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Unbelievably pissed. Need new Battery. What kind?!

J

Jim Rehmann

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Dec 11, 2012
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Really mad at BMW right now. C650GT will not start if it sits for 3 days or longer, but will start if I jump the battery. Dealer says it put the battery on BMW's "test unit" and the battery is fine. (OK, so why does jumping the battery work then?).

I will go out and buy my own replacement battery (and NOT a BMW brand). What kind do I need? Can I find it on Amazon.com?

Postscript a few weeks after this original post:
It turns out that it was my side stand that was draining the battery down for some reason. Had the side stand replaced and now all is good. Use the CENTER STAND whenever you're leaving the bike for any longer amount of time.
 
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Jim Rehmann said:
Really mad at BMW right now. C650GT will not start if it sits for 3 days or longer, but will start if I jump the battery. Dealer says it put the battery on BMW's "test unit" and the battery is fine. (OK, so why does jumping the battery work then?).

I will go out and buy my own replacement battery (and NOT a BMW brand). What kind do I need? Can I find it on Amazon.com?
Click to expand...

Make sure you don't have any thing draining the battery while it is sitting. I had a phone charger plugged up in my c600 that has some LED lights on the cord. It drained the stock battery after about 2 weeks of sitting this winter. It drained it enough that i couldn't get it recharged. I replaced the battery with a Home - Shorai Lithium Batteries battery. Weighs less than half the stock battery, holds voltage under load way better and puts out more power.
 
You've got some kind of parasitic drain on that battery. My scooter has sat in my garage for over two weeks and started right up. Don't blame the battery yet.

I had a problem with my TMAX, but I bought it as a leftover in 2012 (it was a 2009 model) and I suspect they sold it to me with the original battery in place. It wouldn't hold a charge worth a damn. I eventually replaced it with a WestCo sealed AGM type battery and that held the charge just fine until the day I traded it in for the C650GT.
 
I had surgery at the end of March and went for a ride 2 days later and found I could not do it in comfort. So I put the bike away again till the end of April. My battery was just left, after 30 days I went to start the bike and went for a ride. The bike started as if I was out riding the day before or had a charger on it (but did not). At that time the battery was 18 months old and has gone through 2 winters.
 
JaimeC said:
You've got some kind of parasitic drain on that battery. My scooter has sat in my garage for over two weeks and started right up. Don't blame the battery yet.

I had a problem with my TMAX, but I bought it as a leftover in 2012 (it was a 2009 model) and I suspect they sold it to me with the original battery in place. It wouldn't hold a charge worth a damn. I eventually replaced it with a WestCo sealed AGM type battery and that held the charge just fine until the day I traded it in for the C650GT.
Click to expand...

When I had my GT twice I went out to the garage after just a couple days and it was dead, dead, dead, completely dead. Had to jump start and then the fun began. Speedo was at 18 MPH when sitting still. They ended up having to replace the ECU for the dash. Still never got an answer as to why it just died sitting for a couple of days.


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I only get to ride about once a week, unfortunately, sometimes less right now (working on correcting this). After every ride I connect my 650 to a Battery Tender Jr. to make sure no battery issue. Is there any harm in doing this?


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I have used battery tenders on all our bikes with no problems one of the bikes is 8 years old and has the original battery and starts every time. the bike has 26000 miles on it and has not been used lately but it will start on the first time you turn it over I may change the battery just for peace of mind and keep the old one on a tender just as a spare.


P.S I am bill Steele I had to register as W Steele because my pass word does not work on my other computer.
 
No battery problems, but strangely, today, I came out from a short errand to see that the emergency flashers were going. I can't figure out how that could have happened. The key was hanging off my belt and I had turned the ignition to the locked position before leaving the bike. Even if I had accidentally activated the flashers (try it - it's hard to do by accident), or someone pressed the button while I was in the store, they would have been disabled because the key was removed. I don't have the BMW or any after-market alarm, so I am at a loss to figure out how they could have come on with the key properly removed. Luckily I hadn't left it for long or it could have been a real problem trying to start it. This could be one of those battery drain parasites previously mentioned.
 
I wonder if there's any recall on e batteries cos e agent had mine replaced ystrdy. He told me there was a recall for e battery and e cam-chain tensioner... I'm from Singapore btw.


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The four way flashers are designed to keep running even if you've removed the key and walked away (otherwise, what would be the point of the emergency flashers if they just turned off when you were away). However, they can only be initiated with the key in the scooter. If you truly DIDN'T have them running when you left the bike, then no one should have been able to start them. Very likely you turned them on yourself and didn't realize it. I disagree with your assessment that it is hard to do so... just leaning on the left handgrip "the right way" could be enough to start them up. It is designed so that you can quickly activate them with your left thumb (I've done it intentionally often when I've had to pull to the side of the road and wait for my riding companions to catch up).
 
Postscript a few weeks after this original post:
It turns out that it was my side stand that was draining the battery down for some reason. Had the side stand replaced and now all is good. Use the CENTER STAND whenever you're leaving the bike for any longer amount of time.
 
Why would the sidestand drain the battery? Sounds like there was a short in the "safety switch" or something... They seem to have a number of issues with that damned switch. Last year, my bike wouldn't start because the switch loosened up and the computer thought the sidestand was down even when it was up. There's a "safety recall" on the switch because apparently water can get into it and short it out. Now this??
 
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