| Author | Message | ||
     Dehydratedh2o |
Bought my 09 1125CR yesterday and rode it home 80mi in the rain. That was my first mistake (at least with the clubman bars). Due to the bad conditions, I have also been riding it with the high beam on for visibility. I noticed today after lunch that the red battery light came on intermittently while I was riding. When I got home, I checked the voltage on the HUD, and it is at 11.9. I'm wondering if there's a problem or if the high beam just sucks power. For the sake of completeness, the low beam is a HID, but the high is not. Also, the guy I bought it from kept it on a tender, so I'm guessing the battery could be on its last leg and he just never knew. Also, as a new owner, what should I know about this bike? Are there certain maintenance issues I need to look out for? I already saw the stator overheating issue, and since I don't have the balls to take this thing about 4k very often, I'm going to look at having the new wiring harness ordered. Are there other things I need to worry about, as well? Thanks in advance for the help. | ||
| Redcrrider |
11.9 volts is likely a failed stator. Unplug the stator while idling and check the AC voltage with a meter across all three legs. It should be around 20 VAC at idle and somewhere around 45 at 3,000 rpms. More important is that all three are the same and close to these numbers. The bike might all ready have the wiring harness upgrade, did you check? If it does then replace the relay. If that checks out then look towards the regulator or battery | ||
| Xb1200rick |
11.9V while running or off ? . The high beam is a power sucker ,run the low. If the harness is already installed the relay is weak and could be a easy fix. The bike needs to be kept wound up above 4k as much as possible. My voltage gets low in stop and go traffic but comes back once I can get room to run. Rick | ||
| Dehydratedh2o |
Thanks for the help so far. I just took the bike for a 20mi ride and it got to 12.9v while riding, dipping into the low 12s at stoplights. Given that, I *think* the stator is okay and running the high beam along with the HID just sucks more than it can put out -- especially with my scared right hand keeping the throttle tame. I pulled the battery (what a PITA) to give it a full trickle charge tonight and see what happens tomorrow. If the voltage dips again, I'll pick up a voltmeter on the way home from work and check the stator. FWIW, I don't think I have the harness upgrade. The main harness (thickest wire on the left side under the seat) has a MFG date of Oct 2008 marked on the tag. I'd rather not pay for the fix if I don't have to, though. I'm taking it in for an oil change this week. Is there anything else I should ask the techs to look at? I plan on doing brake/clutch fluid and coolant myself in a few weeks. | ||
| Dehydratedh2o |
BTW, the 11.9v was at idle. After the ride it now it holds 12.1-ish at idle. | ||
| Brumbear |
Change the 10$ relay in the stator "fix" that will help cycling the charge on and off. The voltage will drop when it heats up and drops under 3500 rpm I think it is. | ||
| Dannybuell |
At the risk of raising a too often discussed subject. My harness was on from day one. The system failed at 2,000 miles. I have 18,000+ miles on my 09CR-EBR-Barker and running with out the harness just fine. Another badweb person posted this a while back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBYEYGJfyBw&feature =youtu.be The CR is a better country bike. The S1 is a better city bike. I use amsoil 20w50 for extra oil cooling. Another badweb person uses 3.4 quarts with no ill effect. my S1 absolutely cooks the dino oil in it, at 1,000 miles. It is so bad, I have been asked at the recycling center what it 'really' was. With that background of experience it wasn't hard for me to put 3.4 quarts in my CR. try using the google search at the top of the page. for best results; use stator, rotor, Posplayr, Hildstrom, and Timebandit for search criteria. | ||
| Brumbear |
Well said Dan. I also believe that a person not understanding what the fix does or is supposed to do hurts as well. The battery light coming on would be normal operation with the fix if you were sitting in traffic as the system uses more than it charges. The fix is designed as I see it to shut down the stator to save it from burning itself up basically. If one is running country roads you will more than likely get good life outa your stator. Run it in city traffic problems arise. I would recomend the ROTOR upgrade if your doing a lot of high temp riding where you can not keep the rpm's up. | ||
| Dehydratedh2o |
thanks for the further tips, guys. at the risk of belaboring the issue, I'd like to ask: if this does turn out to be a stator issue, do you think having a custom 17AWG rewind done to lower the output (and heat) as discussed in some of the threads will lower it too much, given that I have an HID low beam on all the time? I'm going to try to dig down a little deeper tonight and see if I can find a relay on the wiring harness, but I'm really thinking I don't have it. given that, if the stator is the problem I'll either have the custom rewind done or wait a few paychecks to drop the big bucks and get the EBR rotor with a new stator. EDIT: I wouldn't say that I do a *lot* of high-temp city riding, but I will be using it to ride 7mi back and forth to work every day, with several traffic lights. also, it did seem to be holding steady in the low 12s at stops today, now that I'm not keeping the high beam on. (Message edited by dehydratedH2O on July 22, 2012) | ||
| Two_seasons |
If you still have the stock ECM on it, my recommendation would be to always tach above 3K rpm's. And given that you have a short commute, I'd be putting it on a tender a couple times per week. Welcome to BadWeb! | ||
| Ratbuell |
7 miles is gonna kill your battery, especially if you don't rev it. You NEED to keep these above 4k. That doesn't mean you have to 'race' it...it just means you shift later. It can be done; I do it all the time. 7 miles isn't enough time/charge to put the juice back in the battery from starting the engine. 30 minute rule: If you're gonna start it, ride it for at least half an hour. | ||
| Craigsmoney |
replace that relay on the charging fix. someone has mentioned it, and I will back that up. I have a CR and have had the same issue on more than one occasion and that relay was melted inside and didn't allow the relay to change. So replace it, and keep an extra with you on long rides. Good luck and hold on.  | ||
| Baf |
Get rid of the damn harness and install the EBR oiling rotor. If/when your stator fails, rewind it with higher temp wire and good epoxy. Just my $0.02. Oh, and don't bother riding the bike just for 7 miles. | ||
| Baf |
Oh, and 12.9v seems low to me while at speed. You should be in the high 13/low 14 range with an 09 stator. Sounds like you've already lost a stator pole or have a fried relay. | ||
| Redcrrider |
Something isn't working right. It should not stay in the 12's all the time. Without the wiring harness fix, it shouldn't be in the 12's at all. If your stator plug goes straight to the voltage regulator, then you don't have the fix. Just follow the wire. How do the wires look coming from the voltage regulator to the stator? Burnt? Should be bright yellow, brown/black= burnt. | ||
| Averagejoe |
Mine did same thing just before stator went totally out, thought it was a bad cell in the battery but nope stator, and dont get a new one when yours goes out, many places can rewind it for around 125-150. | ||
| Dehydratedh2o |
when putting the battery back in last night, I noticed 2 sets of big gray 4-pin harness connectors, so I'm pretty sure I have the harness fix. more information from ride to/from work today: started in the low 14v range, kept it 4-6k RPM as much as possible during the ride. at lights it would *quickly* drop into the mid-upper 12s, and it would get right back up into the high 13s-low 14s after half a mile of riding again. I'm thinking this is either the relay or the battery, given that I can lose 1-2v in a matter of seconds and regain it almost as fast. at any rate, the EBR rotor and a stator rewind are on the list of things to get very soon, but I'm going to have to get a few paychecks under my belt first. for now I'm going to pick up a battery tender and relay, and have my battery tested. does anyone have a photo of what the relay looks like and/or where it's located? (Message edited by dehydratedH2O on July 23, 2012) | ||
| Averagejoe |
As I said mine did the exact same thing, voltage would drop to between 11-12 and light would come on at light, then after revs were back up, voltage would climb back up, just be ready if it goes out, mine went out on a bridge over to clearwater, rode it out, and if anyone wonders it will run down to about 8.6 volts or so. | ||
| Ratbuell |
Sounds like it is working perfectly. Again - and I posted this years ago when the fix came out: THE RELAY UPDATE DOES NOT KEEP VOLTAGE UP. IT KEEPS STATORS FROM FRYING. You WILL see voltage fluctuation. That is 100% normal with the relay. When the ECM sees a set of parameters (including RPM, oil temp, voltage draw, and I think a couple others)...it TURNS OFF one leg of the three-phase stator to reduce heat. When those parameters get back "in the green", so to speak, it will allow the third leg to turn back on. RPM back up; temperature back down; system V below a threshold; all of those will turn the system back on full. Don't worry about the "up and down", as long as it goes back up. When/if it goes down and stays down...that's a sign of problems. My CR? Back roads (or moving in general), I'm typically around 6k or more on the tach, and V shows between 13.4 and 14.2. Sit at a light, temp goes up, RPM goes down, computer shuts off the one leg...V drops into the 12's. Light changes, revs come up, V comes up. Clockwork. | ||
| Ratbuell |
..and at a light during a hot run, I've seen V levels around 11.7. Again - start moving / revving again, it comes right back up. | ||
| Averagejoe |
Well all I know is that my battery light never came on until about 60 miles before my stator went out. | ||
| Brumbear |
Mine does exactly what Rat is saying. I changed the relay and the light came on less it was only $10 and right under the seat just follow the fix harness to it. | ||
| Baf |
Even without the stator fix, upper 12v during extended periods of idling is fine IMO. My freshly re-wound stator drops to the 12.6-12.9 range after a couple minutes of idling, and that's with the harness unhooked (so no relay). I wouldn't be concerned in that case unless it started dropping much more below that - above 12.6v, you're not discharging the battery (though you aren't really charging it either until you get closer to the upper 13s/lower 14s). And these stators can fail much quicker than expected. I figured part of the stator would fry and leave me with single phase output for a little bit. Mine went from full output to totally fried within 20 miles. Upon deconstruction, I found that it failed right in the perfect spot, so all 3 phases were shorting out to each other. | ||
| Redcrrider |
I don't think 12.6 with no wiring harness fix is normal at idle, unless you have every electrical gizmo you could imagine hooked up. Unless you had your stator rewound to a lower spec, then something is not right. Make sure your voltage regulator is working right. Check your AC volts from the stator at idle. With 15-20VAC from all three legs, you should not be see 12.6 volts. Even with both fans running, I still see 13.8-14.1 volts on the cluster without the fix installed. Cluster is off by a few tenths, but it's a good indicator of a problem. | ||
| Dehydratedh2o |
well, it's working as-is for now, and I put it on a tender every night just to be safe. short term, I'm going to replace the relay this weekend. long term, i'll order a rotor as soon as the crank nut is back in stock at EBR. thanks for all the help, guys! (Message edited by dehydratedH2O on July 25, 2012) | ||
| Peeweesp |
i am still running the stock harness, and orignal battery i do have an ebr ecm and fmf full system, i ride about 4 miles to work everyday. I haven't had a problem yet. My voltage stays in the 12's but that being said the battery is 3 years old and i have killed it once or twice lol | ||
| Jimmyb152 |
Does anyone have a pic of the relay to replace? Just curious, I have been having the exact same voltage issues as Dehydratedh20 as I just crossed into 10k miles last night. I've had the harness warranty work & had tender on battery since I got almost 3 yrs ago. Think I should replace relay or could battery be dying after 3 yrs & 10k miles? A pic of the relay or part would be very helpeful. I would like to try this on my CR before I replace battery or pray stator isnt fried. Thanks! | ||
| Redcrrider |
 Wiring harness fix, relay on the far left in the pic. Look under your seat, follow the thick yellow wires. Check the wires between your voltage regulator and wiring harness. If they are burnt and starting to melt together, this could affect your voltage. | ||
| Jimmyb152 |
Thanks Redcrrider! I'll be checking on it tonight |
