Engine Trouble - intermittently won't start! Any ideas on what to look for?

[mecsw500]

Peter
Today I checked the battery and the connection's looked good. Attached my Fluke meter and checked voltage.
Resting voltage - 13.2 volt
Ignition on - 12.8 volt
Than I used the min/max feature on my meter.
Min voltage during starting - 9.4 volt
Max voltage after starting - 13.4 volt
Avg voltage 13.2 volt
The voltage on the battery terminal really didn’t rise above 13.4 volt
Looks like the battery is ok.

If you are getting down into the mid 9 volt range on starting it’s very possible that the ECU and other modules are not getting sufficient voltage to operate reliably. It might not be the voltage level it drops to, but how it drops to that level. Lithium batteries can drop off suddenly rather than smoothly under load. They have a different operational capability that might be at home on a modern four cylinder sport bike, but trying to kick an big old lump of a Rotax V twin into life Might not be the best match of technologies. Old air and air/oil cooled BMW bikes can suffer the same problem.

Rather than chase your tail constantly, perhaps get a new traditional AGM battery, charge it up and then try it.

These bikes and their electronics were designed around the way voltage drops under load with a lead acid battery. A good AGM battery falls into that category. Lithium technology batteries have their uses, but not trying to fire up a large V twin motor with electronics designed over a decade and a half ago.

 

[EdMat]

These bikes and their electronics were designed around the way voltage drops under load with a lead acid battery. A good AGM battery falls into that category. Lithium technology batteries have their uses, but not trying to fire up a large V twin motor with electronics designed over a decade and a half ago.

If that's the case, then the lithium battery is undersized or its useful life is over for various reasons.

 

[mecsw500]

If thats the case then the lithium battery is undersized or its useful life is over for various reasons.

Not necessarily a good battery with those figures. Lithium batteries has a very difference voltage degradation curve under load. An AGM lead acid battery will decay voltage in a different manner than the sudden voltage drop off of a Lithium battery. 9.5 volts minimum looks too low to me.

Whilst it’s possible your Lithium unit is technically the right size battery and still working within the parameters of its design, it’s just possibly the wrong battery technology for the application on a 998 Rotax big twin on an early Spyder.

The bike was designed long before anyone would be expected to use a Lithium technology battery. I’d play it safe and return to an AGM version which was the original fitment.

I’d get one with at least 350 cold cranking amps.

The Yuasa YTX24HL-BS I think was the OEM fitment.

I know they are $130 from Amazon but I think returning everything to stock is the best way forward to eliminate the battery as an issue.

If the battery is the problem you could chase your tail constantly and indefinitely. A new Yuasa battery is less than one hour of a BRP dealers shop time.

I suspect you have spent many hours on this so far.

 

[Roadsterryder]

Well I ended up buying a new Yuasa YTX24HL-BS AGM battery. That will eliminate the idea that it could be the battery. The only reason I think it was not the battery is that the engine died after 50 miles of driving. I was just shifting down to pull into the bank ATM and when I got into first gear pulling the clutch the engine slowly died like it was starving for fuel.

 

[Peter Aawen]

Well I ended up buying a new Yuasa YTX24HL-BS AGM battery. That will eliminate the idea that it could be the battery. The only reason I think it was not the battery is that the engine died after 50 miles of driving. I was just shifting down to pull into the bank ATM and when I got into first gear pulling the clutch the engine slowly died like it was starving for fuel.

That has been known to happen with dead/dying batteries! These Spyders really are electrically power hungry, and as soon as the available power drops below the level necessary to keep all the power hungry devices satisfied, as it generally does when you slow down and the alternator doesn't spin so fast/work to its full capacity any longer, odd things can start to happen &/or the engine might just shut down!

That said, do make sure to properly initialise and charge your new battery BEFORE installing it, or you risk shortening its life needlessly - if you've just bought it from a retailer, and they (or you?!) need to fill it with acid first, it generally takes some time (possibly hours - see the instructions) for that acid to be properly 'Absorbed (by the) Glass Mats'; AND regardless of how you got it, any new battery purchased will still need at least 8 hours of charging on a proper charger, not just a tender, before being put into service - so if it's been supplied and installed immediately, even if the retailer tells you've they've already charged it up, there's a good chance that the 'charging' they did was either some time ago (check the age of the battery to make sure it hasn't been sitting around for months); or it was a 'fast and not really anything more than a superficial charge'; or none of that initialisation & charging stuff has really happened properly at all; meaning that your 'new battery' will be starting out from a 'less than ideal' condition and it might not work properly; or if it does seemingly work OK initially, it still might not last for very long! If you know the supplier/retailer and trust them to have done it all properly, remember the saying, which I'll para-phrase here - Trust, maybe - but always verify, or do it yourself anyway!

I do hope this new battery solves your problems, but as you say, even if it doesn't, you should at least be able to exclude that from your troubleshooting. Still, as many here have found out, sometimes only after wasting significant time and money chasing after all sorts of other potential issues, their problem has turned out to be a dead/dying battery all along! These Spyders truly are electrically power hungry machines, which is why your battery should almost always be the FIRST thing you check and eliminate.

 

[Mikey]

Well I ended up buying a new Yuasa YTX24HL-BS AGM battery. That will eliminate the idea that it could be the battery. The only reason I think it was not the battery is that the engine died after 50 miles of driving. I was just shifting down to pull into the bank ATM and when I got into first gear pulling the clutch the engine slowly died like it was starving for fuel.

Please get back to us with the outcome!!