Lithium battery issues - solved

Hi all

I've had a Shido lithium battery fitted for the last 11 months...

However, over the last 2 weeks i've had the classic signs of all not being well:

Freezing tacho

Flickering backlight on the clocks

Fickering of indicator lights on clocks, (Neutral, high beam etc).

Today I checked the battery terminals (they were definiely not loose - undid, re-greased and re-tightened them anyway), battery charge and the charging circuit: all good.

However, while charging the battery with it's dedicated lithium charger, I noticed the charging cycling unusually and the three lights on the battery were showing green / yellow / green.

I think this strongly indicates that the battery itself is on it's way out.

I do not have another battery to hand to test today but I will tomorrow and i'll update this thread with my findings.

Has anyone else fitted lithium batteries and had failures or is yours working issue free?

Just curious, as not sure if I should try another lithium battery or go back to lead acid

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

I fitted cheap as fmt on the sv650 and the husky450 has some form.

Runs perfectly. All I notice is you have when cold press starter for a second or 2. Stop wait a min or 2 and them you have full power and will turn it no problem for ages

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

I have had lithium battery on gen3 for last 3 years, no issues whatsoever

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

Update:

Okay, even though the lithium battery fitted has definitely weakened, it appears not to be the root cause.

I swapped it out with a new lithium battery and the symptoms are exactly the same:

All good until 5 seconds after startup then tickover becomes irregular, the tacho freezes and the dash lights flicker.

Bike performs more or less normally while riding with no power loss, QS works, tacho still erratic.

Tried so far:

Changed battery, cleaned and retightened battery terminals.

Checked charging system - 14.1v at tickover, 14.5v @ 4k rpm = good

Cleaned ignition as far as possible with contact cleaner.

Cleaned fuse box and changed all fuses.

Cleaned ICU connections and checked all wiring in the area for pinching / snagging.

Cleaned all connectors under the fuel tank.

Anything else I could try before it gets expensive?

Anyone else had this?

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

I had kind of similar issues (dash lights flicker, dash lights stay on even when ignition is off) on Gen3 bike. I think the root cause was low battery voltage that killed ignition barrel.

I had to replace ignition barrel to make it work again.

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

it could possibly be the reg/rectifier not giving constant charge.try a multimeter on the battery or reg/rec whilst bike is running to see if it's constant or not

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

input to the reg from the gennie to check the a/c current (so checking your gennie),and on battery for dc/input (so checking your reg/rec.

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

Just to throw another option into the ring; check the fuses to see if they?re ok/burnt/etc as perhaps there?s a chaffed wire/loom. Had sth similar on my ?16.

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

bmwbadboy said:

I had kind of similar issues (dash lights flicker, dash lights stay on even when ignition is off) on Gen3 bike. I think the root cause was low battery voltage that killed ignition barrel.

I had to replace ignition barrel to make it work again.

Click to expand...

Hi, thanks for your input.

I have ordered a replacement ignition switch part number 61318543110 in case it is this that is faulty. Is this what you mean by ignition barrel?

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

scooby said:

it could possibly be the reg/rectifier not giving constant charge.try a multimeter on the battery or reg/rec whilst bike is running to see if it's constant or not

Click to expand...

Hi,

I've tested the gennie (replaced it 8 months ago as it was bad) and the gennie is good. Voltage looks constant so reg / rec is good (i replaced the reg/rec when I replaced the gennie).

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

cobo said:

Just to throw another option into the ring; check the fuses to see if they?re ok/burnt/etc as perhaps there?s a chaffed wire/loom. Had sth similar on my ?16.

Click to expand...

Ya it's a weird one .... all is normal for 5-6 seconds then messed up for 5-6 seconds then normal again.. it cycles.

Checked and replaced all the fuses yesterday - no change

It is not movement related or heat related, replacing the ignition switch when it gets here.... after that it is stripping the loom unless something else comes to light :/

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

Biker said:

Hi, thanks for your input.

I have ordered a replacement ignition switch part number 61318543110 in case it is this that is faulty. Is this what you mean by ignition barrel?

Click to expand...

no,think he means the actual ignition barrel where your key goes in,the antenna on them can also be tempramental,but that tends to throw up an error code or just wont start.

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

Update 2:

OK after stripping the front end of the loom, checking, lubing and reassembling everything with no improvement I swapped the lithium battery with the ancient lead acid battery from my GF's scooter just to test and guess what?

Yup.

With the lead acid battery fitted all the issues went away and she ran perfectly!

I made a couple of youtube vid's to illustrate the problem and prove it was the lithium batteries:

Part 1: https://youtu.be/otzo4OysCNI

Part 2: https://youtu.be/0-B4jsJIAG0

So two Shido batteries throwing their toys out of the pram with my RR for no apparent reason... YMMV.... and as part 2 says.. answers on a postcard to the usual address

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

scooby said:

no,think he means the actual ignition barrel where your key goes in,the antenna on them can also be tempramental,but that tends to throw up an error code or just wont start.

Click to expand...

Ok after stripping the front end today and checking everything electrical I can say with some authority that it cannot be the barrel itself as it has no electrical components.

The ignition switch (a seperate module) is far less complicated than pretty much any ignition barrel I have ever looked at. It consists of a single microswitch in a plastic housing.

The immobiliser antenna is a seperate part that I did not strip and inspect as it would have required a special security bit to remove it from the top yoke to inspect.

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

Update 3:

Today I tested with another brand of Lithium battery (Motobatt) and everything worked just fine so i'm thinking that since both Shido batteries were the "connect" Bluetooth version then it was probably the Bluetooth module in these batteries was causing this issue.

Anyone else running the Shido "connect" batteries in their RR that can confirm?

Re: Lithium Battery failures?

Biker said:

Update 3:
Anyone else running the Shido "connect" batteries in their RR that can confirm?

Click to expand...

I fitted a shido connect at the start of the year and it's been fine, can't say I noticed any flickering. I've only managed to go out a few times though.

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