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Post by bjg on Sept 20, 2012 6:38:44 GMT -5
Hi everyone, I'm new to scooters and this forum but I have a question about battery drain and charging rate on my 250cc Chinese scooter. I bought it used and the guy that sold it to me told me he had recently replaced the battery with a new gel cell type battery because he was having issues with battery drain on it. I've done the PDI recommended here on this site and I don't have any bad connections or grounding and the scooter starts and runs well. The issue I am having is that when I take the scooter to work (~1.5 miles from my house) the scooter runs fine on the way in but seems to struggle starting at lunch time (~5 hours later). It starts like the battery charge is weak. I know starting the motor draws heavy on the battery and I'm wondering if my short commute is enough time for the charging circuit to charge the battery back up or if I have something else draining the battery down even when the key and the kill switch are off. Any input here is welcome.
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Post by gatekeeper on Sept 20, 2012 11:30:19 GMT -5
Make sure the battery is the right size. For a 250cc it should be at least a 9 amp battery.
Use a volt meter set to volts DC and test the battery voltage. It should read 12.5 volts +/-. Then start the scooter, let it idle and test. It should read 12.7 volts +/-. Now with the volt meter attached, run the RPM's up. As you do the volt readout should increase. At around 4500 RPM your meter should read between 13.5 and 14.5 volts.
If it reads as the above, that means your scooter is charging. Keep in mind that scooters need to run longer than a car to maintain a battery's charge. They don't put out that many amps. It could easily be that running for 1 1/2 miles isn't long enough to replenish the charge.
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Post by zfjelstad on Sept 20, 2012 11:50:07 GMT -5
Props to you gatekeeper. That's exactly what was going on with my scoot. Definitely experienced the same characteristics of losing the charge. I had changed everything in my electrical system that had to do with charging the battery, including the stator, rectifier, fuses, and faulty ground wires. I found that I just needed to make sure that my battery was fully charged before I go out everyday, since my commute is about +/- 7 miles. I think I am also going to hook up a battery tender (trickle charger) overnight.
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Post by bhinch on Sept 20, 2012 19:42:29 GMT -5
Hi..I use a battery tender JR on my scoot and the battery last longer with this charger...almost 3 yrs on the original..... one yr on the second one...enjoy the ride...
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Post by bjg on Sept 21, 2012 6:05:43 GMT -5
Hi again. thanks for the input. I'll put a meter on it tonight and see if my voltages are similar. I think the battery is rated for 11A but i'll get my battery load tested to make sure its ok.
Does anyone know if there are components on the bike that stay powered up with the key and the kill switch off? This scoot has an alarm system (which must stay on...right?) and an MP3 player that I've never used. Should I disable the alarm system and if so, how is that best done?
Thanks again for the help!
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Post by richardthescooter1 on Sept 21, 2012 8:10:04 GMT -5
The alarm is not on until you set it, I use mine and it does not drain any power, but I would caution you if you set the alarm make sure your kill switch is off and be careful where you put your control, I had mine in tight jean and activated mine and my little lights were on and I didn't know it drained my battery and it could start the scoot and you won't know its running  |
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Post by olmanrivah on Sept 21, 2012 13:58:54 GMT -5
Your scooter should not discharge while you ride, if it's at full charge or not. Do you have a lot of stops on the way? If so, maybe the idle is set too low. When you check the charging with your meter, check it while it's idling.
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Post by bjg on Sept 22, 2012 6:18:16 GMT -5
OK, I put a meter on the battery and I have 12.98v before and after starting. If I run the RPMs up I can get it to go up to 13.05v or so. It could probably go higher but I didn't want to wind the scoot out on the stand. That isn't much of a change but since my battery voltage is starting pretty high I was thinking that's probably ok...right?
Olmanrivah mentioned the idle and while the idle keeps the scoot running it does idle a little rough if I don't goose the throttle every once in a while. I'll try adjusting the idle tonight.
The original issue was that the scoot started easily in the morning when I left for work (<2 seconds on the first turn of the key) but when I start the bike to come home at lunch (~5hrs later) it starts hard. 2-3 turns (sometimes more) of the key and sometimes as long as 5-6 seconds of cranking before it starts.
I was originally thinking that battery was draining heavy on start and that my commute was too short for it to charge back up enough but watching the volt meter I don't think thats the case. Other than the idle, does anyone have any thoughts as to what's actually going on here?
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Post by olmanrivah on Sept 22, 2012 7:00:27 GMT -5
OK charging voltage seems OK. The faster the idle (within reason) the more the charge.
If there's no short on the bike, it should be OK.
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Post by bjg on Sept 25, 2012 9:43:38 GMT -5
You were right olmanrivah, I bumped up the idle RPM and it starts first try cold or warm. Whew!
Yeah! No parts!
Thanks for all the help everyone!
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Post by justbuggin on Sept 25, 2012 12:38:06 GMT -5
easy way to tell if you have a short is to disconnect the neg side of the battery and then hook a light bulb in between the neg battery post and the neg cable if the light comes on then you have something drawing current from the battery then you unhook one curcuit at a time till the light goes out that will be the curcuit with the short
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