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Battery or charging issue?

ron203

ron203

Southeast Area Director
Member
My 2014 has started showing 9.6-12.2V on the dash immediately after starting, then it goes to the normal 14.2-14.3v. after about 20-30 seconds. Granted, I’m a little paranoid after a sudden battery failure on my Goldwing in Oregon at a gas pump, but what do you think? The battery is about a year old and is hooked up to a battery tender when it’s parked. Thoughts? Random guesses? WA ideas?😂
Thanks
Ron
 
Put a DVM on the battery to confirm the measured voltage is the same as what is displayed immediately after starting. Post the results.
 
Battery tenders give you a false sense of security. I'd rather my bike not start when wanting to leave from home, not elsewhere. I never have the volts displayed, so I don't know what mine does soon after start.
 
Not sure if your question is about a Gold Wing or a Concours, but many alternators incorporate a feature called a "soft start" into them which delays the alternator from coming on line until after the engine is running for 10-20 seconds or so. This is perfectly normal, and is done to reduce load on the starter and battery during start up.

Additionally, the built in voltmeter function on the Concours seems to only actually poll the voltage every few seconds, so there is a delay between what you see on the dash and the actual voltage.
 
Fred H. said:
Not sure if your question is about a Gold Wing or a Concours, but many alternators incorporate a feature called a "soft start" into them which delays the alternator from coming on line until after the engine is running for 10-20 seconds or so. This is perfectly normal, and is done to reduce load on the starter and battery during start up.

Additionally, the built in voltmeter function on the Concours seems to only actually poll the voltage every few seconds, so there is a delay between what you see on the dash and the actual voltage.
Click to expand...

Concours, Fred. The GW was a different situation earlier in the summer.

I’ve had this C-14 since it was new (about 27-28,000 on it now) and this is a different behavior for it. It’s always instantly displayed 14.1-3 if it happened to be on that display when started.

Thanks for your comments, guys. I appreciate it!
Ron
 
I was just thinking about this tonight.

My 08 was always 14.1 ...all day every day. My13 usually sits right on 14.5 all the time. When it got hinky I knew I had ground problems. Lately it has been showing low batt when starting and then gets back to 14.5 last night. The 18 I took out tonight sits on 13.9 all the time.

Was just lamenting how weird these things are....
 
When is the last time you pulled the battery and cleaned all the connections?
 
Ron,
Check all the connections to the battery and the ground wire.

Our stock battery did the same for the last couple years especially after using heated gear. We replaced with a lithium and have not had the same issue since.

Also note - I, like a dope, nearly killed our stock battery at the least a 1/2 dozen times by leaving the key and headlights on after stopping for a bite to eat.

So if our battery symptoms are for the same reason as yours I am unsure. Unlike yours our battery was 6 years old.

Check the connections, keep an eye on it, if it continues, worsens have the battery load tested.

Regarding your question charging or battery if the battery is getting to full voltage while riding and behavior only at start up I would say battery.

The FSM does have a charging test as well…

Wayne, Carol & Blue
 
2andblue said:
Ron,
Check all the connections to the battery and the ground wire.

Our stock battery did the same for the last couple years especially after using heated gear. We replaced with a lithium and have not had the same issue since.

Also note - I, like a dope, nearly killed our stock battery at the least a 1/2 dozen times by leaving the key and headlights on after stopping for a bite to eat.

So if our battery symptoms are for the same reason as yours I am unsure. Unlike yours our battery was 6 years old.

Check the connections, keep an eye on it, if it continues, worsens have the battery load tested.

Regarding your question charging or battery if the battery is getting to full voltage while riding and behavior only at start up I would say battery.

The FSM does have a charging test as well…

Wayne, Carol & Blue
Click to expand...

Thanks Wayne.
 
Bud said:
When is the last time you pulled the battery and cleaned all the connections?
Click to expand...

A couple of weeks ago. I had a broken horn wire and pulled it out to fix it. I cleaned them up before I reinstalled it. Wouldn’t hurt to re-address that before throwing money at it. Thx Bud.
 
freebird6 said:
I was just thinking about this tonight.

My 08 was always 14.1 ...all day every day. My13 usually sits right on 14.5 all the time. When it got hinky I knew I had ground problems. Lately it has been showing low batt when starting and then gets back to 14.5 last night. The 18 I took out tonight sits on 13.9 all the time.

Was just lamenting how weird these things are....
Click to expand...

Yeah, they can get hinky. There was a guy at the national rally with some issues. I heard he pulled out the battery, cleaned it up and voila. Thx!
 
Fred H. said:
Additionally, the built in voltmeter function on the Concours seems to only actually poll the voltage every few seconds, so there is a delay between what you see on the dash and the actual voltage.
Click to expand...

Spot on Fred... This is the reason I previous mentioned to use a DVM at the battery and compare to the dashboard display voltage. If the DVM voltage looks fine when the display voltage is low, trust the DVM. It's possible due to slow sample rate that the dashboard display is showing voltage that was sampled prior to the alternator being active or when the starter was engaged.
 
Fixed with a new battery. In retrospect I was beginning to see some small signs in the crank rate, idle, and oddly enough an occasional “No transponder “ error when I knew it was in my pocket. Start up reading immediately flips to 14.2 like it has every time for 8 years.

Heat? Vibration? Who knows?
Thanks all.
Ron
 
Freddy said:
Another victim of battery tender confidence!
Click to expand...

I've had two bikes (neither a C14, and both AGM batteries) on the smaller (800 ma) Deltran Battery Tenders go bad so I've switched to
Optimate 5 maintainers.
However my bikes sit in the garage for months and then when I do let them out they go for many days and miles. Probably not the ideal
situation for any battery regardless of maintainer type. Still, I've personally (right or wrong) lost confidence in Deltran products.
 
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