Battery Keeps Dying

[budman]

..bigger grounds and this battery YTX20HL-BS Battery | Yuasa Motocross 12 Volt Motorcycle Batteries

skip the Odyessy

 

[nethound]

After sending this letter I ended up having a long discussion with the Manger, Service Manager, and technician that was working on the problem.

They assured me that they would make it right so I decided to wait a little longer before pursuing legal action, nobody wins but the lawyers when you go that route.

They told me they found the problem was with the ECU and replaced it. Saturday when I went to pick it up the manager told me that it wasn't the ECU after all, but a flywheel sensor with a bent mounting bracket that caused it to be out of tolerance just enough to make it not fire at times.

I'm still a little skeptical, but it did start Saturday night in the mid 40's and Sunday morning again in the 30's, which is promising.

Many people have recommended a battery tender, and I did try that. But even when the bike wasn't starting I could hook the tender up and it would almost immediately report back that the battery was fully charged and shut off. And since I don't have a garage, I would have to just have the tender and extension cord sitting out in the elements, which isn't an optimal situation.

So at the moment the bike is back after spending about 5 months in the shop. It seems to be working. I didn't want to uncover it this morning in the rain and snow to test, but will be testing it tonight. Triumph is going to extend the warranty since I only got to ride it for about a month. It was a blast to be back out on it over the weekend, so here is to hoping that it is smooth sailing for a while.

Another month passed since the dealer told me they were going to escalate this to Triumph. Yesterday I contacted Triumph and they tell me the dealer has never contacted them for this problem.

As much as I love the bike, it has been sitting in the shop for 143 of the 193 days I've owned it and is less than worthless to me.

I sent a message to the dealer today demanding a buyback and will be forwarding it on to Triumph as well.

I thank everyone here for the advice, it was a hell of a ride for the few short weeks it worked, but I just want to wash my hands of Triumph and Engle Motors at this point.

 

[BehereNow]

I hit a new personal low air temp a couple of weeks ago with the Odyssey.
Nine degrees F when I left at 6:00 am. It hadn't been above freezing for a few weeks.
Got up to 30 degrees for the ride home after work.
I had to cross a patch of ice at the end of the driveway, about 4ft across, quarter inch thick. That Darkside rear may have helped. Solar heat melted the ice by the time I got home.
No battery problems.

 

[HeR3tic]

My third and currently inplace battery, over the course of 4 years, is an Odessy 625. It has performed no greater than the stock and equivalent replacement when it came to cold cranking. The "battery discharge unit" is unknown to me. But I might assume it means the Rocket III is a hard starter though there are not an account of burned out starters. I have resorted to using a battery tender with the Odessy with thankful easy start ups throughout the winter months. The two previous batteries are useable for other applications still.

 

[BehereNow]

Battery Tender and similar will not cut it with the Odyssey.
Been there, done that. Does not put a full charge on it. Others can give you the theory, I give you real world experience.
Battery Tender charger left me sitting at 35 degrees F.

No starter problems with the Rocket I have ever heard about.
Some of my friends have cars with smaller (HP/displacement) engines than my Rocket.
My battery is physically half the size of their car batteries.
If you are an all season rider in cold temps, the stock battery is lacking.

 

[liquidsmile]

Could be a grounding, connection problems. I would also consider checking those. I am running the scorpion battery on mine. Have not had any problems, it has a higher cca and it fits in the stock battery compartment.

 

[BehereNow]

Liquidsmile:

What is your weather like, temprature wise?

 

[liquidsmile]

I live in Ga. So it is not real cold here. I have been reading a lot of posts about batteries since I was going to replace my stock one that had been in my bike since new. I have an 05. Decided to go with the scorpion since it does not need a special high dollar charger like the Odyssey does. Took it to Daytona, we had some low 40 degree temps in the morning. It cranked right up every morning after sitting outside all night.

 

[HellFire]

Battery Tender and similar will not cut it with the Odyssey.
Been there, done that. Does not put a full charge on it. Others can give you the theory, I give you real world experience.
Battery Tender charger left me sitting at 35 degrees F.

No starter problems with the Rocket I have ever heard about.
Some of my friends have cars with smaller (HP/displacement) engines than my Rocket.
My battery is physically half the size of their car batteries.
If you are an all season rider in cold temps, the stock battery is lacking.

That is very true, standard tenders will not give the Odyssey the voltage it requires. You must have the Odyssey charger to go with the battery or it just won't work.
The Odyssey charger uses a higher voltage and an algorithm controlled charging interval to get the battery topped off to it's full potential .

 

[Gothlander]

Maybe they use a weak battery so you don't burn out the starter. Perfect engineering.:flame: