Will fans kill the battery?

lee36

lee36

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Ok ... maybe dumb question of the month but today I went out for a quick ride with the wife and at one point I pulled over to take a call. I had the ignition on but the motor off and the fans kicked in...

After a minute or two I shut the ignition and when we were ready to go I tried starting the bike and it tried to turn over but it started clicking after a few moments of the starter turning.

It did this a few times and it seemed like the battey while not dead was very low. Since we happened to be on a slight grade I easily bump started the bike.

Once we got home it started right up with no issue.

Can anyone confirm my assumption the fans drained the battery? Or do I have an issue to look into further?

thanks!
 
How old is the battery Lee? I'll assume about three. I doubt that a minute or two with the fan running should be enough to kill a good battery. I would hook a meter to it and duplicate the same scenario to see what the voltage is when the fans are drawing power with the motor off. If it's really low, maybe it's time for a new one.
 
You probably are due for a new battery. The batteries on the FZ1 aren't exactly oversized to begin with. Do like Billy suggests, and, check your battery terminals for corrosion. I'd say 3 good years on a battery isn't that bad.
 
Yea, Lee, I agree with both of the above. Motorcycle batteries in my opinion suck. They just don't have the reserve my car batteries have. Which is why I follow the advice an old timer, owner of dozens of bikes over 40 years, gave to me: Put the battery on a tender every chance you get. It'll keep the thing topped off and last much longer. Ever since I've been doing that the batteries never have any issues. If your battery is more than even 2 years old and hasn't been regularly tendered then in my experience, yes, something as simple as the fan running a couple minutes after the engine is off is enough to run it down.
 
Thanks for the prompt response guys. I did buy the bike left over last year and the battery is stock ... it could very well be three years old for sure. I didn't realize how easy it may be to drain it... I used a tender through the winter but don't otherwise. I'll keep an eye on it .. and sales for motorcycle batteries I guess! lol
 
Trust me Lee, many of my buddies rib me for plugging my bike in everyday, but the battery that I bought the bike with had to already be at least three years old, plus the three years I used it, and believe it or not I sold it for twenty bucks to a guy who just got an 01' and it still is working great. At about 30 bucks, a battery tender keeps the battery conditioned and topped off. It does make a huge difference in longevity and at the cost of these things, if you can make it last 5 or 6 years, it's worth every penny! Get yourself a tender and plug that baby in every time you arrive home!
 
You bet ... I have one and i'll be plugging it in from now on! thought it was needed only during winter months!

thanks for the advice :D
 
FZ1riderNY said:
Trust me Lee, many of my buddies rib me for plugging my bike in everyday, but the battery that I bought the bike with had to already be at least three years old, plus the three years I used it, and believe it or not I sold it for twenty bucks to a guy who just got an 01' and it still is working great. At about 30 bucks, a battery tender keeps the battery conditioned and topped off. It does make a huge difference in longevity and at the cost of these things, if you can make it last 5 or 6 years, it's worth every penny! Get yourself a tender and plug that baby in every time you arrive home!
Click to expand...

Right on Billy. I take the same ribbing for plugging it in during the summer as well as the winter. But most of my friends have had one kind of issue or another with their battery running down and I have not.
 
lee36 said:
Thanks for the prompt response guys. I did buy the bike left over last year and the battery is stock ... it could very well be three years old for sure. I didn't realize how easy it may be to drain it... I used a tender through the winter but don't otherwise. I'll keep an eye on it .. and sales for motorcycle batteries I guess! lol
Click to expand...

Three years is not really old for a battery that has been properly maintained. However since you bought the bike as a left over if the dealer let it sit around and go dead then that battery probably has a fair amount of sulfation and it's storage capacity has been diminished. Running the fans for 2-3 minutes shouldn't have drained it like that. I would plan on replacing it soon if I was you and as the others suggested plug it on the battery tender when not using it. By the way my '06 still has the original battery and I have no issues with it.
 
Yep, as a power engineer I know once a battery gets very low it loses capacity that never really comes back no matter how much you boost charge it. I'd get a new battery and then keep it on a tender as much as possible all year round.

Batteries can be fickle things though. I cooked the sealed battery on my old bike almost dry by leaving it on a charger (not a tender) all winter. It was when I wasn't riding much because of fatherhood and not paying attention. I pried the the cover off and added distilled water. That thing lasted perfectly well another whole season. Then there were other batteries I had that I've taken care of and they died prematurely anyway. Who knows why.

So far my 07 battery on the FZ has been fine. If it's in my garage, it's on the tender.
 
Batteries will always leave you stranded at the worst possible time and or place.Once a battery gets discharged it will never take a good charge again.Why take a chance with it,just replace it and be done with it.
 
A few days ago I stopped in a parking lot to chat with someone and used the kill switch. After 4-5 minutes I tried to start the engine and it would crank but very slowly and wouldn't start. My battery is 6 months old but having the headlights on will kill a good batt. in just a few minutes. I let it sit for a few minutes with the key off and it still wouldn't start. I remembered the headlights are on with the key on so I reached into the front fairing and un-plugged the headlights and the bike fired right up! These lights pull alot of amps so if you end up with a slow crank and no start just un-plug the lights, fire up, plug lights in and away you go.................
 
It never dawned on me the headlights were on the whole time too! Great tip on unpluging the headlight if that situation were to happen again. Honestly lesson learned though from now on I'll shut the ignition when I stop for any reason.

Other than this one isolated incident I have no issues at all so I'm not rushing out to replace the battery.. but lots of great thoughts provided in this thread (as usual on this forum!)
 
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