Battery question
 

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if my battery is on its way out? In the Haynes manual it says a fully charged battery should read 13 - 13.2 volts (from memory). I charged mine on an optimate and it said the battery was good, but when I stuck a multimeter on it, it read 12.38 Volts.

The regulator/rectifier is pumping enough juice out to charge it, but I'm wondering if the battery is coming to the end of it's life. It is getting on for 4-5 years old.

Thanks
Marc

you sure ya aint talking about your charging system--12 volts sounds fine to me --but hey the battery is 5 years old -save yaself the hasle --put a new one in

The charging system puts about 14-ish volts through the battery to charge it. The voltage amounts I am talking about the battery rather than the charging system.

The reason I was asking about this was the bike was sat in the garden for about a week (it has a Datatool alarm on it). I tried to start it and the first time it fired up then died, then after that I just got the buzzing sound that you get when there isn't enough juice in the battery to start the bike. I checked the voltage then and it was at about 11.6.

Before the bike had been sat around for a week I had been on a long ride so it should have been fully charged.

Marc

As long as you don't have any charging problems and the battery stays charged dependant on your specific frquency of use, then there's no reason to replace the battery. If you use the bike infrequently, and an alarm is fitted, a poor condition battery may not hold enough charge for long enough. The important factors are; how well was your battery charged when parked, and how much was lost in the intervening time.

Which alarm do you have? This is an important factor - some alarms are quite high on consumption.

The alarm I have is a Datatool Veto Evo.

Marc

you could always take your battery to be tested just to be sure, from personal experience my last battery only lasted 2 years a new one will proberbly cost you around £40.00!!!