Unusual battery draining.

Hey Jazz,
I am no elec expert so I will leave that to the boys above. However, I had a new GSA from Vines in Sep 15. Throughout 2016 I had 4 catastrophic battery failures. After each one I was 'assured' it was fixed. By the 4th time I had lost confidence, took the bike back and told them I never wanted to see the effing bike again. I subsequently came to an agreement with them and traded the bike for a new TB last Dec. No probs with this one thank goodness.
I believe this is a KNOWN problem with some bikes and the dealer / BMW have a duty of care to us as customers.

Good luck mate

Hi Dodger,

That is a worrying prospect :-(, the bike is not new, is two years old so no luck getting a new bike, but the thing is the bike never had problems before going in January for a repair to a BMW dealer. Since then, the original battery went, and two more since then.

I am going to motoscot tomorrow and if they say they cannot find the problem I will launch an official complaint against BMW themselves because I have been more than once to a couple of dealers and they did nothing to help. Thanks, fingers crossed, motoscot will find the problem! :)
 
Batteries are like winning the loto, they can work fine for years and then just die, but usually the cause of them dying, is exactly as described, leaving a bike for months not being put on an Optimate or other charger, this exact thing happened to me on my old Harley, I learn,t my lesson from that, and I can tell you that a tracker will use the battery if it is transmitting all the time, just like a smartphone uses the battery way more quickly when having the WIFI on and being out of range of the wifi, it continuosly scans, and uses the battery, just a hint. also if you are only riding it 15 minutes, the battery will not have time to charge up unless you are really nailing it to the floor.

Thanks for the hint, actually only ran it for 15 minutes today, but am in my pijamas already, so will have to chance it tomorrow morning, and see if the bike starts, I need it, to go to motoscot! :aidan
 
Having read the posts, this is the most likely problem. Landrover had a major problem with this a few years ago, because many house alarms were near the same frequency and triggering wakening. Batteries would go flat overnight.
http://www.rangerovers.net/forum/7-...mysteriously-going-flat-overnight-solved.html
Myke

Wow, that's a first and interesting, never heard of that. However, I doubt it, as the bike is away from any houses nearby, however, since you said that, I wonder if an alarm in a vehicle nearby (it's secure residential parking, there are dozens of them) could be causing my immobiliser to wake up? I will move the bike to another location in the car park and measure it again. I might be saying the most ridiculous thing here but I will do that anyway, unless someone here tells I am being stupid. Again, I am as knowledgable of electrics and electronics as I am of neurosurgery! :-/
 
I'm following this, lots of good advice, Motoscot is the answer, take it to someone with a good autorange multimeter, first thing is get a correct reading, I would test it with the 'extras' connected & compare/evaluate readings.
I have a meter that can record 16hrs of current draw (i.e. Overnight) to check somethings not activating intermittently, which it can occur (as previous suggestion) but I'm a couple of hundred miles from you so no good to you really.
With regard to complaining to Bmw don't waste your time, I know lots of great technicians but only a handful are electrically competent.
I'm sure Motoscott will find the answer.
 
Just to through this in the mix - I too had a similar problem and discovered that by leaving my USB adapter (with nothing attached) in the socket was enough to kill the battery in a couple of days.


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Go back to the insurance company and state there is still a problem and it only happened since the theft, and was never repaired correctly, see if they will agree to have it repaired and get the go ahead to take it back to garage.
If the battery is drained in 5 odd days, give it to garage who initially repaired it, and leave it there.
 
That's what I though and yes, it does help indeed.
Just went to the garage and measured everything again...I think the photos below confirm the reading is in mA. I think it's just the accuracy as I believe someone mentioned here.

Anyway, I will call one of those BMW dealers and also motoscot, see what they say.

Thank you all for your help, amazing people here.

Cheers,
JB
The pic in the bottom right corner with the meter on the 2mA range tends to suggest an overrange reading. If the meter is not auto scaling, does this not suggest 18mA is the reading?

Neither 0.18mA or 1.8mA would read as 1. on a 2mA scale.
 
Its been three days since the original post.
Battery should either be fine or flat by now....?
 
I'm following this, lots of good advice, Motoscot is the answer, take it to someone with a good autorange multimeter, first thing is get a correct reading, I would test it with the 'extras' connected & compare/evaluate readings.
I have a meter that can record 16hrs of current draw (i.e. Overnight) to check somethings not activating intermittently, which it can occur (as previous suggestion) but I'm a couple of hundred miles from you so no good to you really.
With regard to complaining to Bmw don't waste your time, I know lots of great technicians but only a handful are electrically competent.
I'm sure Motoscott will find the answer.

Thanks, I have been to motoscot on Wednesday, they told me the bike was charging correctly and there was no current draw, that it must have been the tracker. But he didn't measure it using my method, he measured the voltage and there was not drawing. But the bike not there overnight, only probably 10 to 20 minutes. He was very nice and also gave me a report with all the readings from the computer, regarding everything else. So, I will just leave the bike as it is for the moment, will not touch it and see what happens, Friday next week, when I try to start it. I will fight the urge of starting it before then, to see what happens, that is the ultimate test. If it starts after 8 days, then it was the tracker.
And thanks for offering the meter, very kind of you :aidan. Yep, I can see BMW won't do anything. The funny thing is, I was almost tempted with swapping my current car for an X3, I even went to see one when I was there waiting for a couple of hours and time to kill, it was interesting really and I had spoken with the missus already about us going to have a test drive...now, no way! Not because of the car in particular, just because of the service. I doubt I will get good service from the car dealership as well. You know what they say, once (in my case, several times) burnt...

And will make sure that in the car dealership they know why I decided this way. Not that it matters for them (they've got loads of customers waiting in queue) but I will tell them anyway. BMW service is rubbish. And this happened with 3 dealerships, yes, three! I could write a novel about all the problems I've had since day 1!
 
Just to through this in the mix - I too had a similar problem and discovered that by leaving my USB adapter (with nothing attached) in the socket was enough to kill the battery in a couple of days.


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The only extra was the tracker.
 
Go back to the insurance company and state there is still a problem and it only happened since the theft, and was never repaired correctly, see if they will agree to have it repaired and get the go ahead to take it back to garage.
If the battery is drained in 5 odd days, give it to garage who initially repaired it, and leave it there.

I have gone there 3 times, complained to BMW, nothing happened! Fed up with all this, only solution I have in order to get "some sleep", get someone who really knows what they're doing, get it sorted, sell the bike and never buy another BMW. It was my third and last, never again, unless they improve their service. Not willing to pay the premium and I have a worse service than many other makes. I love the GS but I think I don't to be narrow-minded anymore, and perhaps consider going back to other makes which also made me happy in the past, like Honda. It's sad but that's where I am now... :-(
 
The pic in the bottom right corner with the meter on the 2mA range tends to suggest an overrange reading. If the meter is not auto scaling, does this not suggest 18mA is the reading?

Neither 0.18mA or 1.8mA would read as 1. on a 2mA scale.

That pic is 20mA, not 2mA. That is the scale. With 20mA range, gives us 2 decimal places (0.18mA), with 2mA, gives an error (1.), and with 200mA, 0.2. The other pic is with 10VA but I forgot to move the jack to the 10VA side (someone here actually warned me), anyway I did it correctly afterwards and it showed 0.0, which I believe is expected.
 
Its been three days since the original post.
Battery should either be fine or flat by now....?

AS I said AAngus, I only took the bike there on Wednesday and yesterday I took it for a ride as well, so need to wait now until Friday EOD to start the bike again. Will then know whether it was the tracker, but motoscot were happy and told me there was no current draw. Now it's a waiting game...
Will let everyone know how it panned out, Friday after lunch! Fingers crossed, I know hope it was the tracker (though the BMW dealership garage never did a single test without it). Even better, they wanted £274.50 just to disconnect the tracker and test the current draw. I don't mind paying for a service, but that is a rip-off, clearly, especially after having the bike serviced there and having been charged £70 to fit a new front tyre.
 
That pic is 20mA, not 2mA. That is the scale. With 20mA range, gives us 2 decimal places (0.18mA), with 2mA, gives an error (1.), and with 200mA, 0.2. The other pic is with 10VA but I forgot to move the jack to the 10VA side (someone here actually warned me), anyway I did it correctly afterwards and it showed 0.0, which I believe is expected.

Bottom right picture, 2mA range :rob

I recently had me eyes tested you know (haven’t got my new specs yet though) :D
 
There are some great deals on Africa Twins, Lifes too short,

I had one many many years ago and was a great bike. Looks like all bikes (and cars) have had a quality drop over the years, with a rare exception. Perhaps that's a sign of the times...
 

I can see...but I have rust on mine as well, the centre stand quite a lot (and the bike has been always garaged and never had any intensive/heavy driving on gritty roads), signs of rust on the frame itself underneath, the exhaust with some bits of rust as well, had problems with a bit of rust on the rear wheel rim (inside) that was causing a tiny leak, the battery draining...

I have had BMWs since 2001 and the quality has dropped definitely, despite all the razzmatazz around suspensions, gadgetry, etc. I have to be fair though, the engine has become smoother over the years as well as the transmission and a more accurate ride, but that's something that is just technology evolution, I reckon and, the other makes have evolved as well. That's my opinion anyway. And, I suppose the other makes have dropped their quality as well, not defending anyone else, just thinking, for such a dear price BMW should really stand out in terms if quality!
 
A thread from 2005? Or am I reading it wrong??
And how does that help with battery drain?

Just noticed now...yep, thanks for that, now realised I wasted time replying to that! :nenau :D

Yeah, don't think I will be buying another beemer any time soon, nothing against beemers, I love them. Just until BMW dealership after-sales and garage services improve here, which hasn't happened yet.

By the way, does anyone know or has a good experience with Vines of Guildford? Are they reliable and at least customer-centred (and by that, I mean, just not arrogant, dismissive and patronising), in one dealership I even spotted staff commenting and laughing on two occasions, just after customers had gone over the automated doors, so I imagine that could also happen to me or anyone else. And they even didn't bother that other clients were inside and could overhear it.

I wouldn't mind start going to Vines, even if I have to do (quite) a few more miles...Surrey is a beautiful county anyway, so a ride there now and then would be nice. :)

Thanks,
JB
 


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