Mystery Loss of Charge

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The battery (a newish Hawker) on my 1996 GS1100 is draining its current virtually overnight even with the ignition switched off. The battery has been checked and is OK as is the bike charging system. There is no sign of a warm diode or generator and all the auilliaries have been isolated. It is defeating my local non BMW bike shop. Anyone heard of this problem and, more importantly, got any ideas? Thanks. GC.
 
quick & dirty method 'cos i'm a bit pissed.....

with every thing turned off, flash the earth terminal of the battery with the earth lead.

if it flashes you have a drain. disconnect stuff 'til it stops.

cookie
 
Battery Drain

Thanks Cookie. I definitely have a drain, but God knows where to or from. I will keep unplugging away. GC. PS. Suggestions, apart from selling it, still welcome.
 
I too am shlighty pished,

however, the drain could be internal (battery fault), or external. can you connect an ammeter in series with the battery? if so do so and check that there is a drain, disconnect fuses until it stops, at least that will isolate the circuit. if you don't have an ammeter, then you'll have to rely on the 'spark test'. to cheer you up, i had a similar fault on a kwak, the wiring loom had gone rotten after 13 months from new!!!!
ian
 
If the drain were internal to the battery then you'd get no flash.

I had the indicator relay drain the battery on the K75 ..

But you really need some numbers to judge what is going on. A flash may just be the capacitors in the EFI charging up.
Connect an amp meter (DVM configured for current measurement) where you are not doing your 'flash' measurement.
You may get a lot more than 10 mA (milli amperes or 0.01 amperes). Pull each fuse out individually and check for a fall to less than 10 mA.. If you pull all the fuses and you still have current draw above 10 mA then something infused by bmw is drawing your current.. you got anything wired in that has a fuse someplace else?

Once you have the fuse that is drawing the current you can start looking at each item connected to that fuse. Just pull the items connectors off one at a time to find the faulty thing..
 
Try this....

Disconnect the alternator from the battery live feed, you might have a dodgy voltage regulator. The alternator is wired permanetly live. Alternatively (no pun intended) the problem could be with the auxilliary power supply socket; however dog nosing at a distance is difficult.

Put a volt meter across the battery with both + and - leads disconnected note the reading.

Reconnect the battery leads and repeat the exercise, note the reading, you should get a small difference to allow for current consumers such as clock an any electronic alarm devices (if fitted).

With the volt meter still connected across the battery terminals turn on the ignition, note reading, turn on lights if not conrolled by ign/sw note reading, repeat operating different consumers until you have voltage readings for all and then with everything turned off but with volt meter still across the battery you should from the noted readings be able to deduce the fault...perhaps.

"Now my dear Watson, Sherlock will call this deductive process the voltage drop test. But as Morriarty nearly caught me out on more than one occassion I will need to go in disguise and check that the starter main feed wire has not be sabotaged by chaifing against the frame or some such!"

With that he leaned back in his chair and drew in a large amount of the opiate and began to play with his fiddle.


In all seriousness I hope you can find what you dealer should have found in about half an hour of reasoned and (in their case ) experienced diagnosis:)
 
Many thanks for the above. I will try what has been suggested with care and report back. GC.
 
iletts said:
I too am shlighty pished,

I'm awfully p.ssed and dont understand why your losing you charge, but Ill raise a drink to you sovling it.

cheers.
:) :) :) :)
 
Re: Try this....

The Mechanic said:
Disconnect the alternator from the battery live feed, you might have a dodgy voltage regulator. The alternator is wired permanetly live.

The regulator is connected to the battery via two sets of rectifying diodes. Having three things go faulty at once is unlikely?

Testing for discharge by voltage drop testing ... errr well let me say using the current meter is a much more direct and more accurate and more repeatable method of finding this kind of fault. The voltage drop test will depend on the state of the battery. That state will change as you continue testing ...
 
Re: Re: Try this....

Frank Warner said:
The regulator is connected to the battery via two sets of rectifying diodes. Having three things go faulty at once is unlikely?

Testing for discharge by voltage drop testing ... errr well let me say using the current meter is a much more direct and more accurate and more repeatable method of finding this kind of fault. The voltage drop test will depend on the state of the battery. That state will change as you continue testing ...

Now,now come on there you are referring to a HIGH RATE DISCHARGE TEST which is purely for loading the battery, whereas I'm suggesting that voltage drop in a circuit is more likely to render up a possible faulty current consumer. We in the trade would also call this a volt drop test in the insulated earth or live circuit depending upon exactly what we are looking for!:)
 


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