I have a '02 VFR with 8k on it. I recently bought a new, quality battery (a BikeMaster, TruGel). I'm pretty certain my battery is holding a charge - it's good. If I let my bike sit for a day or two, my battery is close to dead when I go to start it. I disconnected the battery after my last ride, let the bike sit for 2 days and then reconnected and it fired right up. That leads me to believe that something is draining my battery when my bike sits. I'm no electrical genius and just signed up to VFR world. I don't have the money to bring it to the dealer/qualified shop to diagnose and repair. Does anyone have any idea where I might start looking for the problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Doug
Sure does sound like you've got a parasitic battery drain somewhere in your electrical system. You don't have any aftermarket add-ons like hand warmers or lights or GPS or anything that's wired directly to the battery and not key fused power that could be causing that drain do you? Okay this might be a problem here Doug,you're going to need at least a little bit of electrical troubleshooting savvy to tackle this issue. It's really more time consuming than anything else and not all that hard mind you,but you've got to know what you're doing and what to look for while you're performing the tests. It sounds complicated,but if you take your time it CAN be done and you'll learn a lot about your bike in the process. Testing is done with the key switch in the off position. The simplest way to tell if you've got a bad parasitic battery drain in your electrical system is to disconnect your Negative battery cable from the battery and get yourself a decent 12 volt test light. Hook the clamp end of the test light to the Negative battery cable and touch the probe end of the test light to the Negative battery terminal on the battery. If the test light lights up fairly brightly you've got a parasitic drain on your battery. Now you've got to find out where your battery draw is located. I'm assuming you've got the non-ABS model so you'll need to remove the little right side dash trim fairing panel,the fuse box is located underneath that panel. A word of caution here Doug,that darn trim panel can sometimes be an absolute basstid to remove so be very careful that you don't break it or scratch up your fairing panels when you remove it. With your test light still hooked up to the Negative battery cable and the probe end still touching the Negative battery terminal on the battery,remove one of the fuses. Start at one end of the fuse box and work your way towards the other end. If the test light stays lit replace the fuse and remove the next one in line. Repeat this procedure until you find the fuse that makes the test light go out. At this point you've only identified the electrical circuit that contains your parasitic battery drain. Get out your shop manual and locate that fuse on the electrical schematic. The easiest way to do that is to look at the wire colors of the two wires located under the fuse box of the fuse that you've removed. Once you've located that fuse on the electrical schematic now trace the electrical circuit on the wiring schematic and find all the components that get their power supply from that particular fuse. It's usually just a coupla two three components. Install the fuse that you removed and start unplugging those components on that electrical circuit one at a time until you find the one that makes the test light go out. Now you've got to do your best Sherlock Holmes imitation and investigate why that particular component is causing your battery drain. Look for any melted or frayed wiring,pinched wires,chafed wiring with the protective casing rubbed through,melted connector plugs,etc. Don't just summarily replace a component because it made the test light go out when you removed it. Examine it carefully,if it's possible disassemble it,and absolutely verify that it is in fact that component that's causing your problem because electrical parts usually aren't cheap and they're usually non-returnable. If it's a simple fix like maybe a couple wires that got pinched or simply rubbed through and are just barely shorting out to each other,which is usually what you'll find,than by all means go ahead and fix them and save yourself some money. Remember to plug the fuse back into the fuse box and that component back into the wire harness and recheck for any parasitic battery drain after you've made your repairs. One more thing to keep in mind is that the digital clock in the dash is a constant draw on the battery as well so you're always going to have at least a little parasitic battery drain in your electrical system. It's a relatively small draw,but it is there. Okay get out there and have at 'er Doug. Good Luck.
