DirtTorpedo Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 My battery has been going dead a lot lately; I thought it might be improperly hooked up driving lights I just added. When I tested the current leakage yesterday it was 0 - and it died later that night - and then I discovered one of the fuses in my digital mutimeter blew. Duh! So now I have what I believe is an accurate reading of 2 mA, the same with the lights connected and disconnected. This is still 10 times the service manual specs, but it seems to me it should still take a while to drain a battery at this rate. It's a 5 Amp-hour battery, or something like that, right? Nevertheless, I have gone dead 3 times this week. How do you know when it's time for a new battery? This one is 2 years old and has died maybe about a dozen times for other explainable reasons. Ted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete in PA Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 That sounds like too much to me although I never have checked this on my bike. The clock is the only thing that should be drawing and should be almost undetectabe on a meter. Try removeing 1 fuse at a time untill it goes away and see if you can isolate the circuit. My bike is a 98, still factory battery if this is any indication. Love those maint. free batts! Even with a lot of TLC I would need a new battery every 3 to 5 years on the old bike. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
severdog Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 2mA sounds about right. So the manual spec says that ambient drain is 200 microamps? A battery like that should be able to handle 2mA for a long time without draining. JMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skybluebird Posted June 13, 2003 Share Posted June 13, 2003 Ted, if the battery's been fully flat a few times, it may well have lost some of it's capacity. Also, just in case, I'd check the generator is charging it OK. I've just had a run of electrical problems which traced back to burnt wiring on the generator. Cost me almost £8500 (in the shape of a shiny new R1150GS which I'm picking up tomorrow :grin: ) David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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