Bone dry battery-Sticking throttle

[Boris-of-oxlea]

Recently bought my GS and off touring in 2 weeks. The bike has only 5k on the clock serviced 500 miles ago (just before my purchase).

The other day I noticed it wasn't holding a charge over a few days and took out the battery. Dry as a bone, not a drop ! Managed to get it topped up with acid. Fixed. Bit was surprised at such a condition. I know they are not checked on service but.... dry at 5k ? Check yr batteries.

Furthermore, I recently found my throttle sticking a bit at 2500 revs as oposed to around 12/1500 I think is probably the idle. Anyone have any ideas?

I read about the fork yokes and will be checking them before I take it out again.

Great place for sharing these matters eh. And I will be checking that ABS cable for location too, as I may end up using Garages out of Europe in necessity when touring in a few weeks as I'm covering Bulgaria etc.

Would appreciate any comments.

 

[Baz]

The manual says its a sealed for life battery, so is possibly a gel type battery which doesnt contain any electrolyte. It does say in the Rider manual "do not attempt to open or top up". You should have talked to your dealer as if the battery is Fooked theres not much chance of a replacement now.

Baz

 

[Boris-of-oxlea]

Oh, great.

When it wasn't starting I took it out and went to my REPUTABLE local SE parts centre which sell many batteries. I asked them was this supposed to be dry. No, was the reply, and they helpfully offered to top it up for me. I went away with a few new tools thinking how helpful.

I don't think they will be so understanding when I go back. I would have checked the manual too, had they not been closer than home. Oh boll%*x.

 

[Mouse]

My bike didn't have a gel battery, just a standard sealed lead/acid type. Has anyone actually had a gel battery as OE from BMW? I doubt it, due to the extra cost.

The ultimate battery solution has got to be a Hawker Odyssey, it's a dry cell (in the true sense) and can survive multiple full discharge cycles.

 

[Pukmeister]

The standard battery is a Yuasa YTX-14BS wet cell lead-acid battery. They don't seem to last on the GS even though my Jap bike has done fine with one for years. Perhaps the capacity isn't man enough and was part of the weight saving with the 1200? I just followed Mouses advice and fitted a Hawker Odyssey PC535 which is an AGM (absorbed glass mat) battery. They are about £140 from Wunderlich but I got mine from £79 plus P&P from Motorworks as a kit complete with retaining strap and replacement live terminal rubber gaiter.

If your battery is bone dry, either some clown didn't add the electrolyte on first installing, or your voltage regulator within the alternator is kicking out too high a charging voltage and boiling up your battery. To test it put a voltmeter across your battery terminals with the engine running, typical charging volts for wet cells are around 14.7V max at 4000 revs.

The only problem now is I need to change my trickle charger (optimate/accumate) as it isn't capable of supplying enough heavy current for the Odyssey and charges at too high a terminal voltage so is not recommended.

 

[Mouse]

Pukmeister - the advice I got about the Optimate (from people on these forums) was that it's fine for topping up the charge in a Hawker, but won't charge it if the battery has been totally discharged. For this you need a high current charger, as you say.

I emailed Hawker about this but they never replied.

As one of the advantages of the dry cell is that it doesn't need "maintenance charging" like lead/acid types do, I haven't bothered buying another charger. If I ever run it flat I can borrow a car charger, for now I occasionally put it on the Optimate and it always shows fully charged within a couple of hours.

The literature I got with the optimate and battery suggests the charging voltage is OK, I might double check this though if you reckon it is too high ...

 

[Tobers]

re the throttle cable, I had a progressively heavier throttle on my 1200 which was getting quite tough to use. Vines replaced it under warranty and it was much better.

The throttle is a single cable, not a twin cable setup (like KTM 950s) so you are reliant on the return springs on the throttle bodies to close the throttles. Check these are working properly and also check that the throttle cams that the cables run around are not rubbing on the stupid plastic covers.

To do this, remove the stupid black plastic covers on the throttle bodies (just below and inboard of where the air intake tubes go into the throttle housings by pushing them upwards and forwards - it's a bit of a fiddle but they will come off with some wiggling. You'll probably see some rubbing marks on their inner surface. Try the bike without the covers on and see if it is any better.

You should also now be able to see and manipulate the springs and cams by hand to check they are springing back properly. Take care not to be too violent with them as you can dislodge the cable end inside the splitter box just behind the tank, and then you are in a world of pain I assure you.

Andy

 

[JayGee]

Oh, great.

When it wasn't starting I took it out and went to my REPUTABLE local SE parts centre which sell many batteries. I asked them was this supposed to be dry. No, was the reply, and they helpfully offered to top it up for me. I went away with a few new tools thinking how helpful.

I don't think they will be so understanding when I go back. I would have checked the manual too, had they not been closer than home. Oh boll%*x.

As Pukemeister said the battery is a YTX14BS which I think is a development of the wet lead acid battery so probably there is no harm done. BUT when I got a new one of this type for another bike the acid came seperate so I had to put it in myself. Once in the plates absorb almost all the liquid and it looks like the battery is dry, this is how it's supposed to look, there should not be any liquid slopping around. If your battery has the YTX BS code on it then it is not a gel battery so maybe you haven't killed it!. You could always drain off the excess electrolyte and then take it back to BMW dealer for a new one under warranty They'd never know and probably don't care unless you've made a real bodge of unsealing it!

 

[tustinr]

According to the GS1200 manual on CD Rom the OE battery is supposed to be AGM.

 

[Pukmeister]

Mouse, I checked the terminal voltage of the supposedly fully charged and ready to go Hawker and it was only 12.4 volts so I tried the Optimate for a bit before first use. The terminal voltage came up to 14.3 volts fairly quickly once on the optimate for a while. I think the paperwork that came with the battery said that 14.3V was the max recommended charging voltage, I'll have a check tomorrow to be sure. Either way, I can't see an optimate giving out more volts than the bikes alternator at high rpm, so I can't understand what physical damage it might cause, and the battery will only absorb as many amps as it can hold based upon its physical capacity.

 

[Mouse]

I thought 12.4 was a good voltage for a charged battery? One that hasn't just been taken off the charger anyway.

And as you say, the bike will be charging the battery with about 14.5V at anything above 3k rpm (ish)

 

[birdseye]

I thought 12.4 was a good voltage for a charged battery? One that hasn't just been taken off the charger anyway.

And as you say, the bike will be charging the battery with about 14.5V at anything above 3k rpm (ish)

The fully charged voltage of a lead / acid battery depends to some extent on the chenical composition of the plates (they're not pure lead in some cases) but is typically 12.7 to 12.8 v.

12.4 is half charged.

 

[Pukmeister]

One thing I noticed with my old wet cell battery was that if I left the optimate plugged in and started the bike, the LED then went yellow for absorb (low power charging) at idle but would go to green when I blipped the throttle (alternator output increases with revs). Bearing in mind that the alternator should be capable of charging (albeit slowly) at idle, I suspect my old battery was on the way out. When touring away from home I had a few reluctant starts from the bike, I have had no trouble so far with the Hawker battery.

 

[Boris-of-oxlea]

Thanks fella's. It is a YTX wet cell thankfully. Despite the shop topping it up I took the advice here and drained it off (in case ) am off to the BMW dealers A.M to see what they have to say about it and the revs sticking at 2500 sometimes. I'm assuming one can book it in and have these things checked under warranty ?

I'm orrf travelling Monday so don't want the old battery konking early on.

Still aint got the Sat Nav, haven't read enough, or got the mount kit so not sure which one at all. Will give it some more thought tomorrow no doubt.

 

[Boris-of-oxlea]

Oh, and I bought some Givi luggage with the bike. I finally put it on yesterday in anticipation.

F*%K me, does it look like an electroglide from the rear or what !


Oh, man. what next........