VFR800 Fi 1

[Ken J]

Hi guys. I have a 2001 VFR 800 Fi1 with around 60k on the clock. I’ve had a previous VFR800 since 2000 and with a Haynes Manual I’m well used to working round them. I’ve noticed on occasions that she fail to start as if the battery isn’t strong enough but it’s good. She trips the clock to 1:00 again as if there’s no power but there is. I’ve checked and she’s charging strong on the meter and the battery is strong. 5 mins later she could start 1st try no problem. Just wondering if any of you have had the same problem and found the fault?

[jjones]

They reset the clock when cranking if the battery is weak. Can you remove the battery and take it to a garage to have it "drop tested" (they use a meter and apply a load to the battery and this tells them if the battery is good or bad).

[Ken J]

Yeah I can do that but can you explain if the battery is the problem why it starts 1st time without issue maybe 1-5 mins later? I thought the starter button was maybe shorting out or a bad connection somewhere that hopefully someone has already diagnosed and fixed. Cheers for the reply. I’ll defo have the battery checked as that would be an easy fix ??

Edited by Ken J on Thursday 22 February 20:05

[Tall_Paul]

Ken J said:

Hi guys. I have a 2001 VFR 800 Fi1 with around 60k on the clock. I’ve had a previous VFR800 since 2000 and with a Haynes Manual I’m well used to working round them. I’ve noticed on occasions that she fail to start as if the battery isn’t strong enough but it’s good. She trips the clock to 1:00 again as if there’s no power but there is. I’ve checked and she’s charging strong on the meter and the battery is strong. 5 mins later she could start 1st try no problem. Just wondering if any of you have had the same problem and found the fault?

Had exactly the same issue with my 2000 VFR800 - it was the battery which was nearly dead.

My headlights would be incredibly dim at idle and get much brighter revving the engine, it cut out a couple of times while riding along, and when starting the clocks would reset (basically they lost power to them while the engine was cranking over).

Replaced the battery and I've had zero issues since. I killed my battery starting and stopping the bike 10 or so times in the queue for the eurotunnel, moving forward a car length or 2 every 5 minutes.

[sjwb]

Classic symptoms and common failure, voltage regulator / rectifier.
This may have taken the battery with it.

[Ken J]

Cheers Paul. I’ll defo get the battery checked. Do you know if the Altenator/Stator was checked on your bike as well as it might not have been charging your battery enough to keep it alive? The battery, Rectifier, and Stator all have to work together and unfortunately all can give problems. Did the new battery sort yours 100% without anything else being needed?

[Ken J]

Cheers sjwb. According to my voltage meter she’s charging well even with the system loaded, lights on, main beam on, even horn honked and she’s still showing a good charge on tick over. I’ll get the rectifier checked. 👍

[Tall_Paul]

Ken J said:

Cheers Paul. I’ll defo get the battery checked. Do you know if the Altenator/Stator was checked on your bike as well as it might not have been charging your battery enough to keep it alive? The battery, Rectifier, and Stator all have to work together and unfortunately all can give problems. Did the new battery sort yours 100% without anything else being needed?

It was back in October when mine had the issue, I checked the charging and was getting 14v at 4500rpm so my reg/rec was fine, I swapped out the battery with the one from my Tuono which wasn't new - I've not had any issues since, the longest I've left the bike without riding it is maybe a week, no issues starting or cutting out at all and it's not been on an optimiser since.

[Ken J]

100% Paul. Glad to hear that. Thanks for the info.