Weak battery already??

[Garz747]

Ive been enjoying my MY19 Tracer 900 as a weekend warrior and have only put on 1600kms.  I recently posted about a long crank interval before startup and am now wondering if the oem battery could already not be holding a full charge?   Id be surprised as the activation acid  is not normally added until a bike is sold I assumed. I took delivery in April of this year.      I recently had to change a 4 year old Yuasa battery in my Seadoo and had never activatated a battery before.   Im under warranty but may test with multimeter this weekend.

[Wintersdark]

The OEM batteries are quality Yuasa batteries, and should last at least 5 years with care.  

A common thing that can cause this is keying on the bike with the run switch in STOP, typically because you shut the bike off with the run switch.  When you do this, the fuel pump will not prime.  Flick the switch to RUN before keying the bike on, and see if that helps. 

 

[Garz747]

i only shut the bike down with the key, never the run switch.. Just wondering what battery life is like on this bike.

[Rick123]

4 years and 50000km on my 2017 and so far so good. I guess you are not riding enough😀

[betoney]

1 hour ago, Wintersdark said:

The OEM batteries are quality Yuasa batteries, and should last at least 5 years with care.  

A common thing that can cause this is keying on the bike with the run switch in STOP, typically because you shut the bike off with the run switch.  When you do this, the fuel pump will not prime.  Flick the switch to RUN before keying the bike on, and see if that helps. 

 

Yes, the oem battery ‘should’ last many years, though many factors can affect that.  Just as a point of reference, my buddy and I both have 2015 models and both bikes still have the original battery.

Starting has never required a press and hold, just a brief press and it fires to life.  If I’m not riding as often, like winter or am out with a work injury, I will use a battery tender but for short periods -a day or two at a time. 

[Suzukiguy]

I would be really shocked it the dealer waited to add acid to the battery until it was sold. I would bet that they wanted it ready to go for a test ride, in case they had a possible buyer. Regardless, 4-5 years is normal life expectancy on these batteries from my experience. "IF" they are properly maintained. A quick trip to your local auto parts store, most of them will do a battery test for free, then you will know for sure if it is weak.

[PhotoAl]

Agree with the 4-5 years although I got more out of mine when I rode every day.  Heat and non-use are two enemies of batteries.  I just replaced the battery in my Honda Metropolitian scooter.  It was maybe 6 years old, don't remember when I got it but a while back.  It lives in my garage which is never really cold or hot.  It sometimes sits for 4 or 5 months at a time.  It always starts easily but does require longer cranking after a long period of not being used.  Neve put a battery tender on it but occasionally will charge it.  

[piotrek]

My 2015 (manufacture date 2014) is still on the original Yuasa. On tender (leave battery on the bike, main fuse out) for 3 months of the year. Cranks mad every time.

Edited October 13, 2021 by piotrek

[peteinpa]

I've watched several uncratings of new bikes and it seems the battery is in the bike fully charged but disconected.

If the bike sits then and they don't keep it charged at the very least it's life is shortened.

I got my FJ used, with only 1k miles on it and it had a different battery in it.

I think the 9 has a great charging system but small battery. You can remove the foam and put a YTZ14S battery in, larger with more CCA.

All batteries will last the longest if put on Battery Tender when not in use.

[Ride365]

Ya just never know with batteries......always a crap shoot.

[bwringer]

These batteries are factory sealed gel batteris; they're basically lying on their side in the bike, so they can't use the kind of AGM you fill with liquid before installing.

Get a meter on it and make sure you don't have a charging issue of some sort. Check voltage with the key off, with the key on but not cranking or started, check voltage drop when cranking, and voltage at idle and at 3,000 and 5,000 rpm.

Bad batteries do happen, no matter the type and brand. I've encountered several bad Yuasa batteries, and sharing this fact always seems to cause great offense. YMMV; most people like 'em.

 

In your case, I detect an important clue; it's a 2019 model with only 1,600 km in late 2021... the one thing that's universally bad for batteries is sitting around unused.

As mentioned, these batteries are filled, activated, and sealed at the factory. If your bike sat around for two years and more before entering regular service, it's almost certain the battery is nearly dead. Indeed, it's pretty impressive that it's managed to start the bike this long.

The factory batteries on these bikes are a very minimal size and weight; there's no excess capacity, so if they're not 100%, you'll have problems pretty quickly.

Assuming you're still under warranty, you should be able to convince the dealer to drop in a fresh battery. If the dealer bellows, denies, stalls, and generally starts a battle in hopes you'll go away, I suppose that's another issue.

But the fact will remain that you need a battery. If that happens, it could be faster and easier to buy one from another source.

Personally, I'm quite partial to Motobatt batteries. They really are next-level in performance, and the extra terminals are handy. You'd need to look for a Canadian source:

https://www.motobatt.us/MBTZ10S-Motobatt-12V-Battery_2

 

 

 

 

[knyte]

Agree with all the above - if it sat without being used regularly or otherwise connected to a tender, it'll degrade over time.

When I bought my (used) FJ, I didn't mess around - I just replaced the battery.  I had to assume that, as a consumable, it may be bad / degraded / unreliable, so that was literally the first thing I did (second was chain & sprockets because... o-rings).

The replacement is exercised frequently, and in the winter months it is removed from the bike and on a tender.  In all of our vehicles (two & four) we've never had a failure with this practice, except the Optima died in my SUV last year - after ~8 years of solid & reliable service.  I've seen flooded lead/acid last well over 5 years if not longer with proper maintenance - let them sit around and you'd lucky to get two.

[bwringer]

5 hours ago, peteinpa said:

All batteries will last the longest if put on Battery Tender when not in use.

This is a common belief, but is very much false; Battery Tenders and other brands of automated chargers can and will drastically shorten the life of smaller batteries like motorcycle batteries when left connected all the time.

If a bike is healthy and ridden at least once every few weeks, there's absolutely no need to use a battery tender.

If it's not going to see action for a month or more, a few hours once a month is plenty; just until the light goes green.

In simplified terms, the tender is constantly trying to keep the battery above 98 or 99%, and this unneeded activity leads to early deterioration. AGM batteries self-discharge very slowly (keeping the clock on your bike running uses a nearly insignificant amount of current) so a brief top-up, perhaps once a month or less, is all that's needed. (This does not seem to affect larger batteries nearly as noticeably.)

The exception would be if the storage is unheated and your location sees extreme low temperatures. In that case, leaving the tender hooked up should prevent the battery from freezing. But overall in these extreme winter situations, it's best to bring the battery inside and top it up once a month with a tender until the glaciers recede.

There's a side issue as well where Battery Tender brand chargers and similar chargers of other brands have failed and caused a noticeable number of fires. They should probably not be left plugged in unsupervised for long periods of time.

Edited October 13, 2021 by bwringer

[knyte]

12 minutes ago, bwringer said:

The exception would be if the storage is unheated and your location sees extreme low temperatures

yep this is our situation.

There are also tenders out there that perform periodic discharge / charge cycles to prevent exactly what you describe.  To take that another step further, there are lithium iron batteries that don't need a tender, don't degrade nearly as quickly, and are FAR more efficient - but also $$$.

It might be important to note that a battery tender and a battery charger are two different things.

[Wintersdark]

22 hours ago, Suzukiguy said:

I would be really shocked it the dealer waited to add acid to the battery until it was sold. I would bet that they wanted it ready to go for a test ride, in case they had a possible buyer. Regardless, 4-5 years is normal life expectancy on these batteries from my experience. "IF" they are properly maintained. A quick trip to your local auto parts store, most of them will do a battery test for free, then you will know for sure if it is weak.

Most dealers don't allow test rides on random bikes at all.  They're left at 0 miles.  They'll have a couple demo bikes which they allow test rides on, then after a model refresh they'll sell those.

All those new bikes on the showroom floor are almost never fueled up and ready to ride, and in fact when you buy new bikes you almost never buy *that specific bike* but a newly assembled one unless the showroom floor bike is the last they have.  

At least that's been my experience over the last decade or so in a variety of (new bike, remember) dealerships.