XT660Z battery / electrical issue
 

Hi all

I'm facing an issue with my XT660Z 2015 (ABS) bike, it seems like the battery are slowly (faster than normal) are drained.

During this winter I have monitored it and made frequently measurements of the battery voltage (bike has been unused, stored at 13 degree Celsius, and key in state off).

With battery and all accessories (heated grips, power plug etc) attached to the bike:
Day 0: Fully charged
Day 1: 12.79V
Day 5: 12.68V
Day 15: 12.60V
Day 31: 12.44V
Day 37: 12.40V

With battery detached from everything
Day 0: Fully charged
Day 1: 12.86V
Day 5: 12.85V
Day 25: 12.76V

Attached to bike without accessories, tank removed
Day 0: Fully charged
Day 5: 12.68V
(follow the same pattern as with accessories)

I have measured the average amp usage (over 1 minute say) and it's around 0.8mA (in serie on the positive battery terminal). Of this fuse 7 (for odometer, clock and immobilizer) seems to consume 0.74mA, does it sound reasonable?

The battery is not original, it's a Bosch M6 011 (12V, 8Ah, TTZ10S-4 / TTZ10S-BS), but it should be 6 months old and what I know completely drained once when I received the bike (could not be started then, just some relay clicking).

Googling a bit and I found a figure that at 12.5V the battery should be about 75% charged, I reach 12.5V after about 25 days, with some math this gives:

(8Ah*0.25)/25/24 = 3.333mA

And this is more than 4 times what I could measured!!

I have checked the battery with ctek:s battery tester (quick puls check I think) and also an old school thing where 100A are consumed during 10 seconds and I read of the voltage. In both cases it tells me that the battery are ok.

Also read a lot of issues with the voltage rectifier connector, I pulled out the connector and measured average amp usage but didn't have any affect.

I normally using a ctek eyelet battery indicator and after 4 days it use to tell me that I need to change my battery and after a month it starts to shine red telling me that now I really need to charge the battery. I could also say that I tried to start the bike at 12.4V and it worked.

I will try to make a measurement with fuse 7 pulled out over 5 days to see if that makes the issue go away but other than this I'm out of ideas. I do not seems to get my head around what is happening, could the battery be bad anyway?

All ideas/advice are welcomed!

0.8mA is perfectly acceptable for background current drain. This would not cause your battery to drop in voltage from 12.79 to 12.4V over 25 days.

The odd thing in your case is that the voltage drop is the same with all the accessories disconnected. USB sockets are a notorious problem for draining batteries if not isolated or ignition-switched as the step-down transformer in them can consume up to 50mA even with nothing plugged in. It can't be this though as the voltage drop is the same when disconnected.

It could be explained by a failing battery though if it has suffered internal damage/sulfation to the plates, diluted/contaminated electrolyte or has a higher internal resistance than it should from being completely discharged for a period of time. The internal resistance forms a voltage divider with the load. It is only when a load is applied that internal resistance comes into play. When disconnected from the bike there is no current drain at all, so everything is fine and no, or very little voltage drop is noticed (and will test as such on a battery tester). However, as soon as it is exposed to a current drain, however tiny, the internal resistance influences battery voltage negatively. If a battery is past it's best this resistance will be higher than normal and cause the voltage to drop more rapidly, which is I think what you are seeing.

It's actually a lot more complex than this. If you're interested in the equations and the science behind it then have a read of the attached PDF.

Wasted money on a new battery and found it was the usb 12v socket .
The 12volt side is ok but the usb 5v transformer seems to slowly drain the battery .
Had the same issue on a ttr it was the 5v usb output causing a drain .

The extra power socket I have are not an USB however, regular cigarr socket, so I cant rule out the battery...

The issues continues, disconnected all fuses (fuse 1-7 + ABS fuse + main 30 Amp fuse) as well as disconnecting the 12V socket, ctek eyelet, heated grips, xenon lights and it still drop faster than if the battery would have been completely dis-attached from the bike.

I now ordered a new original battery, will arrive today or tomorrow hopefully. Need to get the bike out of the garage and get going so if the problem remains I'll have to take it after the season.

I would also look into maybe the battery internals are the culprits as pleiades mentioned since you have no external current drain other than the 0.8mA you mentioned
So are you having issues with starting uo in winter time after leaving the bike unused for 25 days? or did I miss part of the thread!

BTW which model of CTEK do you use if it is the test & charge, then forget the test part of it; it is the same as a cheap voltmeter! A waste of money. But the charger is ace

The new battery seems a lot better, no dramatic voltage loss, need to study it a bit more. The problem was not that I got stranded but more my own fear that it would happen sinceI spotted the rappid voltage drop.

Maybe I mentioned it already but the bad battery held voltage if not subject to any power drain.

The Ctek battery tester I have is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/CTEK-56-925-V.../dp/B00COPZ842

This is a different model to the one I was referring.does it give you actual CCA readings.

So far all the batteries (very few actually) I have had to replace (cars & bikes) read good voltages. Only a CCA test provided an insight to their reduced capacity.
I took mine to a battery shop with modern analyser (not the old fashion which fries the battery in the process!) they provided me with the CCA and a printout. Unfortunately for me the analyzers are too expensive

as is said most batteries that are failing will hold a reasonable charge BUT have very little in the way of cold cranking amps..not enough power to spin the starter motor up fast enough to catch..we gotta remember the xts are a big single after all.

This Ctek tester gives you CCA and for the bad battery he reported 150amp and that's according to the spec for this Bosch battery. This tester is a quick tester, will just drain the battery a short time and then estimate the CCA based on this. The old school type, I have used this one as well, drain ~100amp during 10 seconds and after this one should look for the current voltage. Also this showed a working battery.

My guess right now is that one single complete drain, due to heated grips were on during 3 days while the bike were shipped to me, destroied the battery somehow. Some internal discharge increased when battery are subject to the smallest external drain. Do not know if this makes any sense?

Anyway before putting the bike together again I installed a relay for the heated grips aswell as the power socket and future led lights I plan to pimp the bike with.

My electrical issue remains, abnormal voltage drop when bike are resting in the garage. I'm out of ideas or is this voltage drop normal?

If anyone could measure there battery voltage after X untouched days after fully charged it would be interesting to compare with.

what accessories do you have?

usb charger? anything else?

as mentionned before, it is a quite acceptable loss....

mayeb you can check the regulator (just in case). i had a loss on my other bike, and the regulator was in fault - test it just in case....

Look I'm not an electrician by far, but analyzing your first post I noticed that you said you stored the bike with "key in state off". Does that mean the key is left in the ignition of the bike?
Then a bit further you said that fuse 7 that was draining the most amps was related to the immobilizer?
I've noticed in the past that my bike's immobilizer light would keep on flickering when the key is near the bike. Surely the bike is "talking" to the key when it's in the ignition? Could that consume more electricity?
You don't think it's worth removing the key from the ignition and then check if the battery is still draining? Just an idea

Hi Mathias,

I have the same problem with my XT660Z (ABS) 2011.
Could you found the reason of abnormal voltage drop?

This morning the battery capacity was so low it couldn't crank the engine - and I wasted over €100 on the ferry i missed ;-(

It had been standing still for 2 weeks and last time when i got home i've played a bit with light since it had melted my low beam socket due to a bad connection. I didn't think that i used much power but had started the engine a hand full of times without letting it run for long

Since my battery is now 7 years old and have been completely drained at least twice I guess that i could just as well replace to rule it out, since it is past it best days.

On previous motorcycles with traditional wet batteries i i usually have replaced the battery after about 4-5 years on average.

Any recommendation for a the best replacement battery for the pony with ABS ?

Yuasa/Bosch have allway's worked well for me.

my XTR 09 is still running the original yuasa. No doubt its capacity has reduced but still dependable.


you need to decide which technology you want : lithium or lead