Battery drain on a 2018 Goldwing

Do you put the battery on a charger overnight? If good in the morning but gets weaker as the day goes on, could be a bad cell and not taking full charge, but will read normal with a multimeter. 

I recently had a battery issue on a rig, the voltmeter read 13.6, but was erratic when trying to turn over the engine, sometime yes, sometimes no....

Took it to an Auto Zone, they tested it, 13.6. Asked for a load test. First time came back at 9.7, a second load test came back at 9.2, Not enough to turn over the engine. Bought a new battery, everything is working normal now.

Hope it is something simple for you too. 

We purchased a digital voltmeter from Battery Tender that plugs into the charging pigtail, which helped us sort out a battery problem 'in the field" a couple years ago:   I presumed all was good with standing voltage at 13.6; however, voltage dropped to 9.2 as soon the starter button was pressed.  Yep, bad cell.

Re: Phantom Draws:  We have discovered that "always live" USB charging ports apparently create a draw (apparently from always working to drop voltage from 12 to 5).

Thanks for the suggestions. I had the battery tested and it tested fine. However, as you are suggesting, I am willing to bet as CC said it’s got a bad cell.  It’s been sitting overnight. I will test this morning and see what the status is. Keep you posted on what I find. Thanks again for your suggestions.

If your alternator is charging properly but the battery falls while riding  it is either a bad cell or when it heats up 2 plates begin to touch causing a dead short to the battery. the only other thing is your alternator could be failing at higher RPM's ( have had this happen) do you have a volt meter that you can monitor your alt output. Then one more thing to check is all your wiring to be sure your not loosing connection anywhere 

if the battery is bad a load test will show it right away. 

Thanks, i have a volt Meter and it shows a constant 14.5 charging rate. My guess is that it’s the battery under load. Will check Tomorrow. There is an isolator for the sidecar lights since that is regular 12v and the bike is LED. as a precaution I changed all bulbs in the sidecar except headlight to LED.  Will let you all know what I find. Thanks again for all the help.

Something what fails frequently without finding it: Cables that pass through walls. From outside all OK and behind on the hidden side some creepy short or corrosion. that gets only sometimes contact.

Other point: gel batteries are very picky with battery chargers... had it with a brand new one. key off 13,2V. Key on dead 0V.  On my bikes as soon the voltage drops while turning over with less then 9V getting to the ignition => spark is gone. Often a fresh battery is the best solution, but not every fresh battery is a good battery!

Last but least the reason for most bike failures is "Lack of use". (see that a lot when my son has my Ural confiscated.)

   2018 Wing - battery 3+ years old - could be time to replace it.  The gel cell/sealed batts. seem to me to fail erratically like you have described. The old wet batteries would just start gradually cranking slower & slower. I don't miss the corrosion issues however. 

Thanks, all systems check out ok. Charging at a consistent 14.5 V , battery at 12.6 cold.  Only issue may be the cell issue that was described earlier with cells touching when battery heats up while riding distance. Will check Tomorrow when I ride to church. Let you know what happens.

So what was the outcome, did you get it figured out 

I finally think I got it figured out. The battery seemed to be shorting out under heavy load. As you suggested, when it heated up 2 plates seemed to be shorting. I also contacted Hannigan and they sent me an updated wiring harness for the bike. This 2018 Goldwing was the first ever and some mods have been made since then. Much appreciated Hannigan’s willingness to work with me on this. I also converted all running lights to LEDs to lighten the load. So far all seems to be working.  Thanks again for all the suggestions and ideas. Hope to see you all at Nationals! Meantime, ride safe

glad to hear everything is going good with it. 

NCGL, great to hear your charging issue is resolved.  Am curious on what Hannigan updated on their GoldWing wiring harness as I have a 2018 Wing DCT.

Will you be attending  Sidecars in the Smokies in May?

2018 wing, does it have keyless ignition? Do you keep the key near it when sitting. The bike is constantly reaching out to look for the key and will kill a battery faster than you think. My 2018 Beemer will kill the battery after only a week or two if I leave the key in the Tank bag. I usually have the tender on it. Once the AGM battery has been taken to a low state of charge it is real hard to get them back to 100 %  Takes a lot of patience and fussing to get them back. trying to recover the neighbours Harley Battery right now. Had to Jump start it with a 2nd battery to get any current out of my charger. 8.4 volts to start with so may not come back.