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Battery Woes

  • Thread starter Thread starter lemonshindig
  • Start date Start date
L

lemonshindig

Guest
So I believe that my new battery is already bad. I filled it, charged it, and while trying to get my engine to run, drained the charge almost completely. But it seemed healthy at that time.

So I recharged it, it sat for a week, and I put it back in. The bike only turned over for 5 or 6 seconds before the battery was dead.

I'm using a 2amp automatic charger.

Last night, I brought it in. The fluid in every cell was low (I had them all perfectly at the top fill line before), so I topped it off with distilled water. I charged it overnight, so I'll see tonight if it's working, but methinks I have a bad battery. The question is... did I destroy it by cranking for so long, or was the thing faulty to begin with?

I can get it replaced, I bought it at NAPA about a month ago. But I'm not sure if I killed it or it was bad to begin with.
 
If the fluid was boiled off, that's usually a symptom of being overcharged. (I.e., too much voltage and/or current going into the battery for an extended period of time.)

It could be a bad battery. If it's only a month old and you can't get it to hold a decent charge, you might try getting a replacement.

If this is a plain Jane lead-acid battery, try not to drain the battery down to zero. That's bad for them. If you're doing a bunch of engine cranking, stop as soon as you can tell its getting a little weak and then put it back on the charger until it's fully charged again.
 
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Probably bad to begin with- I've had a nightmare with car parts the past few months- and from every place too not just a certain store. Almost everything comes from china and it seems to be getting worse. Did your battery come with sulphuric acid?
 
Good luck with the battery; I would try getting a new replacement. When you do get it installed do a Quick Check to see how the charging system is doing; report the results.
 
If your going to get new battery i would suggest the new AGM type battery, They are sealed and you do not have to add acid. They come ready to go. I got one from battery mart online 71.00 which included shipping and got to my house in 3-4 days from coast to coast.
 
alhntr said:
If your going to get new battery i would suggest the new AGM type battery, They are sealed and you do not have to add acid. They come ready to go. I got one from battery mart online 71.00 which included shipping and got to my house in 3-4 days from coast to coast.
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If I determine today that this battery is indeed toast, I am just going to get a new one under warranty. But I will keep that in mind for the next time I need to buy a new one.
 
lemonshindig said:
If I determine today that this battery is indeed toast, I am just going to get a new one under warranty. But I will keep that in mind for the next time I need to buy a new one.
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When you get replacement, heed posplayr's advice and check charging system out right away -overcharging is bad news.
 
tom203 said:
When you get replacement, heed posplayr's advice and check charging system out right away -overcharging is bad news.
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Will do, when I get to that point. But the bike hasn't even run yet, so that's unlikely to be the issue here. I think I just got a bad battery. As to where the fluid went, I have no idea.
 
I think you overcharged it originally

2A is about 4X the charge rate stated in the instructions

Then, you overcharged it again, boiling the water out
 
Big T said:
I think you overcharged it originally

2A is about 4X the charge rate stated in the instructions

Then, you overcharged it again, boiling the water out
Click to expand...

Agree about over charging. Motorcycle batteries typically require about 1A. 2A is double the max.
 
I just reviewed the Lead Acid battery characteristic attached to the Quick Test 1st post.

A two amp battery charger is OK to use as long as it tapers off once the battery becomes fully charged.
For a 14 Amp hour battery C/10 is 1.4 amps and this is a reasonable charge rate until SOC gets to 100%. At that point the voltage is creeping over 15V.

At 80% SOC and 14.25V you need C/5 or twice that (2.8 amps).

The problem it would seem is that this "automatic charger" doesn't appear to be too automatic. Obviously if the acid is gone it was in all probability boiled out.

Since the OP says the bike does not even run (which was not clear before) then the charger is suspect and should only be used for short periods of time of get rid of it unless he wants to ruin more good batteries..:(
 
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It could be the charger. Per the instructions I have, 2A is fine.

The first time I charged it, I charged it for 4 1/2 hours, half an hour longer than the instructions stated @ 2A. I did note that the first time, my "full charge" light never came on. Note that the battery performed exactly as expected.

The second time I charged it, I left it overnight, figuring my automatic charger would be nice to it. Perhaps it did overcharge, that would explain the missing fluid. Then the battery was dead as soon as I tried to start the bike.

I charged it overnight again, didn't note any fluid loss, but it still didn't have any charge. So I just got the battery replaced.

I think I'll put the acid in and take it back to NAPA and have them charge it up for me. The bike should actually start now, assuming there's nothing wrong with my signal generator/points, because it has good compression and quite literally everything else is new/rebuilt. I have new points to put in, too, I'm just lazy, really.

Thanks for all the help, guys.
 
lemonshindig said:
It could be the charger. Per the instructions I have, 2A is fine.

The first time I charged it, I charged it for 4 1/2 hours, half an hour longer than the instructions stated @ 2A. I did note that the first time, my "full charge" light never came on. Note that the battery performed exactly as expected.

The second time I charged it, I left it overnight, figuring my automatic charger would be nice to it. Perhaps it did overcharge, that would explain the missing fluid. Then the battery was dead as soon as I tried to start the bike.

I charged it overnight again, didn't note any fluid loss, but it still didn't have any charge. So I just got the battery replaced.

I think I'll put the acid in and take it back to NAPA and have them charge it up for me. The bike should actually start now, assuming there's nothing wrong with my signal generator/points, because it has good compression and quite literally everything else is new/rebuilt. I have new points to put in, too, I'm just lazy, really.

Thanks for all the help, guys.
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You could put it on your own charger but hook up a volt meter. If the battery gets to 15v plus you are overcharging .
 
posplayr said:
You could put it on your own charger but hook up a volt meter. If the battery gets to 15v plus you are overcharging .
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..... i used to use lead acid filled batteriers ,,,but no longer on both of my bikes i use only a fully sealed heavy duty BOND battery and it hardly drops at all and i also got a warrantry on both batterys regards oldgrumpy
 
Yes, the charge light should have changed. On mine, the LED changes from Red to Green (meaning battery is charged, I am done).
When I switched from lead-acid batteries to AGM, it was like night and day. 1-3 year battery life went to 5+ years. No more battery acid to pour in, no more acid packs to dispose of, fully charged when delivered, no problem with acid taking off the paint, etc. Best decision I ever made.
Well, regarding motorcycle batteries, at any rate. :o
 
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