Left ignition set to on, won't start

[hobo7]

I'll address the elephant in the room first. Yes, I know I'm an idiot.

With that said, made a Chipotle run, came back, pulled into my garage, hit the kill switch and went to go eat. When I went to get my keys to leave later, I realized I had left my key in my bike and it was still switched to "ON" for about 4ish hours.

Figured no biggie, I'd get that trickle charger I needed anyway for winter, and let my battery charge outside the bike. Battery went to full, so I reinstalled it, and switched it back to "ON".

My issues are the following: Instrument cluster doesn't turn on at all. I checked all fuses, and none looked blown. It keeps making a steady clicking sound while the engine cut-off switch isn't set, and when I attempt to use the starter, it seems to be attempting to start, but no dice.

All of the above is documented in my short video. I also point to whatever it is making the noise. Ignore the air freshener, it was just to keep my front fairings from getting smashed by my fuel tank

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJtz4C67pUE]FZ6 won't start - left ignition on for ~4 hours. - YouTube[/ame]

I just hooked the bike up to my charger and will leave it charging all night to see if that makes any difference, but I'm suspecting I foo-barred my battery.

Side note: The bike was hooked up to the charger while doing these tests, if that makes any difference.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Motogiro]

What kind of charger? Is the battery attached to the bike when you're trying to start it in the video? Are you sure you have polarity correct? That steady ticking sound is not a good sign. Some chargers have little or no filtering and should not be used with your bike. Remove the charger. Does that ticking sound stop? Never heard a bike do that! There is a logic control where that ticking noise is coming from. It incorporates relays and is the starter interrupt cutout relay. That unit looks to see id the bike is in neutral, the clutch is pulled in and if the side stand is down. Ultimately your bike is meant to operate on 13 VDC. Your battery should be able to have enough power to start the bike. Regardless of whether your battery is good or bad you should not have the steady metered tick sound so something is very wrong. Again remove that charger from your bike.

Also: Any charger is not good for tending your motorcycle battery. Use a voltage controlled, well filtered battery tender.

Do not jump start your bike from a car with it's motor running!

 

[outasight20]

How old is your battery? If it's more than a few years old it might be toast...

 

[hobo7]

Hey guys, the battery tender is the Schumacher Battery Extender, which can be found at Battery Charger Extender w 20' Quick Connect Cord 1 Amp 6V 12V SP2 Schumacher | eBay.

I have heard the starter interrupt had to be replaced for some people, not sure if that may be my case or not. The battery definitely seems to be giving power to some of the electronics on the bike, but I'm just not sure if it's enough, as I've heard letting the battery fully discharge could cause it to become useless.

The bike's a 08, and I suspect the battery is just as old.

The clicking noise was present before I dealt with removing the battery and charging it. In the video, the battery is installed in the bike, but I had also connected the harness (neg to negative and then Pos to pos) to the battery and turned the charger on.

 

[Nelly]

Hey guys, the battery tender is the Schumacher Battery Extender, which can be found at Battery Charger Extender w 20' Quick Connect Cord 1 Amp 6V 12V SP2 Schumacher | eBay.

I have heard the starter interrupt had to be replaced for some people, not sure if that may be my case or not. The battery definitely seems to be giving power to some of the electronics on the bike, but I'm just not sure if it's enough, as I've heard letting the battery fully discharge could cause it to become useless.

The bike's a 08, and I suspect the battery is just as old.

The clicking noise was present before I dealt with removing the battery and charging it. In the video, the battery is installed in the bike, but I had also connected the harness (neg to negative and then Pos to pos) to the battery and turned the charger on.

Did you get sorted?

Nelly

 

[2007Fizzer]

For what it's worth, I wasted a lot of time and money attempting to diagnose a similar problem with my last bike. When in reality, it was simply a brand name Yuasa maintenance-free battery that had reached the end of its useful life, after about 4 years. I'd have saved a lot of time and effort if I'd just gone to the bike shop down the road (a mechanic who repairs used bikes, not a dealer), borrowed a similar but known to be good motorcycle battery, set it on a stool beside my bike, hooked it up temporarily with some decent sized battery clamps, and observed how the bike reacted with the good battery. My bike simply needed a new battery, and I would've found that out in exchange for a trip to the friendly neighborhood repair guy, and a few brews as a tip for borrowing one of his spare used but fully charged batteries. It seems like the maintenance-free batteries have a performance curve like the FZ6 horsepower curve - they go straight up and out seemingly forever, but when you reach the end of that curve the performance tanks very quickly. Mine MF battery "farted" one day, and literally died before the next time I tried to ride it. Fortunately it was in my garage at the time. Go borrow a similar motorcycle battery from a friend, relative or neighbor, hook it up temporarily with the correct polarity, and see what you get. Cheap to do, and it should give you great feedback. If you need a new FZ6 battery, it sure seems the OEM MF version does a great job - yours may even be the original one that came with the bike! Good luck.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Does the clicking happen when the bike is sitting with NOTHING HOOKED UP? (trying to rule out the charger)

IF the bike does still click, just for S&G's, disconnect the battery for a couple of minutes.

As Cliff touched upon above, disconnect the charger (check voltage while your there) and then run a set of jumper cables to a non running larger (auto) battery to your battery. After a little bit, the bike SHOULD start if its just the battery. (its running off the auto battery)

Agreed, the battery is probably toast, a slow, long, constant drain is the best way to kill a battery. If that's the original battery, you definitly got your moneys worth out of it..(and its due)

Good luck.

 

[hobo7]

Does the clicking happen when the bike is sitting with NOTHING HOOKED UP? (trying to rule out the charger)

IF the bike does still click, just for S&G's, disconnect the battery for a couple of minutes.

As Cliff touched upon above, disconnect the charger (check voltage while your there) and then run a set of jumper cables to a non running larger (auto) battery to your battery. After a little bit, the bike SHOULD start if its just the battery. (its running off the auto battery)

Agreed, the battery is probably toast, a slow, long, constant drain is the best way to kill a battery. If that's the original battery, you definitly got your moneys worth out of it..(and its due)

Good luck.

The clicking sound occurred before being hooked up to the charger, but after messing with it for about 5 minutes, it sounds like all power does drain out and it doesn't really do anything after that. I think you have helped confirm that I need to get another battery to test against. I'm surprised that the neutral light comes on, starter seems to fire, but still no power to the LCD screen, even when the bike is hooked up.

I have disconnected the battery, as I removed it entirely, took it up stairs and charged it, then reinstalled (without charger) and same noise. That's when I then hooked it up to the charger to see if anything different would occur (answer was no).

I'll dust off my voltimeter and get a measurement of the charge on my battery first.

I'll also try hooking jumpers up to my bike from my car tonight. I understand not to start the car, but it shouldn't make any difference in car vs. removed from car, right?

 

[FZ09Bandit]

Just jump it from your car battery not running, if you have a hot battery it while be fine regardless of whether it's on a car or not. Some brand new batteries can be killed just by running them dead. It happeneds. Replace battery. I'm sure ti didn't kill anything major just from leaving the key on.

If you have a hot battery and still nothing, check your cables and grounds. They may be crudy.

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

The first sign of a dying battery is dimming gauges when cranking over.

The clock re-setting, its getting really bad..

Clicking, pull the battery, get it load tested (at any Walmart, auto parts store, etc) to confirm its deceasded conditon...

Its likly your issue. Low electrical power will do all kinds of strange things...:thumbup:

 

[hobo7]

Alright, well the battery was reading 6v so they couldn't even do a load test on it at autozone. Perhaps it might have helped the diagnosis to have stated that it allegedly "charged" in less than 30 minutes. I wasn't sure if that meant I hadn't drained it as bad as I thought, but apparently it means quite the opposite.

I'm now content with buying a new battery, so I think I'm just going to wait until around March time frame to avoid dealing with the battery over the winter and have a fresh one ready in the summer. Although this does mean reluctantly winterizing my bike earlier than I desired

Just for S&G's, would it be any problem to connect my car battery directly to the terminals on the bike (with the bike battery removed) via jumpers just to verify nothing further is wrong? Again, obviously car off or battery removed from car.

Thanks!

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Alright, well the battery was reading 6v so they couldn't even do a load test on it at autozone. Perhaps it might have helped the diagnosis to have stated that it allegedly "charged" in less than 30 minutes. I wasn't sure if that meant I hadn't drained it as bad as I thought, but apparently it means quite the opposite.

I'm now content with buying a new battery, so I think I'm just going to wait until around March time frame to avoid dealing with the battery over the winter and have a fresh one ready in the summer. Although this does mean reluctantly winterizing my bike earlier than I desired

Just for S&G's, would it be any problem to connect my car battery directly to the terminals on the bike (with the bike battery removed) via jumpers just to verify nothing further is wrong? Again, obviously car off or battery removed from car.

Thanks!

Naw, it shouldn't hurt anything, just try to get a good connection which may be difficult with just jumper cables...

If you can't get a good connection, drilling a 1/4 hole in the jumper cables and bolting them direct to the FZ cables would work, just DON'T GROUND out the positive line..


Also, if you do get the original battery fully charged and re-install it in the bike there's a poor mans way to do a load test. Hook up a volt meter to the battery connections and crank up the bike, while watching the volt meter, it SHOULDN'T drop below 10 volts at the very lowest. If it just clicks, drops below that, its definitily toast.