October 2018 gs exclusive battery packed up any idea if under 3 year bike warranty and anybody had any problems with them
Third GS 2014 onwards kept last two bikes 2 1/2 years and not had problem with either
Similar story.
The afternoon before a week long trip the bike was dead! Wasted time trying to recharge with the Optimate to no avail. I had 2 hours before BMW closed so no time to call out rescue and get fixed. I had to buy a new battery at a cost of £150. Had I had more time I would have looked for a better battery such as a gel/li-ion or something because I do not have much faith in the Russian crap they fit as standard. I understand that these Russian batteries are not very reliable. BMW know it and hence the reluctance to honour the warranty for the batteries, is my opinion. I still had to rush back to BMW because the service message popped up after installing a new battery.
As an aside, the first question they asked me was whether I had any non-BMW approved accessories attached. I do, indeed, have a TT and an INNOVV K2 fed from the same feed which is where the NAV would get its feed from (took some wiring). The INNOVV only gets the ignition feed from there, the TT gets power and ign. The CAN-BUS system doesn't take kindly to "rewiring" and thus I have removed the INNOVV for now and left the TT which I can disconnect separately. The cradle/converter for the TT
may not totally disconnect (apparently) when you shut the bike down.
However, after 1,000 miles in a week, I left the bike in a friend's garage for two months and when I returned the battery was again dead. I had disconnected both TT (cradle as well) and the INNOVV completely. Fortunately my jumpstarter brought it back to life and I have had no problems since.
I do have one of those EZ-CAN thingies but I haven't installed it as I haven't made up my mind whether I will trade the bike in when my Select comes to an end in Feb 2021. I emailed BMW to ask if it was indeed true that the EZ-CAN would be an acceptable method of wiring in accessories and would not void any warranty. Their reply, as you can imagine, was non-committal.
I think the problem was mainly having two accessories from one feed even though only one drew power. The CAN-BUS sytem is a little like APPLE; if you just use it as intended, it works really well; play around with it, or use it in a way it wasn't intended, and the problems start. They will usually come from left field, as well.
I wired my Triumph in in exactly the same way and never had any issues (also CAN-BUS system) but the battery was not Russian.
In conclusion: Whilst the CAN-BUS sytem undoubtedly doesn't really accept re-wiring, the battery is also too weak to support any constant drain on it either and very quickly begins to deteriorate. I'm hoping that this one will last until 2021. If I decide to keep the bike I will source a better battery.
