2003 Vfr Electrical Help, Mysterious Battery Death

[gminxx]

So I've had my VFR since 2011 and have taken her from 10K miles to 30K awesome miles largely problem free. The original owner said he had the wiring harness recall done so I'll take him at his word.

The only hints there was something wrong with the electrical system previously was that my Shorai lithium battery was eaten about 2 years ago and then replaced with a new one. About 6 months ago the bike died engine braking to a stoplight but then fired right back up. Thinking it would be smart to get a mosfet reg/rec after that brief dying episode I installed an electrosport one. In hindsight I should have read the forum and gone with the R1 reg/rec instead but o well.

Fast forward to present. I'm about a mile from work the bike dies on me again engine braking to a stop. I get a jump from my bosses car (probably a bad idea) and it fires back up and idles but when I rev it off idle it immediately dies.

After getting it back home I replaced the quite burnt looking original stator with a new Rick's stator and the dead shorai battery with a new one from their RMA department.

So the current tally is brand new stator, brand new battery, less than 6 months old reg/rec.

The ohms all test .02 on the new stator so no problems there.

My new Shorai battery tests 12.8 volts engine off, 13.7 at idle then revs perfectly to 14.5 throughout the rev range which indicates nothing wrong with the electrosport reg/rec.

Here comes the bizarre frustrating part.

I leave the seat off and check the battery the next morning. 12.8 volts. Now I'm sure I have fixed my problem and confidently bolt the fairings back on.

Then two days later I come back to go for a ride and the battery is at 2.3 volts!!!!!!

There goes another 200 dollar battery. I tried putting it on the battery tender but it's completely toast and will not charge past 5 volts.

Now I'm at the point I think there must be a short for a bad ground so I do the test with an older but still working SLA battery disconnecting the ground and attaching the voltmeter to measure the milli amps between the negative ground and the negative terminal on the battery.

Only 1 ma when first connected then drops to .68 ma - Completely within spec.

So what else it could possibly be?

I checked the fuses behind the battery they're all fine. Do I need to rip apart the grounding blocks to check for shorts? Maybe add an extra thick gauge ground from the negative battery terminal to the frame? Did jumping the bike blow something else up? I soldered the stator directly to the reg/rec which I thought I did a pretty good job on but if the solder was cold or some other joining screw up could that be the cause?

Any help would be greatly appreciated! At this point I'm going through more money in batteries than tires :mellow2:

[mk2davis]

It sounds like you already checked for shorts, and while looking over your grounds is never a bad idea, it seems like your culprit may be elsewhere.

When you did this "My new Shorai battery tests 12.8 volts engine off, 13.7 at idle then revs perfectly to 14.5 throughout the rev range which indicates nothing wrong with the electrosport reg/rec." how long did you have the bike on for?

This may or may not address your issue (it may be just good preventative maintenance), but the VFRness from Tightwad (a member here) is worth it's weight in gold.

[gminxx]

Good suggestion on the VFRness, I'll get that done to have one less thing to worry about. The OEM 30 amp fuse was fine though so I don't know what that says about the original harness.

I tested it twice once from a cold start through the rev range up to around 7K and once after riding it around the block so the stator and reg/rec probably never got fully up to temperature.

[mk2davis]

I have purchased a VFRness for a 3rd, 5th, and 6th gen. You could say I'm a fan. Also, since converting the 3rd and 6th to shindegen, I've had no issues.

But back to your issue . . . . I was thinking that the RR was shutting down after getting hot and you were running total loss, but this sounds unlikely. Search for "the drill". That gives a detailed process for testing the electronics. Also downloading service manual from the downloads section is suggested.

[CandyRedRC46]

I have some advice for you, I am sure others will chime in, so take it how you want, whether it is a story, advice or strict guide lines, it doesn't matter to me:

Don't touch electrosport with a ten foot pole. I have owned my 2007 since jan 2009 and bought it all original with only a couple thousand miles on it. I have played the replace every charging system component until you get it right game for many years. I made it to about 25,000 miles and my oem charging system gave up the ghost. I like many bought a cheap chinese rr, Ricks stator, new battery and a VFRNess for good measure. That Immediately failed and initial testing showed 17 volts at idle. I sent the rr back and sprung for the supposed ultimate rr, the Compufire series rr. Everything checked out initially, but I soon discovered that at 10,000 rpms the voltage would spike to 17 volts. This combo lasted about 2 years until about 40,000 miles and 2012 and I got stranded 3 hours from home with a dead battery. Next I cheaped out again and got a full Electrosports rr/stator kit. This showed 18 volts at idle and I immediately sent it back and purchased a factory honda stator and shindengen FH020aa rr (new oem rr) and ballistic lithium battery. Everything checked out great and it has been fine ever since. This is my best combo so far and I am at 70,000 miles now, longer than any other combo has lasted.

Also if you havent don so yet, you need to do a current draw test and make sure you dont have a draw or short while your bike is off and resting....

[mello dude]

I'm with CR --- the best charging combination is a OEM stock stator and then the FH020AA R/R - Wire direct to the battery with a beafy fuse box on the positive side.. (No VFRness) --- What is the mileage on your bike? - Are you trickle charging your battery?

And while I am at it, I wrote this a couple years ago, and it got named "The Drill" for checking out what is going on with your charging system, 100s of guys have used it. Read it, aborb it, do it.

Sorry for your electrical troubles. Well, looks like you gotta do…. “The Drill.”

Go through all your connectors for burnt leads, dig deep. Crispy wires? Not good. Your gonna have to fix that!

Then---Go through this starting point quick list. You will need a multimeter too.

Steps:

- Recharge battery overnite - then to take it to Autozone, Batterys Plus or similar to load test. -- Good? Bad? – An iffy battery can fake you out and act like a bad R/R. Buy new if needed.

- With good battery fire it up, warm up for a minute or two.

These are R/R quick checks---

--- With voltmeter at battery get voltages -- idle volts? 5000 rpm volts? What’s the numbers? Should be in 13ish min idle and in 14s at revs. If in the 12s at idle, try at 1900 rpm. (It’s not unusual for the system to be in discharge or no charge at idle.)

- Check stator

- 1. Pull connector apart. Set meter to resistance. Check pin to pin stator side, 3 yellow wires, A to B, B to C, C to A. What’s the numbers? 3 separate readings --Should be less than 1.0 ohms. (Engine off)

- 2. Check continuity from each A,B,C pin stator side to ground, -- -should be infinity - nada nothing. no continuity. -- 3 separate checks. (Engine off, again connector is apart)

- 3. Crank it back up. Do another pin to pin thing, but set meter on AC volts. idle and 5000 rpms. What's da numbers? Should start 15 -20ish and climb 50ish and more. Again – 3 readings stator side connector and still apart.

- Repeat hot.

This quick list will catch the obvious stuff, but if you need to dig deeper check this chart. (Some guys like this chart, my taste, I don’t care for it.)

http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf

[Tightwad]

I'm with CR --- the best charging combination is a OEM stock stator and then the FH020AA R/R - Wire direct to the battery with a beafy fuse box on the positive side.. (No VFRness) --- What is the mileage on your bike? - Are you trickle charging your battery?

And while I am at it, I wrote this a couple years ago, and it got named "The Drill" for checking out what is going on with your charging system, 100s of guys have used it. Read it, aborb it, do it.

Sorry for your electrical troubles. Well, looks like you gotta do…. “The Drill.”

Go through all your connectors for burnt leads, dig deep. Crispy wires? Not good. Your gonna have to fix that!

Then---Go through this starting point quick list. You will need a multimeter too.

Steps:

- Recharge battery overnite - then to take it to Autozone, Batterys Plus or similar to load test. -- Good? Bad? – An iffy battery can fake you out and act like a bad R/R. Buy new if needed.

- With good battery fire it up, warm up for a minute or two.

These are R/R quick checks---

--- With voltmeter at battery get voltages -- idle volts? 5000 rpm volts? What’s the numbers? Should be in 13ish min idle and in 14s at revs. If in the 12s at idle, try at 1900 rpm. (It’s not unusual for the system to be in discharge or no charge at idle.)

- Check stator

- 1. Pull connector apart. Set meter to resistance. Check pin to pin stator side, 3 yellow wires, A to B, B to C, C to A. What’s the numbers? 3 separate readings --Should be less than 1.0 ohms. (Engine off)

- 2. Check continuity from each A,B,C pin stator side to ground, -- -should be infinity - nada nothing. no continuity. -- 3 separate checks. (Engine off, again connector is apart)

- 3. Crank it back up. Do another pin to pin thing, but set meter on AC volts. idle and 5000 rpms. What's da numbers? Should start 15 -20ish and climb 50ish and more. Again – 3 readings stator side connector and still apart.

- Repeat hot.

This quick list will catch the obvious stuff, but if you need to dig deeper check this chart. (Some guys like this chart, my taste, I don’t care for it.)

http://www.electrosport.com/media/pdf/fault-finding-diagram.pdf

The VFRness IS a connection directly to the battery via a beefy fuse...8 gauge wiring. I also agree on Electrosport...I haven't heard many good things about them but lots of problems. I find it odd that the bike was running but the battery was at less voltage than needed to keep the fuel pump going even...something else is amiss and it could just be the wiring. Check the starter relay plug, look for burns at the red wires.

[CandyRedRC46]

FYI the vfr will still run at about 11 volts and no charging system. Somewhere around 10.9 the dash goes out and you have a minute or two to make moves.

With a dead battery and a good charging system, you can bump start the bike and it will run fine only using the battery for its capacitance.

The bike will not run without a battery, though.

[gminxx]

I've been riding again for a few weeks now after getting everything sorted so here's the run down for the curious.

The Shorai Lithium battery was a bust, it blew up from a manufacturing defect through no fault of the bike but because I was replacing most of the charging system it caused me to freak out and go down some un needed rabbit holes.

I replaced the Shorai with the cheapest AGM battery I could find which was the 31 dollar Mighty Battery on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/YTZ12S-Battery-Honda-VFR800-Interceptor/dp/B00ZUZXH3C/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1454340097&sr=8-2&keywords=mighty+battery+vfr800

It worked fine but almost died on me coming home from work so I bought yet another battery the 60 dollar MotoBatt AGM which came recommended on here as I thought maybe yet another battery was bunk.

http://www.amazon.com/MotoBatt-MBTX9U-Sealed-Maintenance-Battery/dp/B003YMSWX8/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1454340113&sr=8-2-fkmr0&keywords=motobatt+vfr

After watching my voltmeter closely while riding I came to the conclusion that the high beams were exceeding the capacity of the Rick's Stator at idle.

With the high beams off at idle the bike is able to hold 13.2 volts. When reved up to 4k rpm and higher it makes a consistent 14.3-14.4 volts which should be charging the battery.

With the high beams on at idle the battery slowly loses voltage until the high beams are switched off then jumps back to 13 volts. On the freeway it holds 13.1-13.2 volts with the high beams on.

So for now I have been riding with the high beams off in the city and on going down the highway.

It seems like the stator is slowly losing though as the voltage as it is usually around 12.6 when I get to work and take out the key instead of a fully charged 12.9-13. Enough to get me home and back to the battery tender but not an ideal solution if I ever want to do long distance riding again.

I'm thinking using a terminal block as recommended instead of a plug might be adding excess resistivity into the system lowering the output of the stator.

I'll investigate switching out the terminal black maybe just use bolts and washers to hold the ring terminals together and wrap with electrical tape to see how that goes. If it is still low maybe I'll solder the stator directly to the reg/rec. I have to agree with others on here the rick's stator is a little crappy, so far the electrosport reg/rec is working fine.

If I can get another 10-20k miles out of the two I'll replace things with the OEM stator and FH020AA lesson learned.