Dead battery out of the blue - ideas?

[Dabz]

My battery's always very reliable..bike was MOTd yesterday and all fine, went to the sally, all fine, stopped for fuel and all fine...

just got the bike out and the battery is practically dead - not enough juice to start up or even light up the LCD display. Typical the day before a weekend away!

Any ideas? Parking lights weren't left on or anything...

[gedmib]

aint got a clue dabz but mine has done that twice to me now......grrr

[Dabz]

doesnt seem to be holding any charge at all...so much for my 7am start tomorrow

[BB]

Is this sounding like a later start & a new battery? :-?

BB

[FJ_Biker]

Could be a dodgy connection. Remove the connectors on the battery and apply some petroleum jelly, check other connections to do with the changing circuit and apply switch cleaner if they have corrosion

[Cemorah]

My battery did this to me in spring. Loose terminal meant low charging a full 2 day trickle charge and a couple of days to test the battery held its charge its been fine ever since. Other things to consider: Have you got one cell low on electrolyte? Is the battery able to hold a charge or have you got a charging problem? If you have a multimeter or voltmeter - a fully charged battery should be 13.6V or greater measured across the terminals (14.4 approx when charging at about 4000rpm) You can borrow mine if you need it or I can bring it to the sally next time and can test it for you.

[Dabz]

well I'm home having covered about 350 miles this weekend. The optimate was still showing 'charging' yesterday morning but there was enough juice to start the bike so decided to chance it. Stopped for fuel 95 miles later and plenty of juice...then it was left (outdoors, poor thing!) overnight and I checked it at 9am this morning...still plenty of juice! So scenic 200 mile journey back today, with 3 stops, and still the battery seems fine. Going to leave it a few days now and see what happens...

very weird!

[Kevinb]

Check through the wiring to make sure nothings shorting. You may have a chaffing wire & with you checking it over you may have moved it away from where it was earthing.

Cheers

Kev

[igbell]

Yes check the cables and if you have an alarm check that this is not drawing too much juice while in stand by mode, as this has been known before, I had mine do this when the Alarm had gone off a few times due a cat or something bashing it during the night (before mine lived in the garage).
My old Divvy would not hold a charge even on a new batt, found this to be a loose earth cable in the end.

[SupeRDel]

Sometimes batteries just die - nowt you can do about tit.

I had a similar thing on my XJR1300.

Electrics were dead.

I was routing around in the wires and the ignition lights suddenly came on.

Found that I had a break in a wire - as simple as that. Found it by pure chance.
Gently push the wire with the tip of your finger and things were ok.
Take your finger away and out went the lights