| Author | Message | ||
     Mikef5000 |
Here's an interesting one... I bought a new Xtreme battery for my XB12Scg last December. Not this model but similar:  All winter (and most of the summer) I keep the bike on the tender when it's parked. I've gotten the thing out for a 15 mile ride once a month this winter, but it's always: Off the tender, start, ride, park, on the tender. Today I rode it to work. Took the long way, which was a 15 minute ride. It started and rode perfect. It sat outside in the 40 degrees for 8 hours. I came out, hit the key, the gauges swept, and hit the starter. CLICK... DEAD. Sounded like a fuse/circuit breaker click. Then the gauges are off, idiot lights... everything, off. Checked fuses, found the lights fuse was bad. Swapped in the spare. Still absolutely nothing. Gave it ten minutes, still nothing. Check battery and ground cables, all tight. Jumper cables to a coworkers car... BAM! lights and gauges are alive! Starter just clicks though. Revved the car and let it sit for 5 min. Starter still just clicks. Not enough juice. Ok, well if I've got enough juice for the fuel pump and ignition, I can push start it! Disconnect the jumper cables, hit the key, absolutely nothing again. No idiot lights or gauges or anything. Disconnect and reconnect battery (with a minute delay for the ECM to reset or something) still nothing. So I pull the 14 month old battery out (that I just rode to work on 8 hours ago), and go have it tested. 8.1 Volts, 0 CCA. They put it on their high power charger. ten minutes of 20 amps got it to 9.5 volts, yet still ZERO cca's! They tell me the battery is toast. Even a bad battery will come up with some sort of amps. For it to be zero immediately after a charge means something catastrophically failed inside it. They're charging up a brand new battery for me. If it works then that's that. But I've never heard of such a failure. So I'm half expecting nothing still. I would suspect the starter relay, or main ignition circuit breaker or fuse, if it weren't for the fact that jump starting it worked! (Sure it didn't start it, but it brought it back to life, and made the motor crank at least). Thoughts? I'll report back in an hour when I go to pick it up from my work (which is next door to the auto parts store with my new battery). | ||
| Glitch |
That is interesting. Sounds like you got a defective battery. No amps is strange. I've never had a battery that didn't last a few years, even when they did give up, they were still producing a few amps, just not enough. A plate inside that touches another plate will cause it to produce nothing, but that usually doesn't happen unless the battery is dropped or something. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
New battery installed, and all is right in the world. The auto parts store guy has also never heard of such a scenario. I also found why the lights fuse was blown. Non-related minor issue, that is now taken care of. | ||
| Glitch |
The world may never know, but who cares, ride brother ride! | ||
| Fast1075 |
Broken connector bar...the six cells are connected together...broken bar = no connection = no power output at all. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
Odd that it would pop while sitting still. | ||
| Redfive |
Wow, glad to hear I'm not the only one. Mine went dead right before X-mas. Same battery. Rode it to work. Sat for 9 hours. Got on it and guages swept but no start. Total black out. Then some times the lights would come on then go off. Got a friends portable power pack jumper. Started right up. Took the jumpers off and bike would die. I was getting scared at that point. Got the meter off my work truck and 9 volts. I was thinking about the 77 connector. Was going to post here when it happend but knew my XB was to loyal to just crap out on me. So took the battery home and load tested it and 0. Took it back to batteries pluss and they gave me a new one. It was less then a year old. Then I ordered the battery tender from American sports bike. But hearing you it would have done little good. Hopefully it was just a freak thing. My other batteries last for around 2 years, and I ride all year around. I do hate the post connections on these batteries though. Redfive | ||
| Greg_e |
It could be a bad charger! I've had that happen to a battery left on a cheapo tender, cause the plates to get covered in sulfite, result is that only a very small amount of current would pass, but it showed full voltage. I would blame the tender for not doing it's job to shut down properly. Or you just got some really crappy chemicals in that battery. | ||
| Boliver |
I admit it does not get that cold here in Oklahoma but we do get our share of freezing temps. I've owned my bike for almost 5 years now and have went through one battery. It was still operable but I wanted to replace it so I'd know the age of it for sure. I have never owned a battery tender nor had the need for one. If I think it is gonna be cold enough to kill the battery I simply take the battery off the bike and bring it inside. I do believe it is possible to ruin a battery by overcharging it. Maybe thats why the "OP" had bad luck with it. If a person was gonna park the bike for a long time I would say maybe use a tender but it would be better to disconnect the battery all together. Honestly I thought battery tenders were for bar hopping cruiser guys. My cousin has one on his Harley because he only rides maybe 100 miles a year........seriously! | ||
| Mikef5000 |
If it were the tender that killed the battery, it wouldn't have started in the morning. I think Fast pin pointed the problem, and Redfive has convinced me it's just a crappy battery/brand. Which would in part explain why it's the cheapest battery you can buy. And unfortunately, the cold WILL kill the battery in winters that you can only ride once a month, and the rest of the time it's below thirty. A battery tender is required, unless I want to jump start or do a high power charge before every ride. | ||
| Cataract2 |
Mike, I looked at American Sport Bike and they have AGM batteries for around $88. | ||
| Azxb9r |
This is a very common battery failure. It can be caused by sudden temp. changes, vibration, or poor assembly of the battery when it is built. I see this type of failure on a regular basis at work, especially at the change of seasons. | ||
| Mikef5000 |
I see! Well I'll strike it off as poor assembly then, since someone else here had the same issue with the same brand. AGM Xtreme battery is NOT recommended by me. | ||
| Froggy |
But its XTREME! How could you go wrong?  |
