SV650 electrical weirdness

[Lukich]

Hello. My 2005 SV650 started having some kind of electrical issues lately. First sign was the startup - when I would press the starter button, it pauses for a second and an word "Err" flashes on the screen, but then it starts up without any issues. When I start it up warm, it doesn't happen.

I thought it might be the battery and left it on a charger overnight, but the next morning the issue persisted. Several days later I tested the battery with a multimeter and it showed 12.9V, so I think the battery is OK.

Several days ago I was riding home and my instrument panel started going crazy - the red light and the fuel light would suddenly come up and then go away, all the stuff that's displayed in an electronic format would disappear and then come back again. I think the bike had tiny power fluctuations, but I'm not 100% certain - it was dark, I was surrounded by cars on a bumpy road, so I was freaking out a little bit.

When something like this happens, what can this be other then the battery? Loose contacts somewhere? I am not sure what fault in the bike would join the two sets of symptoms (startup and panel issues). Have anyone encountered something similar?

Thank you!
Luka

 

[mototireguy]

Make sure battery terminals are clean and snug.

Measure the battery again under these conditions and report back with the voltage numbers...

1 - Key off voltage
2 - Key on voltage
3 - Bike running at low-mid rpms voltage

 

[295566]

Make sure battery terminals are clean and snug.

Measure the battery again under these conditions and report back with the voltage numbers...

1 - Key off voltage
2 - Key on voltage
3 - Bike running at low-mid rpms voltage

I feel like this response should be a copy/pasta by now

 

[Busy Little Shop]

Start with the battery for it's the weakest link in the whole system... To
determine the condition of an Maintenance Free battery give it a
refreshing charge... wait 30 minutes... measure terminal voltage...

12.8 or higher is a good battery...
12.0 to 12.8 is a insufficient charge... recharge...
12.0 or lower... battery unserviceable...

Weirdness would suggest a corroded electric connection is intermittently
preventing the full transfer of volts to the point of blinking red light...

 

[afm199]

As said, test that battery AND the charging voltage

 

[Lukich]

OK, here are the test results:

I cleaned the battery contacts with 220 grit sandpaper and the bike started up without that weird initial delay. I tried it again this morning - same result.
I'll look again, but it seems like the contacts cleaning did help. As to the battery:

Key off - 12.7
Key on - 12.01
4000 rpm - 14.3

After I charged it for about 30 minutes, I got:

Key off - 13.01
Key on - 12.32
4000 rpm - 14.3

Do I need to replace it or are these values OK?

 

[ST Guy]

Yes, those are fine.

FYI, it takes more than 30 minutes after disconnecting the battery for the battery voltage to stabilize. That's why you got 13.01 volts. Even a brand new, fully charged lead acid battery won't be any more than 12.8 volts, give or take a tenth or so.

Also, peak battery voltage can be lower than 12.8 and it can still be very serviceable. 12.8 is a good battery. 12.7 is still an excellent battery. And even 12.6 is fine and you'll see that a lot on older batteries that are still working perfectly. Not until you start dipping under 12.6 does battery condition become iffy and even batteries that only can be charged to 12.5 can still work, though I'd replace it.

And if you're getting more than 12.8 volts, you're checking it too soon after charging or running the bike.

Bottom line, it appears your battery and charging system are fine. The problem is likely elsewhere.

 

[Lukich]

After I cleaned battery contacts with sandpaper, it began starting up better, without a strange delay. Do you think strange instrument cluster behavior can be explained by oxidized battery contacts?

 

[ST Guy]

Perhaps. Insufficient or compromised electrical contacts can be problematic. Think of the compromised connection like hooking up a small garden hose between two fire hoses. If all you need out of the fire hose is a little bit of water, then the garden hose in-between which is restricting the amount of water may not make any difference. But when you need a lot of flow, it is a problem.

Same with electrical connections, wire sizes, etc. If the path the electricity takes has to go through a restriction of some sort, some jobs just won't be done properly. Like running the starter.

Thing is, the instrument cluster doesn't draw much current compared to the starter. What might have been happening is that with the starter using up all the juice that could pass through the compromised connection, maybe there wasn't enough left over for the instrument cluster.

I'd say that if cleaning and making sure the battery connections a tight has resulted in good starting and no more cluster problems, then you likely fixed it.

 

[NoTraffic]

Common symptom for the SV, at least when I had mine for 20k miles. It would do the whole electrical dash flash when either the battery was on its way out or I had a ground wire slightly rubbing through to a metal part of the chassis.

You haven't mentioned the last time you recall changing your battery out.