Battery being drained?

I recently got a new YTX14BS battery only to find that within about a month it is becoming less and less capable when starting every morning. It always starts fine but is turning over slower and obviously holding less charge recently.

I ride everyday a commute of 4x 2mile journies and often use the bike most of the weekend and some evenings.

When hot it starts great and battery seems fine, its only the 1 starting effort each morning which seems more laboured. The charge voltage at idle at the battery is 14V so it is charging very well so i am assuming that the battery is losing charge overnight when left for a long period. I normally use an optimate but have stopped recently as this problem was happening even with the optimate and i suspected that the optimate wires you leave on the bike were intermitantly shorting or something?

The battery is only a month old so i'd hope it holds charge ok and therfore i'm thinking that it is being drained by something or do you reckon its as simple as a shagged battery?

Any ideas or comments?

Oh no alarm by the way.

Firstly, use your Optimate at all times when you are not using the bike as your short commuting trips will not give the battery enough charge to replace the oomph needed to start the bike. Use the little adaptor supplied so you can simply plug the bike back in when not in use. Remember to switch the Optimate off before you reconnect back to the bike or the Optimate won't charge. Check your battery connections too, make sure they are tight and lightly greased.

It could well be your starter solenoid that's starting to fail. Fit the Yamaha starter relay as it has a higher amps rating that that of the Aprilia part. Simple plug and play. Yamaha part number 4KD-81940-00. About £28 from you local Yamaha dealer.

LEGS said:

It could well be your starter solenoid that's starting to fail.

Click to expand...

Legs, you're spot on with your advise - but I did have a giggle at your above sentence. Is it just me? No offence meant mate:biggrin:biggrin:biggrin

LOL Bob :biggrin, it's just the way i worded it :thumbup

funny enough just did that before i posted!! But its more a case of when left overnight and when you try to start it in the morning you can hear the battery is not fully charged or at the very least loses its charge very quickly under load.

Now that i've replaced the solenoid I'll charge it up and try it in the morning.

Oh and i did always keep the optimate plugged in when not in use via the little fused connector you leave on the bike but the crimps in the terminals of the connector were getting loose and i feared they may be part of the problem.

Now i'm in the no-mans land of will this battery now be damaged enough that it won't hold a decent charge and i'll buy another one just to have the same thing happen again?

Is it plausible that a bad earth or something else could be draining the battery when left overnight? If so what should i check? If not plausible i'll bite the bullet and buy another battery.

Hope that cures your problem now that you've fitted the Yamaha solenoid. Remember to switch off the optimate before connecting to the bike though, then once the Optimate's plugged in to the bike, switch back on at the mains.

It may be advisable to buy a new Optimate connector as they are only a few quid

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/OPTIMATE-ACCU...39:1|66:2|65:12|240:1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Of course it could also be a duff battery. As it's only a month old it should have some form of warranty

thanks for that link LEGS and regards the possible drain/bad earth do you think that is possible? and if so what should i check?

Thanks again

After some investigation, I found that disconnected my battery shows a healthy 12.8 volts. If i connect it up and take voltage across the terminals i still have 12.8 BUT If i measure volatge between +ive terminal and the frame i get 11.6V and if i measure between the frame and the negative terminal i get 0.2V

Could someone confirm what they think this means cause i'm no bright spark? :biggrin I'm thinking that voltage between +ive terminal and frame should be the same or close to the voltage acroos the batt terminals, and any voltage between the neg terminal and the frame implies a resistance (possibly bad earth) or small current draw as i suspected? What do you lot reckon?

Bloody italian electrics!!