Kawasaki Concours Forum
The C-14, aka Kawasaki Concours-14, the new one :) => The Bike - C14/GTR 1400 => Topic started by: silvermane on March 25, 2012, 03:21:38 PM
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I've had the bike now for a few weeks and as all my bikes I keep a Battery Tender hooked up keeping my battery fresh daily. I've been noticing though that the Kawi is the only bike that the charging light stays red only, never changing to green like all my others? Maybe this charger is going bad? So I've switched a few times and still same results. Is there something running continuously that keeps a drawl on the battery or???? Any ideas?
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Stock, these bikes don't have much of a current draw. At least that's with the 08/09s. I don't use a tender of any sort on mine and never had an issue with the battery. Do you have any powered farkles drawing any power?
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I also keep a Battery Tender on my 2011 Concourse and the red light stays on for a short period of time but then the green comes on. Check for a draw on the battery or perhaps a loose connection.
Brent
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I also use one and it goes to green in a few minutes. Try your tender on another battery, the unit might be bad.
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Have you checked the polarity?
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My battery is several years old and tender goes green after a short period. Do you have the tender connected directly to the battery terminals?? If not there could be some resistance in the charging path.
Good Luck,
Fred
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You inspired me to hook up my tender pigtales and plug in the charger on my new bike. It took the tender about 3 mins. to turn green. This is the same amount of time it took on my old Uly. Something is up if yours is not turning green.
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How do you have the battery tender hooked to the battery? You are aware that the cigar outlet is switch through the key, right?
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Yikes! You guys got me worried now :( I'm using the alligator clips that came with the unit until I hook up the permanent battery connection. I've hooked up the red to the red terminal I can see and the black negative to the negative leg shown in the owner's manual for charging. You are right, all my other bikes change to green in just a few minutes/hours. Oh boy :/
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Made me go look mine is green..
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My charger takes about an hour or more to turn green if it hasn't been hooked up for more than a week. Recent Murph's AGM battery -- my other bikes can sit for months and the charger turns green in just a few minutes. I have always suspected that there is a parasitic drain on the battery. There are no farkles on my electrical system either.
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I've tried all four of my tenders, and none of them ever turn green on the connie. They turn green on the other three bikes bikes within an hour though. Uhg! The only electric mod is really not a mod, I have a dual-outlet adapter in the cigar outlet. I've double checked it and it only is powered when "on". I would just drop the tender but for decades I've gotten at least twice the life on ever battery. Also, understanding how a battery works with this technology is a win-win. Now to figure out why I can't get a full charge......................................
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Have you disconnected the battery from the bike,both pos and neg and tried the charger to determine if the battery will charge?
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Just wondering, have you put a meter on the battery to see what the voltage is?
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+1 from gpink and conrad.... You need to get the battery out of the bike, see what the voltage is, and see if it will charge to green by itself to determine if the problem is withe the bike putting a drain on the battery... Or just a bad battery with a bad cell... If the voltage of the battery after charging is around 10.8 V you have a bad cell in it..
JJ
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Good idea! I just bought the bike and haven't touched the battery. I do know when I ride it says 14.3. I'll check and clean and protect my terminals. I need to install terminal block anyway, after I check the battery issue...
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14.3 means your charging system is working but not battery condition. Let us know what you find.
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14.3 means your charging system is working but not battery condition.
That's good to know.
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+1 from gpink and conrad.... You need to get the battery out of the bike, see what the voltage is, and see if it will charge to green by itself to determine if the problem is withe the bike putting a drain on the battery...
Well, you don't have to take it off the bike (or disconnect it) to check the resting voltage condition. Just charge the bike "fully" (or as much as it will take), start the bike, turn it off, wait 5 min, and take a reading anywhere accessible, but WITH THE IGNITION AND ALL LIGHTS OFF.
If you want to test if the bike is putting a parasitic resting drain on the battery, the only way to test that is to use a multimeter on milliamps setting, make sure bike IS OFF, disconnect one pole of the battery, then connect one lead of the meter to the disconnected battery pole and the other to the disconnected bike lead. This will show the current drain. It should be extremely low, like in the 10mA range or less (I don't know exactly what the maximum would be considered acceptable on the Concours).
I do know when I ride it says 14.3.
As gpink said, the voltage reading from the display is mostly meaningless. That is the condition of the battery PLUS the alternator PLUS the voltage regulator in the alternator vs. all the current load from everything sucking power. Think of is as an "overall health of the RUNNING electrical system". But that reading says almost nothing about the condition of just the battery, alone.
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Well, you don't have to take it off the bike to check the resting voltage condition. Just charge the bike "fully" (or as much as it will take), start the bike, turn it off, wait 5 min, and take a reading anywhere accessible, but WITH THE IGNITION AND ALL LIGHTS OFF.
If the battery is still connected to the bike you would still have the possibility of a parasitic draw and not know for sure if the battery is bad. ?
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If the battery is still connected to the bike you would still have the possibility of a parasitic draw and not know for sure if the battery is bad. ?
No, any parasitic draw would be tiny and will not affect the resting voltage measurement in any significant way.
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Sounds like he needs a parasitic choke-lol. Only Kidding.
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Well last night I thought I would disconnect the battery charger and when I got home from work today to go for another break-in ride, IT WAS DEADER THAN A DOORNAIL :(
I haven't had the chance to work on the issue of the battery tender telling me the bike is always drawing current somewhere, but I guess this proves it, ugh.
I've owned dozens of new bikes but this one's given me fits since day one. On my ride home from the dealer my dash kept flashing crazy messages, but of course it was only about 18 degrees that day.
I want to like this bike but with only 400 miles on it, just about every ride there was something aggravating going on. To tease my wife, I keep telling her that me and this bike just aren't getting along.
What I hate more than anything is my weakest talent is electrical - go figure.
Maybe it's a lemon? double-ugh!!
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warranty work
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...that's what I'm afraid of
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What I hate more than anything is my weakest talent is electrical - go figure.
Maybe it's a lemon? double-ugh!!
Possibly not. With what you are describing it could simply be a bad battery. These bikes are very sensitive to battery voltage and it doesn't take much of a drop to cause issues. Take it back to the dealer and get another battery.
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Well last night I thought I would disconnect the battery charger and when I got home from work today to go for another break-in ride, IT WAS DEADER THAN A DOORNAIL :(
I haven't had the chance to work on the issue of the battery tender telling me the bike is always drawing current somewhere, but I guess this proves it, ugh.
I've owned dozens of new bikes but this one's given me fits since day one. On my ride home from the dealer my dash kept flashing crazy messages, but of course it was only about 18 degrees that day.
I want to like this bike but with only 400 miles on it, just about every ride there was something aggravating going on. To tease my wife, I keep telling her that me and this bike just aren't getting along.
What I hate more than anything is my weakest talent is electrical - go figure.
Maybe it's a lemon? double-ugh!!
What other issues are you having?
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What other issues are you having?
Good question. The bike only has this battery not taking a charge issue. I know that my aggravated tone above sounded like the bike has many issues but it's the for now just the battery only. The many problems I spoke of are the accessories w/blue-tooth (Sena, Zumo, iPhone). So I'm hoping it's just a battery problem. Since day one, it's been an issue since it won't charge and hopefully there's not a short somewhere. Maybe since this bike sat for a more than a year at the dealer is the real problem? Once I get everything squared away, I'm going to hardwire everything to a FuzeBlock but not until I get to the bottom of this dead battery problem.
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Maybe since this bike sat for a more than a year at the dealer is the real problem?
Oh yes, that could, indeed, be a problem.
Lead acid batteries do NOT like being stored/sitting unused with a very low or no charge. If it really did sit for over a year without EVER being charged, until they did when you bought it, that could contribute to issues. Fortunately, testing a battery with the right equipment (a load pile) is not that difficult and very definitive.
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warranty work
...that's what I'm afraid of
The one and ONLY issue I've had with my 09 was the Battery which Warranty replaced with no further issues.
Yet, knock on wood. :o Got till 12/2014 to find out. :-*
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Thanks Tim for the confidence boost. I've had/have three Aprilia's during the past twelve years and ran them very hard and long and never had a problem one, so I've been spoiled. This is my first Kawasaki in riding 36 years. Many Honda's tho. I've been one of many fortunate riders that's never had mechanical problems over the years. I do all my own wrenching so that helps, maybe.
Concours feedback thus far (400ish miles): Not bad. I am a hot rod at heart and following the owner's manual on keeping it under 4k has been tough. Keeping it in Eco mode has help remind me. This bike really falls between my Futura and Gold Wing in weight feel. Feels heavy compared to Futura and light compared to Wing. I can see getting used to the ABS will be tough for me. I'm very comfortable with Brembo's hard into turns, but this ABS feels like they're making decisions on their own making me very cautious in turns.... for now. I am shock how heavy the front feels to me too. It feels like I'm going to go through a front tire within 2k miles. All in all, I am pleased. I just need to get past this electrical issue to feel more comfortable, oh and when the break-in period ends 8)
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This bike really falls between my Futura and Gold Wing in weight feel. Feels heavy compared to Futura and light compared to Wing.
It will feel a whole lot "lighter" when you start revving up the RPM's after full break-in :) Certainly did for me! Now it only feels heavy when I am trying to maneuver for parking or at a stop light.... and with my short legs, we are talking HEAVY :)
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Continued saga: Well today I got off work early enough to look further into the charging/dead bike issue. Since the dealer for me is very far away, I just picked up a replacement battery on the way home...
*While disconnecting the negative frame connection I was amazed at the strong sparks that the leads gave the frame while removing? I don't recall in the many years of removing ground cable seeing such spark? *Next while sliding the battery out to disconnect the positive cable, the first obvious problem was the screw wasn't even hand tight :/ *Now sliding the battery completely out, the negative cable wasn't even hand tight either :/ So for the first 400 miles maybe these loose connections has been doing something?? *Installed the new battery with no problems. *Rode a bit with no evident electrical issues, BUT, I was informed again from a driver that my break lights are stuck on, again?! Ugh! *Now the only good news is when I got home from a freezing ride, the Battery Tender for the first time went to GREEN :) Maybe the original never-tightened battery was the culprit? Could this condition short-out the battery giving it bad cells?
Any veteran input with all of this would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.
Thanks!
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Loose connections could have caused all your problems. Odds are the battery itself was probably fine.
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Maybe the original never-tightened battery was the culprit?
I don't think so. Trickle charging is a very low current affair. It suppose it is POSSIBLE, but I think unlikely.
Could this condition short-out the battery giving it bad cells?
Again, highly unlikely. That would not cause physical damage to the battery. The most likely symptom of poorly connected cables to the battery will show up on highest current demand- when starting. The bike will seem to have a fine battery and electronics work and it charges... then when you go to start it, it is weak or just won't start.
It is possible you just had both a bad battery AND poorly connected cables. The former would be warranty from Kawasaki. The latter would be the dealer's fault for improper setup.
A load pile test on the battery will tell if it is good or bad, definitively. I certainly would have at least first checked the cables, performed the voltage test and resting current trickle test (that I described early) before buying a new battery. But, that is me.
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Loose connections could have caused all your problems. Odds are the battery itself was probably fine.
+1 and that was mentioned in the second reply....to check them.
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I've been in contact with the dealer explaining all my problems (battery & brake light) and explained I can't take it in cause it's dead. We worked it out that if the original battery if they test it shows bad, they will credit me my costs for tune-up supplies that I am due for. I'm okay with that, and I can ride again.
As I stated before this new battery on the Tender is showing constant "green" indicating charged ok. For kicks I have the old battery by itself charging all night and it as always has shows a "constant "red" light. As many have indicated the likely hood of sitting in a bike for over a year, never being tightened, never being charged, may have been it's demise.
Now back to the brake light problem again :/
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Admittedly it is hard to separate good advice from noise. I'm not going to re-read the whole thread, but you might get some benefit from it. I believe it was already mentioned that a BT will not charge a depleted battery. You will need to get the dead battery up to a chargeable (by the BT) voltage, or jump the old & new batts together, then hook the BT up to them, in order for the BT to work, even if the battery is salvageable.
IIRC, on post-recall bikes, adjusting the brake light switch is a bit/much more difficult, but the concept is the same as on the vast majority of bikes.
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The new battery has everything working perfectly now and again thanks to everyone's input and help! I took the stock battery from this new bike to Auto Zone for testing and it showed a direct internal short (dead cell). Since I got the battery issue fixed, now I am able to move on to installing the FuzeBlock for electrical installs. To run wiring, as most of you know it's best to remove the tank (which was a breeze to remove) I ran into many body work bolts not nearly tight. I proceeded to check the entire bike and found many loose bolts. I realize the dealer owned the battery bolts just sitting there loose, but heads up to other new bike owners - you may want to check all your bodywork bolts too.
One of these day I'll fix the brake light sticking on problem. I've tried a few things here and they worked for a few days but shortly thereafter it sticks again.
Thanks again to all for your time and experiences shared!!!