Acceptable Battery Drain
Discussion
I have an '05 SV650 that has had a problem with battery drain. All the time it was pancake flat if I left it more than a week. I have narrowed the problem down to the tracker on it. I fiddled with the settings and managed to get it to go for 2 weeks and it fired fine.
Now however, it is completely flat after 3 days even after fully charging the battery on a charger.
I have disconnected the tracker and will see how it goes but I wanted to ask if anyone knows what's acceptable for ignition off drain. The tracker is the main issue causing it to be flat in days, but if without the tracker it would be dead in a week anyway then it's a small difference.
Ignition off, tracker disconnected I get a draw of 0.01A.
Ignition off, tracker connected I get a draw of 0.03A.
IIRC the battery is a 45Ah.
I have googled but nowhere tells me what the actual figures should be. is 0.01A good? And is 0.03A bad?
Battery is 6 months old and is at 12.9V (which isn't brilliant tbh) and it charges at 13.3v at idle and 14.2 ish at 4k RPM.
Now however, it is completely flat after 3 days even after fully charging the battery on a charger.
I have disconnected the tracker and will see how it goes but I wanted to ask if anyone knows what's acceptable for ignition off drain. The tracker is the main issue causing it to be flat in days, but if without the tracker it would be dead in a week anyway then it's a small difference.
Ignition off, tracker disconnected I get a draw of 0.01A.
Ignition off, tracker connected I get a draw of 0.03A.
IIRC the battery is a 45Ah.
I have googled but nowhere tells me what the actual figures should be. is 0.01A good? And is 0.03A bad?
Battery is 6 months old and is at 12.9V (which isn't brilliant tbh) and it charges at 13.3v at idle and 14.2 ish at 4k RPM.
the car weeeeeezzzard post a video recently on tracking battery drains
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEYGmSn01Bw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEYGmSn01Bw
A 12v battery at rest is fully charged at 12.7v so when you're getting 12.9 how are you measuring it?
0.03a is not ideal but seems like that's the issue as 0.01 is fine really. It doesn't surprise me that a complicated alarm like a Tracker pulls a fair bit, you probably need a charger on it when not in use on such a small battery, what does the spec say on the instructions? Even a 0.03a drain should last weeks so something might not be right with the battery, have you had it tested properly, drop tested under load? It might only be 6 months old but if you've let it go flat a lot it could be heavily sulphated already.
0.03a is not ideal but seems like that's the issue as 0.01 is fine really. It doesn't surprise me that a complicated alarm like a Tracker pulls a fair bit, you probably need a charger on it when not in use on such a small battery, what does the spec say on the instructions? Even a 0.03a drain should last weeks so something might not be right with the battery, have you had it tested properly, drop tested under load? It might only be 6 months old but if you've let it go flat a lot it could be heavily sulphated already.
Edited by TimmyMallett on Thursday 13th May 16:09
Thanks all, seems it's not as simple as I thought. Might be time to buy a new battery and treat this one better.
Yep, it has an alarm that was fitted when I bought it, it's a datatool I think..
I live in an apartment so sadly sticking it on charge isn't an option. I rely on burning petrol to make the electricity, or take the battery off and bring it in.
TimmyMallett said:
A 12v battery at rest is fully charged at 12.7v so when you're getting 12.9 how are you measuring it?
0.03a is not ideal but seems like that's the issue as 0.01 is fine really. It doesn't surprise me that a complicated alarm like a Tracker pulls a fair bit, you probably need a charger on it when not in use on such a small battery, what does the spec say on the instructions? Even a 0.03a drain should last weeks so something might not be right with the battery, have you had it tested properly, drop tested under load? It might only be 6 months old but if you've let it go flat a lot it could be heavily sulphated already.
I'm using an el cheapo multi meter, so its accuracy might be a little off. 0.03a is not ideal but seems like that's the issue as 0.01 is fine really. It doesn't surprise me that a complicated alarm like a Tracker pulls a fair bit, you probably need a charger on it when not in use on such a small battery, what does the spec say on the instructions? Even a 0.03a drain should last weeks so something might not be right with the battery, have you had it tested properly, drop tested under load? It might only be 6 months old but if you've let it go flat a lot it could be heavily sulphated already.
Edited by TimmyMallett on Thursday 13th May 16:09
Yep, it has an alarm that was fitted when I bought it, it's a datatool I think..
I live in an apartment so sadly sticking it on charge isn't an option. I rely on burning petrol to make the electricity, or take the battery off and bring it in.
I had a Meta alarm from new on my bike for 10+ years. The battery would stay charged for 2-3 weeks without use and still have enough power to fire the bike up.
Since then I haven taken the Meta alarm out when the unit itself started to fail and now I can leave my bike for a month or two and it will still fire up.
Any aftermarket alarms, immobilisers or trackers that are fitted will cause a reasonable battery drain.
Since then I haven taken the Meta alarm out when the unit itself started to fail and now I can leave my bike for a month or two and it will still fire up.
Any aftermarket alarms, immobilisers or trackers that are fitted will cause a reasonable battery drain.
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