Electrical Woes In My New '07

So about 2 weeks ago, I took the FZ6 out on an hour long ride in the afternoon. Came home, went and did some other stuff for a few hours, then when I went to start it up to go somewhere else, it wouldn't turn over! After reading the forums, determined that it was probably a battery issue. Hooked it up to my charger, gave it some juice, and it was fine afterwards... until yesterday.

I'm out riding and enjoying the beautiful weather, when I noticed the "Engine Warning/Trouble" light was on. I was sitting at a stoplight, at the time. When I pulled away, it went away once I hit about 30mph. Uhhm, okaaaay. I kept an eye on it, and noticed it came back as I slowed down, at the next stoplight. I noticed that the engine, while idling, was kind of struggling to keep going. The next time I came to a stoplight, a minute or so later, my speed-dash actually blanked out for a second! It did that twice, as I slowed down.

I suspected it was the battery again, so when I left that light, I stayed in first and jammed the RPMs up to around 10k, which seemed to help. (I normally ride with the RPMs between 5k-8k.) I headed home as fast as I could, but thankfully the issue didn't occur again. Got the bike on a charger again, which indicated that the battery was almost dead.

Am going to be calling my dealership shortly, to ask for a new battery. I've had the 07 for maybe 2 months now, and am close to rolling 500 miles. I shouldn't be charging a brand new battery like this... twice now!

Keep us posted.....I wondering if im going to start having problems....I still have less than 100 miles on the bike.

maybe it sat in the showroom for a while also.... it sure sucks, good luck at the dealership.

Have you added any mods that require eletrcicity? Did you do the dual headlight mod and if so, which one? The fast and easy one where both beams are lit on high or the correct one where it's either high or low? Do you ride with you high beam on?

Have them check the battery but also the output from the charging system of the bike to be sure it is spec'd correctly.

Gemini77 said:

Keep us posted.....I wondering if im going to start having problems....I still have less than 100 miles on the bike.

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Gemini, dont think negative! I have an '08 with 4k on it and not one problem at all. A dead battery is a rather small problem anyway, hopefully the dealership will make good on it.

Gemini77 said:

Keep us posted.....I wondering if im going to start having problems....I still have less than 100 miles on the bike.

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Yes, definitely will, since we got our bikes at the same time.

FZ6inNH said:

Have you added any mods that require eletrcicity? Did you do the dual headlight mod and if so, which one? The fast and easy one where both beams are lit on high or the correct one where it's either high or low? Do you ride with you high beam on?

Have them check the battery but also the output from the charging system of the bike to be sure it is spec'd correctly.

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Yes actually... I installed biker's dual headlight mod kit a few weeks ago. When I had the first battery failure, I had not installed the mod yet and was riding with the high beam on. In fact, I installed the mod kit when I had the bike opened up, to recharge the battery.

I also put in a Fiamm Freeway Blaster horn on Friday night. I know that draws a few more amps, but it shouldn't kill the battery when inactive. During one of the times my engine light was on, I did try my horn and it wouldn't work. When I got home, after not having the engine light on for a while, I tried the horn and it DID work.

madmanmaigret said:

maybe it sat in the showroom for a while also.... it sure sucks, good luck at the dealership.

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This is my suspicion. I've already had to replace my left mirror, due to a defect in the mirror glass. I'm usually extremely cynical about dealerships, but I've been blown away by this one (Highlands Yamaha) thus far. The sales guy was great, with zero pressure, and up front with everything, and the service manager Dan, was really cool regarding the mirror defect. I doubt I'll have any issues dealing with them over this, once I explain the whole story as I did here.

You shouldn't have an issue with riding with the high beam on so long as the quick-mod wasn't done and this is the case. BD43's loom is the correct way so that rules out anything dealing with the dual light mod.

It doesn't seem like a horn would do anything but you may want to test it with a volt meter to be sure it's not drawing power when inactive, just to be sure, before you visit the dealer. If they put it on, then I'd let them deal with it.

Nice to have a dealer that takes care of you! It's a hit or miss thing in this area so when you find one, you stick with them.

Keep us posted! Your experience will likely save troubles for someone else.

You shouldn't have an issue with riding with the high beam on so long as the quick-mod wasn't done

I'm sure there are 100's of us out there that have done this mod, and I don't know of one that has had a problem with it. Be it BD's mod, or any of the others. Saying that he might have problems if he didn't do BD's mod is a little misleading.

Sounds to me to be a Battery issue .

ant_mb said:

You shouldn't have an issue with riding with the high beam on so long as the quick-mod wasn't done

I'm sure there are 100's of us out there that have done this mod, and I don't know of one that has had a problem with it. Be it BD's mod, or any of the others. Saying that he might have problems if he didn't do BD's mod is a little misleading.

Sounds to me to be a Battery issue .

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Please allow me to explain... I didn't say specifically that BD's was the only way. I meant that BDs way does the mod correctly meaning the right headlight is either high beam or low beam and never both. The cheap fast way means someone simply jumpered the right low beam to the left low beam so when you hit the high beam, both filaments are lit on the right.

I didn't do BD43's loom but I still did the mod the right way and not the cheap fast way. Sorry if my post was misleading. :thumbup:

I meant that BDs way does the mod correctly meaning the right headlight is either high beam or low beam and never both


I did the mod so I have the same effect as BD's mod, but it wasn't as easy as his.

ant_mb said:

I meant that BDs way does the mod correctly meaning the right headlight is either high beam or low beam and never both


I did the mod so I have the same effect as BD's mod, but it wasn't as easy as his.

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Did you splice near the battery or at the handlebar?

Somewhere on the other forum was a nicely laid out chart of the FZ6's stock used watts and what was "left over" I remember that if you had wired the right for high AND low, you've nearly cut in half what was left over for accessories. The FZ6 doesn't have a lot of room to spare for wattage beyond stock. Does anyone have that information since the other site is down?

I spliced into the harness under the tank. I am running low beams all the time, GPS, PCII and Autocom all the time. I have never charged the battery, and never had one bit of a problem. I know they don't draw much power though.

The stock battery plainly sucks!! Get a replacement high capacity AGM battery like Scorpion from the dealer under warranty. It oly costs $60 shipped anyway.

crazybiker said:

The stock battery plainly sucks!! Get a replacement high capacity AGM battery like Scorpion from the dealer under warranty. It oly costs $60 shipped anyway.

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How can you say that? My stock battery is still going stong after 3.5 years, including sitting without trickle charging for over 3 months. It might also depend on what the "stock" battery is in the first place. Depends what battery the dealer installs during PDI. You can't throw out a blanket statement like "stock batteries suck".

Batteries are a crap shoot. Some work fine for years without issue, others die after 1 month.

1500 miles on my 07' so far and no issues, Hope the dealer takes care of you:Sport:

your condition sounds intermittent.....your terminal connections are tight and making good contact?

crazybiker said:

The stock battery plainly sucks!! .

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your stock battery maybe, not mine. My battery just won't quit after all the years and hell I've put it through.

Its all in the dealer prep, the way he charged/installed it. Mine was lemon ... It would not even hold 30% of its charge capacity ... I had to tend it every 10 days or so. Since I got the Scorpion I ahve never tended it and it still shows a healthy 12.7 volts at idle rpm.

Gemini77, Beknatok and I all bought our bikes from the same dealer on the same day. I've had the same issue. Not as severe with the service engine light, but I do think it's the same. My wife was riding her bike (the FZ6 is actually hers) and practicing slow speed manuvers in a parking lot. I had just done BikerDude's light mod, so both lamp low filaments were on. She dumped the clutch once and killed it. Upon trying to restart, only clicking. The lights were on, and the fan was running, but it just wouldn't start.

Well, as she's still new to riding, she got a quick lesson in bump staring a bike while I was on it. It fired back up, and we hurried home. I pulled the battery, and put it on the charger. I left it on for probably 15 minutes at 2Ah charge rate before I remembered that my charger will display the charge in a percentage. At that point is was up to 70%.

I disconnected BD's harness for now, and taped it up and zip tied it behind the fairing. I don't think there's anything wrong with BD's harness, but I do believe the battery may be suspect, and I'm beginning to think this may be why Mama Yamaha didn't connect that wire from the factory. Add a few accessories, leave the high beams on, and get stuck in traffic for a bit, and the battery may be dead...

Anyway, long story short, Beknatok, please let me know what you find out from our dealer. And feel free to let them know I've had the same issue.

Kent

Just a quick update. I did call the dealership and chit-chat with the service manager, who agreed with my assessment. However, he still wanted to load test the battery first, so I dropped it off yesterday after work and am waiting to hear back from them, either later today or tomorrow morning.

Beknatok said:

Just a quick update. I did call the dealership and chit-chat with the service manager, who agreed with my assessment. However, he still wanted to load test the battery first, so I dropped it off yesterday after work and am waiting to hear back from them, either later today or tomorrow morning.

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Thanks for the update, and keep me posted. I'm sure mine will be the same...

Kent