Dead battery? Check engine light after recharging?

[Antarius]

A little heads up I figured out on this bike, thought I'd share so others know the solution and don't waste their time doing more serious work.

1) If you leave something plugged into the OEM accessory plug, it will slowly drain your battery. Usually not enough to cause harm, because you'll ride and put charge back into the battery, but in some cases you can drain the battery. Yes, even though the accessory isn't showing that it's charging, it is in fact draining some of the juice from your motorcycles battery. So, unplug your accessories when you park the bike

2) If you drain the battery to the point that no lights turn on, no dash turns on, and obviously the starter won't turn; Charge the battery. I charged it at 3AMP's and it took a solid 6 hours, though you can probably get away with 4AMP's. The lower the better, just realize that a "Battery Tender" or similar item is likely going to "charge" at a very low 0.5-1.0AMP, which will take between 20 and 40 hours to fully charge your battery (our stock battery is around 20MAH).

I'm aware most of you already know #1 and #2, but here comes the part I found interesting:

3) When you have sufficient juice in the battery to START the bike, you may find that the bike idles completely fine but when you increase RPM or attempt to hold a steady RPM, the check engine light (actually called the programmable fuel injection light) flashes and the bike begins to run rough. Why? I have no idea, perhaps you have enough juice to start the bike but not enough for it to properly run the fuel injection. Or perhaps when the voltage was low and I started the bike, it threw a "code" and put the bike into "limp mode."

Who knows, all I know is the manual says to take it to the Honda dealership and have them fix the issue. I fully charged the battery and still had the issue. I did not want to take it to Honda... so what I did was remove the battery from the connectors and let the bike sit for about 10 minutes. I figured this could "reset" the ECU. I then reconnected the battery, put it back on a "Battery Tender" (not a regular charger as I know it was fully charged) and waited until it was 100% charged again for safe measure. Started it back up and walla, works perfect.

So, sorry for the long post, but if you smoke your battery for one reason or another -- charge the thing in full and then let it sit while disconnected from the bike for a few minutes -- then reconnect it and start it up. I'm sure this will reset your ECU/FI and all will be good to go.

 

[bduffey]

Good to know. Thanks.

 

[L.B.S.]

Antarius, do you remember what kind of accessory you had left plugged in to the power port?

For sure any transformer/adapter ie: a 12v to 5V USB cord or device (like many GPS, smartphones etc., use.) will cause parasitic loss. Those have been confirmed to constantly drain power when left plugged in. It can also depend on whether or not the 12V-5V (for example) step down is in the cord itself, or within the device. Many people have been thrown off by thinking they have removed a power drain by unplugging the cord at the back of their GPS unit*, only to find out it was the cord still plugged into the bike, that did the actual draining.


* edit- or cradle! My Nuvi plugs into an adaptor which in turn clips into the cradle that mounts to the bike. I can remove the GPS unit, but the power cord still goes to the adapter, clipped into the cradle mount.

 

[ste7ios]

Or simple you install a relay switch... (If accessory sub-harness is not installed)

 

[bamamate]

If installed per the instructions the oem plug is on a key switched relay, part of the aux harness, so I don't see how anything left plugged into it could drain the battery unless the relay failed in a closed state.

 

[670cc]

If installed per the instructions the oem plug is on a key switched relay, part of the aux harness, so I don't see how anything left plugged into it could drain the battery unless the relay failed in a closed state.

Good catch, bamamate. Maybe the OP's trouble was not a device left connected, but another case like beemerphiles battery woes. See:http://nc700-forum.com/forum/nc700-mods/7080-battery-drain-problem-deeply-pondered.html

Or, perhaps by "OEM", the OP was referring to a dealer installed SAE plug wired direct to the battery.

 

[L.B.S.]

I don't have the OEM power socket on my bike, so I wonder if it's possible to accidently plug in it's source to a constant power plug in the acc harness? Are all the male/female plugs unable to mismatch, or can some get swapped by accident when hooking up initially?

 

[670cc]

I don't have the OEM power socket on my bike, so I wonder if it's possible to accidently plug in it's source to a constant power plug in the acc harness? Are all the male/female plugs unable to mismatch, or can some get swapped by accident when hooking up initially?

The accessory harness sold for USA spec NC700Xs does not have any constant power available. All 12 volt leads are switched by the option relay. However the 6P plug that the harness connects to varies by model and market, so the 6P plug and Canada accessory harness may be different than mine.

 

[kjang]

thanks. That was informative.
I'm used to big batteries and sounds like these little motorcycle batteries take little amperage to charge it.
Good to know.

 

[Antarius]

Antarius, do you remember what kind of accessory you had left plugged in to the power port?

For sure any transformer/adapter ie: a 12v to 5V USB cord or device (like many GPS, smartphones etc., use.) will cause parasitic loss. Those have been confirmed to constantly drain power when left plugged in. It can also depend on whether or not the 12V-5V (for example) step down is in the cord itself, or within the device. Many people have been thrown off by thinking they have removed a power drain by unplugging the cord at the back of their GPS unit*, only to find out it was the cord still plugged into the bike, that did the actual draining.


* edit- or cradle! My Nuvi plugs into an adaptor which in turn clips into the cradle that mounts to the bike. I can remove the GPS unit, but the power cord still goes to the adapter, clipped into the cradle mount.

It was an iPod. I had left the key on for about 30 minutes by accident -- and that drained a lot of the battery, but the accessory plug finished it off over the next few days.

Or simple you install a relay switch... (If accessory sub-harness is not installed)

It is the OEM accessory plug and installed with all the OEM stuff, including the ignition-switch relay and the sub-harness.

I've had 0 problems before this, and had never left the thing plugged in, and I've had 0 problems since charging it. I'm confident the problem was #1) the key being left on which made the battery pretty low on voltage to begin with, and then the accessory plug leaching the last little bit out over the course of the week.

 

[670cc]

It is the OEM accessory plug and installed with all the OEM stuff, including the ignition-switch relay and the sub-harness.

. . . and then the accessory plug leaching the last little bit out over the course of the week.

As was pointed out, the accessory harness is disconnected from the battery when the key is off. If your drain continued, the relay is defective. Or, if it is some sort of electronic relay rather than an electromechanical one, then the already low battery voltage must have affected it. Otherwise, look elsewhere for a parasitic drain.

 

[Antarius]

Don't worry I'm not throwing it away . Just not leaving things plugged into it when the bike isn't running

 

[that l do pig]

So here's my story: I left the key on one night too. Did not notice it until the next few days ("hey, why is the key in the bike?!'). I jumped it and got it started and the engine light flashed due to the battery being so low. I slow charged it that night and got it back to ~13v. I had never used my 1.5a battery tender up until this point. A couple of months later I went for a ride and dead. I put the tender on but it was too low and I wanted to ride plus I never really trusted this battery after killing it that one day. I took the old battery in to Cycle Gear when I got the new one and their test said it had failed. The new battery is fine and I also always keep it on my tender now. My point is that the Honda OEM accessory is not hot when the key is not on so that cannot be draining anything (unless the relay or something is defective as mentioned). With my multimeter, I did the parasitic test and saw no draw across the battery while bike is off. I also tested the voltage at rest, idling and revved as the service manual states. I can only point to the fact that I hurt my battery when I jumped it and that I had left the key on overnight initially.

 

[that l do pig]

This part I don't understand. Did you leave your key in ON position, with lights ON etc. or in OFF position? This is simple On-Off switch. Just leaving keys in OFF should not do anything. I did that many times for many days (I shouldn't say that).

View attachment 20733

Okay, I'll fess up to going full idiot so that my story remains clear. The key was in the ON position when I went up to my bike later in the week and said 'why is the key in the bike?' and I had to turn it and remove it. In my defense, putting up my bike involves moving cars, moving bikes and then moving cars. In my defense, getting old sucks.

 

[Antarius]

Good info guys!!

 

[kpinvt]

Okay, I'll fess up to going full idiot so that my story remains clear. The key was in the ON position when I went up to my bike later in the week and said 'why is the key in the bike?' and I had to turn it and remove it. In my defense, putting up my bike involves moving cars, moving bikes and then moving cars. In my defense, getting old sucks.

Yes, it does. It's still better than the alternative.