Battery beeping

[Chuck Bronson_imp]

My battery has died after replacing it with another battery my 2014 cb1100 came with that died out also. I thought the problem was my battery. I'm guessing now that it's my alternator. My issue is now that I hooked up a battery tender to the battery and it's starts beeping. A faint electronic beep. Beeps like three times and continues every couple of seconds. I can't tell if it's coming from the battery but it sounds in that area. Can some one tell me if they know what's going on or what it might be??

 

[Lord Popgun]

Are you sure it is not the charger beeping? If you remove the battery and put it on the charger you can narrow it down pretty fast. Non charging batteries could be a bad battery, a bad rectifier or a bad AC generator (Honda's term). That assumes that all the connections are good and you don't have some big accessory load on all the time

 

[4 Paws_imp]

In my limited experience the beeping has come from the battery tender (smarter than I am) and is telling me the battery is shot and won't charge.

Dead battery is a symptom.

 

[Chuck Bronson_imp]

Thanks for the replies!
I disconnected my battery from my bike and it read 7volts. I connected the battery straight to the tender and it started to charge fine. Then I connected the tender to my bike and there were no beeps. I reconnected the battery to my bike immediately without full charge and then hooked up the tender. Again it started beeping. I now have the battery disconnected and charging. The beeping was coming from the bike somewhere. I haven't had much time to take the side cover off and see where it's coming from but I will. The battery that I have I bought 4 weeks ago. And the battery loss charge 5 days after I last rode it. I would think it would hold charge longer than 5 days.

 

[Randy B]

Something is definitely amiss. The first thing I would check are the fuses to make sure that none are blown.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Thanks for the replies!
I disconnected my battery from my bike and it read 7volts. I connected the battery straight to the tender and it started to charge fine. Then I connected the tender to my bike and there were no beeps. I reconnected the battery to my bike immediately without full charge and then hooked up the tender. Again it started beeping. I now have the battery disconnected and charging. The beeping was coming from the bike somewhere. I haven't had much time to take the side cover off and see where it's coming from but I will. The battery that I have I bought 4 weeks ago. And the battery loss charge 5 days after I last rode it. I would think it would hold charge longer than 5 days.

The connections on the battery should be checked for tightness. The sound, no idea about that. The bike should have no problem keeping the battery charged once it's back to full voltage. The battery has been seriously discharged; it may not be salvageable but you can try.

 

[Lord Popgun]

Chuck, can you please provide the charger brand and model number? And is the battery a Li-ion battery?

 

[AzBob_imp]

Thanks for the replies!
I disconnected my battery from my bike and it read 7volts. I connected the battery straight to the tender and it started to charge fine. Then I connected the tender to my bike and there were no beeps. I reconnected the battery to my bike immediately without full charge and then hooked up the tender. Again it started beeping. I now have the battery disconnected and charging. The beeping was coming from the bike somewhere. I haven't had much time to take the side cover off and see where it's coming from but I will. The battery that I have I bought 4 weeks ago. And the battery loss charge 5 days after I last rode it. I would think it would hold charge longer than 5 days.

7 volts? The battery is destroyed. You have one or more dead cells. Buy a new battery. It doesn't matter that you just bought it. In fact, since you just bought it, you should probably be able to get a brand new one, free, under warranty. Minimum voltage with no damage is about 12 volts. Zero charge is 10.5. You battery is well beyond death.

Nothing on the bike beeps. It's your charger and your ears playing tricks on you. The human brain is abysmally bad at determining the direction of sound even though we have stereophonic hearing -- we tend to go with whatever our eyes are telling us.

 

[Lord Popgun]

I agree with everything AzBob said above.

 

[Chuck Bronson_imp]

Since I last wrote. I have charged my battery fully and it has kept 12v for 2 days without riding. When I would start the bike I checked the voltage to see if my charging system works. And I think it does. Puts out 14v while running. On third day checked battery still good. Went out for a ride and everything fine. I know my battery is supposed to be dead at 7v but so far so good. I know my charger is not making the beeping noise. I still haven't taken off my side covers to further investigate. I'm thinking maybe an alarm that was installed before I bought it used.
How long should a battery last without riding or charging? If there is a short somewhere should it pop the fuse?

 

[Lord Popgun]

Unless you have some kind of accessory like that maybe installed alarm, there is not much parasitic current draw. Some current is always flowing else the clock would not run. During the Winter mine sits without problems and I put the charger on about once a month.

If you know how to use a multimeter, you can easily check for current draw while you have the ignition off. Just disconnet the positive battery cable and connect the meter with one lead on the battery terminal and the other on the cable terminal. The meter has to be in the DC amps or milliapms and the leads in the correct meter jacks for amperage reading.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Unless you have some kind of accessory like that maybe installed alarm, there is not much parasitic current draw. Some current is always flowing else the clock would not run. During the Winter mine sits without problems and I put the charger on about once a month.

If you know how to use a multimeter, you can easily check for current draw while you have the ignition off. Just disconnet the positive battery cable and connect the meter with one lead on the battery terminal and the other on the cable terminal. The meter has to be in the DC amps or milliapms and the leads in the correct meter jacks for amperage reading.

Need to reset the clock after that procedure.

Since I last wrote. I have charged my battery fully and it has kept 12v for 2 days without riding. When I would start the bike I checked the voltage to see if my charging system works. And I think it does. Puts out 14v while running. On third day checked battery still good. Went out for a ride and everything fine. I know my battery is supposed to be dead at 7v but so far so good. I know my charger is not making the beeping noise. I still haven't taken off my side covers to further investigate. I'm thinking maybe an alarm that was installed before I bought it used.
How long should a battery last without riding or charging? If there is a short somewhere should it pop the fuse?

Take the side covers off and investigate. Might be possible to recover from 7V if the charger has the type of intelligent recharging process needed for that but it is unlikely, would need to be desulfated. Most likely one or more bad cells. But I've seen them come back, too.

Standard battery should be at 12.8V for 100 percent charge, LiFe at about 13.4V.

If yours is only charging to 12.0V it is bad. Prepare to be stranded.

 

[AzBob_imp]

Since I last wrote. I have charged my battery fully and it has kept 12v for 2 days without riding. When I would start the bike I checked the voltage to see if my charging system works. And I think it does. Puts out 14v while running. On third day checked battery still good. Went out for a ride and everything fine. I know my battery is supposed to be dead at 7v but so far so good. I know my charger is not making the beeping noise. I still haven't taken off my side covers to further investigate. I'm thinking maybe an alarm that was installed before I bought it used.
How long should a battery last without riding or charging? If there is a short somewhere should it pop the fuse?

My bike has no alarm or other parasitic draw. I can leave it for a month and it will start right up like I just rode it the day prior.

If your bike is used, you may want to pop the side covers off sooner than later and look under the seat and see what's what.

One more thing... a fully charged battery should show 12.6+volts. If you're is only showing 12.0 volts, it's at less than 50% charge. As I said, you have a dead cell and as someone else mentioned, prepare to be stranded somewhere if you manage to get the bike started with the battery at that level.

 

[Cormanus]

Until you figure what's wrong, make sure you always park it on a hill so you can jump start it easily. It's a b*stard of a bike to push!

 

[Inhouse Bob]

Until you figure what's wrong, make sure you always park it on a hill so you can jump start it easily. It's a b*stard of a bike to push!

So, we can bump start this bike? I thought it needed some battery to start. Or will a bit of charge be enough? #don'tknownothingaboutletrics

 

[Cormanus]

Well, I've seen two of them bump started. Both had a faint charge in the battery, but both started.

 

[Inhouse Bob]

Well, I've seen two of them bump started. Both had a faint charge in the battery, but both started.

Good to know. Thanks!

 

[Chuck Bronson_imp]

I've taken my side covers off and I don't see any alarm everything looks original. I last rode yesterday at noon pacific. Checked my battery at noon today and it reads 13 v. I connected my charger to see if I can hear beeping but nothing. Maybe because my battery was already fully charged that my battery charger sensed it and wouldn't send a charge. I'm going to wait about 5 days and check again. I'm also going to pick up a meter that will read dc amps. Mine only has an AC amp option.

 

[Ulvetanna_imp]

I've taken my side covers off and I don't see any alarm everything looks original. I last rode yesterday at noon pacific. Checked my battery at noon today and it reads 13 v. I connected my charger to see if I can hear beeping but nothing. Maybe because my battery was already fully charged that my battery charger sensed it and wouldn't send a charge. I'm going to wait about 5 days and check again. I'm also going to pick up a meter that will read dc amps. Mine only has an AC amp option.

If you are at 13V you are good to go. Sounds like maybe it just needed a good, full charge.

That beeping was the Mother Ship, after all, it's been three years.