battery problem r1250gs

[acaffair]

OK, here is the latest, not.. having the proper equipment for exact measurement here goes.
Overnight on the battery tender the battery sat at 12.74V, (drops to 12.5 in 2 days without tender)crank drop 9.8V started no problem.
charged up the battery to full , left to sit and it stabilized at 12.99 first crank voltage down to 10+ started no problem. immediately stopped engine and tried starting again, crank voltage down to 8.7approx and engine spluttered and stopped without any sign of starting. Guess the TFT would have lit up if the warning wasn't there already.
Seems the battery on this bike is on the limit, perhaps designed to a tight spec from BMW without any spare current built in.
In a month or so in warmer temps and bike engine run in I may not have problems.

Guess I should now fully charge the battery and monitor the V drop over a period of time but I have no confidence now and looking for a battery of my choice ---Problem ! I can only find a Shido Lithium to fit the bike.
the height seems the problem, I need 145mm , anyway , so Lithium mmm

And Yes I will bring this up with BMW on my first service.

 

[Nudibranch]

What Neil said...
My 2013 model started up no probs on Monday when it was 2.5° here. It had been stood for 2 months , no trickle charger connected. As far as I know it's the original battery.
You shouldn't have to be shelling out on an upgrade because of this defective item or problem elsewhere on the bike.

Battery recently died and my 6 month old R1250GSA would not start. Bike recovered back to dealer, battery replaced and software updated under warranty without drama. Well done Williams.

Good luck with your battery woes.

PS Battery should not be defective in a new bloody bike though!

 

[Stan9250]

I've got the exact same problem and mine has only done 250 miles is there an issue here??? Booked in with Marshals beginning of feb for first service and to investigate the problem.

 

[Matth]

I asked Dick lovett Motorrad ref the battery and it absolutely is covered so get back onto them and good luck

 

[Santa-2512]

ps personally, I would not go down the lithium route, low temperature has a big impact on performance.

Prhaps you dont understand how lithium batteries work.

They perform very well in cold weather

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[Joe 90]

Hi Santa,

the video showed the need to cycle crank the lithium battery to warm it up from only a bit below our zero..... agree ?..... so how will you manage that on these latest clever bmw’s Which ( it appears) have software control that disconnects the starter when the voltage Drops too low ? ( if it’s not that, then they have an ecu somewhere with a too high minimum operating voltage window.)
I would imagine that as a minimum something might need reprogramming when swapping from vrla to li-ion.
By comparison, I’d expect a good condition fully charged vrla to start a bike at zero Celsius if it has been sized properly, without trying to warm it up with start cycles, which won’t work with vrla anyway.
As an aside, li-ion can also be difficult to recharge at low temperatures.
I’m not saying don’t use ever li-ion, just that I wouldn’t here because I think the potential issues outweigh the benefits in this application.

 

[STMGSA]

Yup, as someone else said call BMW recovery and get them to deliver to dealer, i would.

Agreed!!! should not accept bike as is and ask them to collect bike and have fixed otherwise reject bike in writing that should get their attention. I bypassed all the Scottish dealers for one reason or another and bought last 4 BMW bikes from Carlisle dealer. I cannot fault them either.

 

[acaffair]

Ok, Thanks for all the advice.

After purchasing a OBD11 Link, I recovered all the error codes and passed onto my dealer. They are picking up the bike mid Feb .

I fitted a MBYZ16HD MOTOBATT Quadflex AGM Bike Battery 12V 16Ah CCA 240 . Much better but not the solution. returning bike with the standard battery (which I don't believe is the problem, but lets see.)

Don't know what else to say except I need a reliable bike for my 8 country EU trip in May.

Will keep you all posted, Thanks again for all your assistance

 

[stanley]

Do these Shift Cam engines still have a decompression valve to help on start up?

Sent from my SM-A520F using Tapatalk

 

[GSBilly]

Interesting, I'm having a similar, but not the same problem on my 1250 (481 miles on clock). Although my problem is that bike starts fine first time, off I go on a bimble, stop for a coffee for 10 minutes, try to restart bike and it doesn't want to turn over. After I wait for an hour I try it again, fires up and off we go. Took the bike to the dealer who says this is a known battery issue with the bike and are replacing the battery next week. I had a similar issue on my 2013 GS although this was after 5 years and 32000 miles. What I cant understand is why the bike starts first time from cold but doesn't like to start after the bike is warmed up, is this a battery issue?

 

[acaffair]

Interesting, I'm having a similar, but not the same problem on my 1250 (481 miles on clock). Although my problem is that bike starts fine first time, off I go on a bimble, stop for a coffee for 10 minutes, try to restart bike and it doesn't want to turn over. After I wait for an hour I try it again, fires up and off we go. Took the bike to the dealer who says this is a known battery issue with the bike and are replacing the battery next week. I had a similar issue on my 2013 GS although this was after 5 years and 32000 miles. What I cant understand is why the bike starts first time from cold but doesn't like to start after the bike is warmed up, is this a battery issue?

Yep, this is definitely a design fault and not just a battery issue, as you can see on my last post. I've tried a battery before contacting BMW. So START ENGINE - STOP ENGINE -START ENGINE NOT, Battery feels dead. Seems the compression has to dissipate before your able turn over the engine.
tell the dealer to type R1250 GS STARTER PROBLEM and they will see yours is not an isolated battery issue.
My worry is stalling in a dangerous place and not being able to start to get away.

 

[m1keyp]

I wouldn't let this go.

 

[Bosch]

I have just had my battery replaced under warranty.
I was told mine was the 4th 1250GS in with this issue, and BMW had just approved replacement of the battery without going through diagnostics.
It appears the original battery is not the correct specification, and a new uprated battery was fitted.
I have not looked to see what the new battery is, but could do this is if anyone needs to know.

 

[Stan9250]

Its time for that call to BMW, with only 273 miles on the bike its sitting dead in my garage refusing point blank to start and only just turn over. I only rode it last weekend but the starting was getting worse as if the batteries was flat.

 

[ChrisH]

I would like to know what battery is in your bike please, (was thinking of a battery upgrade) my 1250 has done exactly the same twice now. Starts fine when cold but after a ten minute bimble on the cruddy roads I stopped and it would not spin over enough to start. It started straight away on jump leads. I recharged the battery and it seems fine. This is my 5th gs and first issue I’ve had.

 

[Bosch]

The battery fitted now is p/n 61218394179 12AH AGM
Which is the right battery according to the parts catalogue, so maybe there was a batch of bad batteries or wrong batteries fitted.

 

[Stan9250]

Its time for that call to BMW, with only 273 miles on the bike its sitting dead in my garage refusing point blank to start and only just turn over. I only rode it last weekend but the starting was getting worse as if the batteries was flat.

Just had my 1250 back there is a known battery issue and they are being replaced so check with bmw.

 

[acaffair]

Its time for that call to BMW, with only 273 miles on the bike its sitting dead in my garage refusing point blank to start and only just turn over. I only rode it last weekend but the starting was getting worse as if the batteries was flat.

Hi you are not alone, BMW must be going crazy with starting complaints. I have changed the battery to a higher CCA and still have the problem.
My bike with 480miles is back in the garage.

Just picked up this latest info from a guy on you tube which makes sense on this hard start issue.


bkriss

23 hours ago (edited)

UPDATE and great news Last week called me the dealer they have found the problem and repaired it satisfactorily.
Earlier they updated the software but nothing has changed. (My bike engine code: 0J91 - Europe, Hungary 2019.)

As I had guessed earlier the problem was the compression. Compression release did not work consistently on the left cylinder. That's why it will start sometimes, depending on if the bad side is on compression on that first turn. Not the automatic decompressor was the defective part, it works perfectly. The problem is the exhaust VALVE CLEARANCE. The clearance was too big (even within tolerance) so they adjusted it (within factory tolerance) because with this factory setting the decompressor cam did not open the valve as much as it should.
So if your bike doing similar malfunctions measure the compression, its a simple process!

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now I have a slight tappet noise coming for my left cylinder which I hope will be picked up on my 600mile service. fingers crossed

 

[Joe 90]

Thanks for the update. I’m learning something new about these bikes every day.

 

[red rocket]

On my 600 mile first service I mentioned when hot it's sometimes turns over very slowly.That day BMW had released instructions to replace the 1250 battery with the old 1200 battery.Apparently same size etc just got more umph .
By the way lol they did my callipers while there as they were leaking hey ho