Battery Just....dead....nice

So I got geared up to leave this morning, turned the key and had nothing....not even the clock would work.  What a pisser.  Put the trickle charger on it, left it all day, came home expecting some love.....no love.  The only indication I have had of a problem is that my battery has been sitting at 12.1-12.2 volts when not running, and dropping to 10.4 ish range when starting.  Never a hiccup, never an indication it wouldn't just fire up and fufill my motorcycle needs....just dead.

Time to source a battery I guess.  I though mine was OEM (2002) but it appears to be a "Bike Bandit" battery, which I don't believe was stock.  I really didn't need this expense after just having a baby, and all the assorted medical bills that come with that....never mind the cost of diapers!  Looks like I am stuck driving the least fuel effecient vehicle I can find (1992 Jeep Cherokee Laredo)......and best of all it doesn't have AC!  This is exceptionally nice this time of year in DFW....106 it was yesterday, with 210% humidity.

Just wanted to vent, and possibly glean clues of the best battery deals.

Hmm... haven't had to buy one yet, but I've seen people discuss using the ST1300 battery. It's the same size, dimensions, etc, but has a few more cold cranking amps.

Went to look at mine again.  IT is a Bike Master, BTZ12S.  Not an AGM battery I don't think....they talk about filling it and sealing the top.  Seems to be on the lower end of the price spectrum as well.  May fit the family budget, but I would prefer a longer life battery if this one didn't last more than a couple years.

Last time I checked price on a Yuasa oem replacement, it was over $100. Maybe try WalMart for now?

Sorry to hear about the dead battery.  I just replaced my OEM with a Yuasa YTZ14S, a slight upgrade over the stock 12S model.  Paid $132 w/free shipping from www.chaparral-racing.com.  The OEM replacement YTZ12S is $5 cheaper.  Check 'em out.

You sure your voltmeter is working?   :beer:   Sorry....couldn't resist.


I went with a YTZ14S for mine.

[image: View Post]dutchinterceptor, on Aug 11 2008, 10:49 PM, said:

You sure your voltmeter is working?   :beer:   Sorry....couldn't resist.


I went with a YTZ14S for mine.

That wasn't very nice.....voltmeter was fine before, it was the dodgy soldering of the installer....wait, that isn't any better....it was a fluke (that is a DVM pun)


Battery is on the (more) serious charger right now....and off the bike which may have some sort of drain.....thats the only way I can explain going from "just fine" to totally drained of all but a surface charge.  Morning will tell I guess....I need a load tester.

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 11 2008, 11:09 PM, said:

[image: View Post]dutchinterceptor, on Aug 11 2008, 10:49 PM, said:

You sure your voltmeter is working?   :beer:   Sorry....couldn't resist.


I went with a YTZ14S for mine.

That wasn't very nice.....voltmeter was fine before, it was the dodgy soldering of the installer....wait, that isn't any better....it was a fluke (that is a DVM pun)


Battery is on the (more) serious charger right now....and off the bike which may have some sort of drain.....thats the only way I can explain going from "just fine" to totally drained of all but a surface charge.  Morning will tell I guess....I need a load tester.


If we lived closer I'd offer up my load tester and I wouldn't know anything about dodgy solering either.....did 1400 miles on a trip with no speedometer.   :goofy:

Apexbattery.com has the ytz12s for $83 and the ytz14s for $94.  Free shipping.

[image: View Post]cigarbuf, on Aug 12 2008, 12:43 AM, said:

Apexbattery.com has the ytz12s for $83 and the ytz14s for $94.  Free shipping.

Nice!   :fing02:

[image: View Post]dutchinterceptor, on Aug 11 2008, 11:24 PM, said:

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 11 2008, 11:09 PM, said:

[image: View Post]dutchinterceptor, on Aug 11 2008, 10:49 PM, said:

You sure your voltmeter is working?   :fing02:   Sorry....couldn't resist.


I went with a YTZ14S for mine.

That wasn't very nice.....voltmeter was fine before, it was the dodgy soldering of the installer....wait, that isn't any better....it was a fluke (that is a DVM pun)


Battery is on the (more) serious charger right now....and off the bike which may have some sort of drain.....thats the only way I can explain going from "just fine" to totally drained of all but a surface charge.  Morning will tell I guess....I need a load tester.


If we lived closer I'd offer up my load tester and I wouldn't know anything about dodgy solering either.....did 1400 miles on a trip with no speedometer.   :goofy:

Charge the battery all night at 6 amps, it had 16 volts on it with the DVOM, but wouldn't even power up the neutral light when I turned on the key....down to <3 volts and was dropping again.  I think I have a busted plate inside, and it is only holding a charge in the acid itself.

Apexbattery.com looks like the winner!

[image: View Post]cigarbuf, on Aug 11 2008, 11:43 PM, said:

Apexbattery.com has the ytz12s for $83 and the ytz14s for $94.  Free shipping.

Actually I just looked and it isn't a Yuasa battery....

Quote

The Yuasa YTZ12S Motorcycle Battery cross-references to the following:
Westco 12V12A-BS Battery
Manufacturer Westco
Model Westco 12V12A-BS Battery
Weight 7
Volts 12
Amp-Hour 10
CCA 200
Length 6
Width 3.4375
Height 4.1875
Terminals Box Style Top And Front Mount
Warranty 1 Year
Chemistry SLA
Polarity |+ -|
Time to Ship 1-2 days
These sealed batteries are built to perform. Features like Absorbed Glass Mat technology showcase a completely sealed and maintenance-free battery that provides the power needed for motorcrafts.


You are replacing the Yuasa battery with a different brand.

My battery died for the second time in stop & go traffic with high beams on about a month ago. I went to the stealer and got a replacement.  Upgraded the wiring with the VFRness and volt meter (It works great, thank you).  The bike seems to be running ok now although the voltage seems to degrade if I have the highbeams on in stop and go traffic.  Anyway, I charged the old battery and it seems to be ok.  I checked it last weekend and it was @ 12.8 or 12.9 volts and it has been sitting for three weeks without a charge.  I believe the battery is only a year or two old. Its a YTZ12S.  Its yours if you want it.  Just pay the postage. Just PM me where to send it.

Randy

[image: View Post]rhenter, on Aug 12 2008, 11:24 AM, said:

My battery died for the second time in stop & go traffic with high beams on about a month ago. I went to the stealer and got a replacement.  Upgraded the wiring with the VFRness and volt meter (It works great, thank you).  The bike seems to be running ok now although the voltage seems to degrade if I have the highbeams on in stop and go traffic.  Anyway, I charged the old battery and it seems to be ok.  I checked it last weekend and it was @ 12.8 or 12.9 volts and it has been sitting for three weeks without a charge.  I believe the battery is only a year or two old. Its a YTZ12S.  Its yours if you want it.  Just pay the postage. Just PM me where to send it.

Randy

Of course I see this 3 hours after I sprung for a new battery!  Thanks for the offer anyway.

I went to BatteriesPlus www.batteriesplus.com and they had good prices on AGM batteries.  $85 for the YTZ12S replacement, $90 for the YTZ14S replacement.  They also have a XTA12A-BS which was only $69 and was the same size, just lower CCA and AH rating.  I was undecided about which to purchase, but as they have a local store I went there over my lunch break.  I was 90% certain I would get the XTA version, with 10% towards the 14s.  Their batteries are store-brand batteries, so I knew I wasn't getting a Yuasa brand at that price.  

Upon looking at the 3 choices, and seeing they are indeed the same size, I noticed that the 12S was a Genuine Yuasa battery.  Turns out their supplier substituted the Yuasa for their generic battery, at no additional cost to them.  Now I really had a tough decision.  I ended up buying the name brand for $85, minus $5 for a coupon I had from their site.  With the +$5 for the core charge I walked out at $95 for an exact replacement Yuasa.

I highly recommend Batteries Plus, and will do future shopping there for sure.  Battery has a 1 year free replacement warranty, which because I have I will not need.  Now I just hope this is my ONLY problem......

Specs for those who may want to know for the future(all are same phsyical size and layout):

XTA12A-BS = 10AH, 175CCA
XTAZ14s    = 11AH, 225CCA
XTAZ12S   = 11AH, 205CCA

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 12 2008, 03:48 PM, said:

[image: View Post]rhenter, on Aug 12 2008, 11:24 AM, said:

My battery died for the second time in stop & go traffic with high beams on about a month ago. I went to the stealer and got a replacement.  Upgraded the wiring with the VFRness and volt meter (It works great, thank you).  The bike seems to be running ok now although the voltage seems to degrade if I have the highbeams on in stop and go traffic.  Anyway, I charged the old battery and it seems to be ok.  I checked it last weekend and it was @ 12.8 or 12.9 volts and it has been sitting for three weeks without a charge.  I believe the battery is only a year or two old. Its a YTZ12S.  Its yours if you want it.  Just pay the postage. Just PM me where to send it.

Randy

Of course I see this 3 hours after I sprung for a new battery!  Thanks for the offer anyway.

I went to BatteriesPlus www.batteriesplus.com and they had good prices on AGM batteries.  $85 for the YTZ12S replacement, $90 for the YTZ14S replacement.  They also have a XTA12A-BS which was only $69 and was the same size, just lower CCA and AH rating.  I was undecided about which to purchase, but as they have a local store I went there over my lunch break.  I was 90% certain I would get the XTA version, with 10% towards the 14s.  Their batteries are store-brand batteries, so I knew I wasn't getting a Yuasa brand at that price.  

Upon looking at the 3 choices, and seeing they are indeed the same size, I noticed that the 12S was a Genuine Yuasa battery.  Turns out their supplier substituted the Yuasa for their generic battery, at no additional cost to them.  Now I really had a tough decision.  I ended up buying the name brand for $85, minus $5 for a coupon I had from their site.  With the +$5 for the core charge I walked out at $95 for an exact replacement Yuasa.

I highly recommend Batteries Plus, and will do future shopping there for sure.  Battery has a 1 year free replacement warranty, which because I have I will not need.  Now I just hope this is my ONLY problem......

Specs for those who may want to know for the future(all are same phsyical size and layout):

XTA12A-BS = 10AH, 175CCA
XTAZ14s    = 11AH, 225CCA
XTAZ12S   = 11AH, 205CCA

Thats always the way.  Anyway you got a new battery.  I had to replace mine on a Saturday because I really needed it for Sunday and the Stealer charged me $150 including tax and the old battery was probably ok anyway.

I've had good luck w/ the Deka Battery I bought at a stealership for about 70bux. Its a AGM, has more CCA's and better warrany than the Yuasa.

I went the Batteries Plus route too.  They have both the 12 and 14 series batteries in stock at their stores for about half of what the Yuasa's are.  The OEM/Yuasa is a better battery Im sure, but the price of batteries has just gotten almost rediculous.  And the Batteries Plus unit is an AGM type, like stock.

I had originally ordered a replacement Yuasa from motorcyclebatteriesusa.com like I had in the past, but this time they really dropped the ball bigtime.  My order never showed, they never replied to any of my emails and a phone number was not available.  Someone else on here had a similar issue.  After waiting over a month, I needed something right away so I just went to the Batteries Plus option, which ended up working great so far.

i replaced mine from Advanced Auto parts $60 after tax

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 12 2008, 03:48 PM, said:

I highly recommend Batteries Plus, and will do future shopping there for sure.  Battery has a 1 year free replacement warranty, which because I have I will not need.  Now I just hope this is my ONLY problem...... I bought a battery from Advance Auto for mine which came with a one year warranty as well. One year and 8 days later it failed.   :blush:

This time I went back to a Yuasa. Hopefully it will last 5 years like the original one did.

[image: View Post]wera803, on Aug 13 2008, 11:55 AM, said:

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 12 2008, 03:48 PM, said:

I highly recommend Batteries Plus, and will do future shopping there for sure.  Battery has a 1 year free replacement warranty, which because I have I will not need.  Now I just hope this is my ONLY problem...... I bought a battery from Advance Auto for mine which came with a one year warranty as well. One year and 8 days later it failed.   :unsure:

This time I went back to a Yuasa. Hopefully it will last 5 years like the original one did.


Was the battey that failed the normal "add acid" type, or was it AGM?

From what i have learned, Lead Acid batteries take better to slight overcharging, where AGM have a harder time with it.  AGM batteries do better with vibrations and such.

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 13 2008, 05:45 PM, said:

[image: View Post]wera803, on Aug 13 2008, 11:55 AM, said:

[image: View Post]Tightwad, on Aug 12 2008, 03:48 PM, said:

I highly recommend Batteries Plus, and will do future shopping there for sure.  Battery has a 1 year free replacement warranty, which because I have I will not need.  Now I just hope this is my ONLY problem...... I bought a battery from Advance Auto for mine which came with a one year warranty as well. One year and 8 days later it failed.   :idea3:

This time I went back to a Yuasa. Hopefully it will last 5 years like the original one did.


Was the battey that failed the normal "add acid" type, or was it AGM?

From what i have learned, Lead Acid batteries take better to slight overcharging, where AGM have a harder time with it.  AGM batteries do better with vibrations and such.
Both the Advance Auto and Yuasa battery I had to add the acid. Not sure if that is normal, but I think it has been that way with every battery I've ever bought in the past 20 years. The only difference is the old ones used to have a screw on top over each cell. The new ones have the piece of plastic you press on and can never take it off again.