watch the meter, if no change in the reading, put it back, move to next fuse. When you pull the fuse that drops the reading to .5 you have found the circuit with the drain. Now you have to look at a schematic and find out what items are on that circuit. Next you have to start unplugging those items to figure out which one is causing the problem, usually it's just one.

Maybe the previous owner added some aftermarket accessories that are shorting out now? Maybe a winter mouse got hungry..took a bite out of wire? A few possibilities. I'm hoping it might be something obvious and easy to fix of course.

I attached a link to a you tube video that will help you out on how to go about tracking the short down.

 
What is on the bike for extra electronics?
Thats the best place to start, disconnect them and see if the problem goes away!
 
When I bought my '10 back in 2014 the PO had just replaced the battery with a YUASA. About 6 months later that battery died on me. I replaced the battery and got right at 6 years out of the replacement. I chalked it up to a bad YUASA. You may just have a bad battery. Either way good luck with finding the problem. Electricity mystifies me.
 
No need to throw the baby out with the bath water. You have a "parasitic short" that is draining the battery. Somewhere you have short that continues to drain the battery after you turn the bike off and remove the key. The process for finding what circuit on the bikes electrical system causing this is done disconnecting the NEG battery terminal, connecting a digital volt meter (one lead on the battery, the other on the black wire you disconnected). Turn the meter dial to read DC Amps. You should start this with a fully charged battery also. Not sure what the normal spec DCA drain is, I think around .5 is normal? Lets say your seeing 1.0a drain. Now with the meter still connected you want to start pulling the little blade fuses, pull one out, watch the meter, if no change in the reading, put it back, move to next fuse. When you pull the fuse that drops the reading to .5 you have found the circuit with the drain. Now you have to look at a schematic and find out what items are on that circuit. Next you have to start unplugging those items to figure out which one is causing the problem, usually it's just one.

Maybe the previous owner added some aftermarket accessories that are shorting out now? Maybe a winter mouse got hungry..took a bite out of wire? A few possibilities. I'm hoping it might be something obvious and easy to fix of course.

I attached a link to a you tube video that will help you out on how to go about tracking the short down.

Thanks a bunch, tireguy! I've got my multi-meter and my shop manual. Time to get at it!
 
When I bought my '10 back in 2014 the PO had just replaced the battery with a YUASA. About 6 months later that battery died on me. I replaced the battery and got right at 6 years out of the replacement. I chalked it up to a bad YUASA. You may just have a bad battery. Either way good luck with finding the problem. Electricity mystifies me.
For sure! Electrical stuff is not my thing, but here I go!!
 
What is on the bike for extra electronics?
Thats the best place to start, disconnect them and see if the problem goes away!
I bought it from the original owner, and the only extras he put on were risers for the handle bars and...(maybe this?) an easy plug in attachment for a battery tender. Could that be it??
 
I really doubt the problem could be the pigtail for the battery tender if it's hooked up directly to the Battery Tender. I'm guessing it's a small relay that's staying energized after the bike is turned off. When you get the meter connected across the negative battery terminal, try wiggling different sections of the harness, turn the handle bars all the way left and right while looking at the current draw on the meter. If it drops all of sudden you may have wire that rubs against the frame (ground) or another wire with a bare spot on it to create the drain on battery. The PO may have tugged the harness to much when they put the bar risers on causing them to rub against the steering head and wear out the insulation?? Any signs of mice activity under the seat or plastic?? Give all the connections a good visual inspection. Who knows, some foreign conductive object could have made it's way into the backside of the connector that allows it complete a circuit?? If it's really dusty and dirty under the seat and or plastic, take some compressed air to blow out the dirt. Look for the simple stuff first. Patience and Good luck!
 
Echoing CMoore here -- sounds like a bad new battery. I had the same thing happen and I was all over the bike looking for parasitic draws and shorts and bad connections. Repair shop was even suggesting maybe my battery tender was failing or the electric in my garage was at fault. BS -- it was just junk battery that I bought from them 3 months earlier and had failed.

Advise you test the battery. Charge it, leave it on the bench for a few days and then install and see if it starts the bike. Good luck.
 
I have a battery tender that is itself bad. Hook it up to the bike and it gives all
the correct indication. Runs the battery routine, gives correction again, then
slowly over the next two weeks or so discharges the battery and does not
recharge the battery.
 
Yes it could just be a bad new battery...good point. Scott, Lets make sure the charging system on the bike is doing it's job first. First thing you have to do is CLEAN the Pos/Neg posts on your battery, the cable connections going to it and the ground connection that goes to the frame. The connections need to be made shiny. Reattach the connections. Fully charge the battery overnight. Now when your riding down the road, bike at normal operating temp, your voltage reading should be 14.4V If your charging voltage is less than 14.0 your charging system is not putting enough volts back to the battery. If the charging system is working good I would then do a load check on the battery. If you don't have a load tester you can take it to a local shop you trust, does not have to be a motorcycle shop. Do the load test with a fully charged battery also. If it passes the load test I would start doing the tests for parasitic drain. If ya start getting frustrated, walk away and take a break. Lots of bikes have this problem from time to time, it's not unique to the C14.
 
Scott, any progress finding what's draining your battery?
Hi Tireguy...and all my other new friends on here that have written in to help! I really appreciate you all! My baby has been sitting in the garage for a few weeks now. I've been working too much to dig into it, but now I have some time off! It's going to be my Thanksgiving project to figure out what it is! I'll let y'all know. Happy Thanksgiving!
 
Last edited:
Finally...the verdict is in! The brand new Interstate battery I bought for it was defective! After some crazy, busy weeks of work I took the time to watch the video on parasitic drains in the electrical system and ran the test. I did it very carefully and used two different multimeters just to make sure. I couldn't find anything significant. I took the battery back to our local motosports shop where I got it, they ran a quick test and found it was faulty, and replaced it. I ran home and put the new one in and it fired right up!! It was a nice day so I got right out and took a good ride! Thanks to all of you who shared here. I'll be checking in every now and then and have a few other things I'm going to want to do to it eventually. I hope (once this crazy COVID situation lightens up) that there may be some kind of a Concours group ride I can get in on!! Thank again to all, and...Happy Holidays!
 
Scottwise
Glad you figured it out!
On another bike I've got, a 1990 BMW K75RT, I also recently had a funky battery problem, a 28 Month old SLA Battery went wonky on me. Always kept on a tender. 1 out of 3 load tests it would pass. Got a new lead acid battery and fixed my issue. MC battery's are so small...
Happy Holidays.
Nick
2014 C-14
 
Hey Scott,

Good to hear you got the problem fixed! I'm still a little surprised your local Kawasaki dealer tech didn't figure out it was a faulty battery...that's really bad the guy, who probably couldn't fix a sandwich, is working at a dealership.

Ya gonna join COG now right...:)
 
Hey Scott,

Good to hear you got the problem fixed! I'm still a little surprised your local Kawasaki dealer tech didn't figure out it was a faulty battery...that's really bad the guy, who probably couldn't fix a sandwich, is working at a dealership.

Ya gonna join COG now right...:)
We have better rates than the dealer! :)
 
Hey Scott,

Good to hear you got the problem fixed! I'm still a little surprised your local Kawasaki dealer tech didn't figure out it was a faulty battery...that's really bad the guy, who probably couldn't fix a sandwich, is working at a dealership.

Ya gonna join COG now right...:)
Actually...I can't blame it on my dealership. The head mechanic there is a great guy. On the information I got from you all on here, I did the "parasitic drain" test and didn't come up with anything. So then I pulled the battery back out and took it to them. They tested it right away, found it was bad and very quickly and apologetically had me out the door with a replacement.
 
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