Discharge

[CJC]

My new bike arrives in a few days - woo hoo!

It has been specced with a lithium battery that I'm keen to remove to avoid the problems documented in this thread. There are going to be times when I'm not going to be able to run a trickle charger on the lithium battery.

For me, having an old fashioned lead battery with prolonged tracker life is better than having a lighter lithium battery with shorter tracker life and its associated risk of dead lithium battery.

Has anyone swapped out a lithium battery for a lead based one? Is it is a simple job of taking one out and putting the other one in, but is there anything to watch out for? I read something about connector lead being short but this could be ???

Also, is a YTS10s battery the correct replacement battery?

I'll therefore be posting the lithium battery in the for sale section shortly.

Thanks in advance,

CJC

 

[needsmust]

Time for an update.

I got a new tracker through the post after Datatool admitted that mine was dodgy and in fact hadn't worked for months.
A man came to fit it on my driveway, arranged by Datatool. He had to phone a friend to find out where it was hidden, and then got his fingers stuck trying to get the old one out. When refitting the new one, a bit of sticky foam tape is used to hold it in place - he struggled a bit with the tape and ended up cable-tying it. Without giving too much away about the position, a couple of torx screws will reveal the "home made" appearance of cable ties, which to my mind is much too easy for a thief.
With a bit of haggling, the dealer did my overdue 12m service for free.
With a bit of pestering, I got a few months credit on the tracker subscription.
With a bit of patience, the battery will last 3+ weeks without a charge, but not the 4 weeks the manual says you should be able to leave it before connecting a charger. I haven't checked since the service, when they said they'd check the battery (again). I can't keep waiting 3 weeks between rides to check.

So, overall it's more or less sorted. This business has really soured my experience of the bike and the dealer. After repeated visits to the dealer, I really was made to feel that the problem was with my unrealistic expectations of an ?18k bike, when there was a genuine problem with it all along (the bike would have been fine without the non-option tracker, but no-one at BMW would accept there was a problem). If your lithium battery lasts less than a week, don't be fobbed off with "they all do that" crap. I'm now told that BMW are re-assessing their relationship with the tracker people because of multiple problems.

Whilst waiting at the dealer before the last negotiations, my daughter asked me if I regretted buying the bike. On reflection, I sadly had to say yes. It's an astonishing machine, but has caused more hassle, misery and anger than it's given me pleasure. Perhaps that balance will change now. I wish I could have got a black one.

 

[Westy]

Time for an update.

With a bit of patience, the battery will last 3+ weeks without a charge, but not the 4 weeks the manual says you should be able to leave it before connecting a charger. I haven't checked since the service, when they said they'd check the battery (again). I can't keep waiting 3 weeks between rides to check.

So, overall it's more or less sorted. This business has really soured my experience of the bike and the dealer. After repeated visits to the dealer, I really was made to feel that the problem was with my unrealistic expectations of an ?18k bike, when there was a genuine problem with it all along (the bike would have been fine without the non-option tracker, but no-one at BMW would accept there was a problem).
If your lithium battery lasts less than a week, don't be fobbed off with "they all do that" crap. I'm now told that BMW are re-assessing their relationship with the tracker people because of multiple problems.

Whilst waiting at the dealer before the last negotiations, my daughter asked me if I regretted buying the bike. On reflection, I sadly had to say yes. It's an astonishing machine, but has caused more hassle, misery and anger than it's given me pleasure.

That's a nightmare. I'm glad your effort hasn't been fruitless.
Mine lasts 6 days before the voltage drops too much to start (inside a non exterior garage).

Your experience will help me out - thank you.

 

[Gouldy]

My experience of any sort of aftermarket tracker or alarm system has never been a good one. They've always caused issues.

I've had something similar happen with my gen 4 and it's datatool tracker; my battery was going flat in 2 or 3 days. I had calls and several emails from datatool telling me about various issues and that my tracker won't respond. At one point my tracker told me that my bike was in the sea, off the coast of Ghana ??. The best place for trackers like this is in the bin. Mine is now fixed but it will be coming off the day that the subscription for their service ends.

 

[P0u1]

I'm don't know what to make of mine it hasn't discharged the battery after 5 weeks.

Maybe mine is abit unsociable with the tracking server.

 

[Westy]

My experience of any sort of aftermarket tracker or alarm system has never been a good one. They've always caused issues.

I've had something similar happen with my gen 4 and it's datatool tracker; my battery was going flat in 2 or 3 days. I had calls and several emails from datatool telling me about various issues and that my tracker won't respond. At one point my tracker told me that my bike was in the sea, off the coast of Ghana ??. The best place for trackers like this is in the bin. Mine is now fixed but it will be coming off the day that the subscription for their service ends.

I wish I could remove mine. It?s a no brainer for my insurance being 29 now with the second RR!

Can you trickle charge the bike?


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[Gouldy]

I wish I could remove mine. It?s a no brainer for my insurance being 29 now with the second RR!

Can you trickle charge the bike?


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At 29 I thought insurance would be reasonable? Can I ask how much you pay?

It turned out that there was a fault with my tracker and its since been fixed. I have no issues but will not be renewing the subscription once it expires. I have my bike on an optimate in the garage when the bike isn't in use (I use my car for work etc) which keeps the battery topped up fine.

 

[Westy]

At 29 I thought insurance would be reasonable? Can I ask how much you pay?

It turned out that there was a fault with my tracker and its since been fixed. I have no issues but will not be renewing the subscription once it expires. I have my bike on an optimate in the garage when the bike isn't in use (I use my car for work etc) which keeps the battery topped up fine.

Hey glad the problem is fixed.
Was the fault hardware or software?
I'm sure the battery being (despite lithium) absolutely flat and requiring a jump when I picked the bike up new from the dealers hasn't helped its health.
I'll have to take an optimate out to Cartagena with me next month!



With regards to insurance at 28 (7y NCD) it was ?900 with the tracker (M Sport). Also avoided the need for insurance to stipulate I must change and disc lock it at every location.
In the year before at 27 a S1000R / RR was looking to be about ?3.3k fully comp. Not sure why it dropped off suddenly but it was all the incentive I needed to return to a BM!

My previous 2016 RR was around ?1600 to insure at 24.

 

[alex]

Hey glad the problem is fixed.
Was the fault hardware or software?
I'm sure the battery being (despite lithium) absolutely flat and requiring a jump when I picked the bike up new from the dealers hasn't helped its health.
I'll have to take an optimate out to Cartagena with me next month!



With regards to insurance at 28 (7y NCD) it was ?900 with the tracker (M Sport). Also avoided the need for insurance to stipulate I must change and disc lock it at every location.
In the year before at 27 a S1000R / RR was looking to be about ?3.3k fully comp. Not sure why it dropped off suddenly but it was all the incentive I needed to return to a BM!

My previous 2016 RR was around ?1600 to insure at 24.

In transit you're normally asked to disconnect the battery. This means its actually unlikely to be flat when you get there

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[Gouldy]

Hey glad the problem is fixed.
Was the fault hardware or software?
I'm sure the battery being (despite lithium) absolutely flat and requiring a jump when I picked the bike up new from the dealers hasn't helped its health.
I'll have to take an optimate out to Cartagena with me next month!



With regards to insurance at 28 (7y NCD) it was ?900 with the tracker (M Sport). Also avoided the need for insurance to stipulate I must change and disc lock it at every location.
In the year before at 27 a S1000R / RR was looking to be about ?3.3k fully comp. Not sure why it dropped off suddenly but it was all the incentive I needed to return to a BM!

My previous 2016 RR was around ?1600 to insure at 24.

It was a hardware fault IIRC

Christ on a pushbike! Your insurance is crazy! I'm glad you have managed to get it cheaper this time.

Also; I'll echo Alex's comment; I'd disconnect the battery before sending the bike away

 

[bananaman]

Not used mine for 3weeks, no alarm but has fitted datatool. Out of interest I put the noko genius 1 on and it and it went from flashing green to solid green in just over an 1hr so presumably very little discharge.

 

[RickS1K]

The Lithium battery on my Gen 4 is dead. The bike hasn't been ridden yet so just been sitting in my garage last 3 weeks. Got a couple of questions...

1. I bought a CTEK LiFePO4 charger, and I think that's the right charger?
2. From reading this thread I'm concerned that the battery is ruined, can it be saved?
3. I tried connecting it to the charger but it doesn't start cycling through the CTEK program. The charger doesn't seem to be recognised and goes into power saving mode after a couple of mins.
4. Lastly, if the battery can be saved, how do i connect the charger, there seem to be different optionsin the manual, which works for the RR? Red on battery, black on frame???

Cheers

 

[alex]

I've fully drained my Shido so many times. My LiFeP04 optimate rescued it everytime.

Standard connection positive red on red. Negative Black on black.

Disconnect and remove from bike whilst rescuing. Leave overnight.

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[RickS1K]

I removed the battery yesterday. The charger manual says that some batteries have Undervolt Protection which has to be bypassed by pressing the reset button (up to 5 times). When one presses the reset button a light appears (at Step 7 on the CTEK charging cycle lights). Yesterday the light appeared momentarily, today it remains lit for 5/6 seconds, but the main charging cycle fails to start and charger reverts to standby after a couple of mins.

Is the increasing duration of the Step 7 light encouraging?

 

[RickS1K]

All seems sorted now. BMW assist came round yesterday to have a look. It took the lad some time to get a charge into the battery (removed from bike), but once he'd got that working, it seemed to take a charge from the CTEK Lithium XS charger I'd bought for it (which he said was BMW recommended...). He came back this morning to check the voltage, and as all was good he put in back in the bike and everything works again