10 Signs Your Motorcycle Needs a New Battery
How have you handled your motorcycle battery problems lately? You must have had a challenging time assessing and trying to solve your battery problems. Worse more, if you do not know what signs to look out for in an old battery.
There are several indicators that your motorcycle’s battery is worn out and needs replacement or repair.
These problems are always an indication that you need to take action as fast as possible to save the battery’s life. You should always consider getting a new battery when the one you have to keep posing recurrent problems time and again.
Here are some of the ten key signs that indicate your motorcycle needs a new battery.
1. Built-up Sulfation
Mostly, Sulfation occurs when you deprive your battery of full charge. When your battery is discharging, the lead active materials on the plates will corrode with the sulfate from the electrolyte to form lead sulfate on the plates.
This built-up is easy to counter. All you need to do is fully charge the battery to help reconvert the lead sulfate into material that contains lead and the sulfate separately. The sulfate returns to the electrolyte. This frees your battery terminals from the clogs of sulfation.
Failure to counter this sulfation problem leads to battery failure in the long run. Your battery could die within a short time, pushing you into buying a new one if you fail to take any actions early.
2. Can’t Ignite Your Motorbike
A completely dead battery will not get your motorcycle started at all. Any time you try igniting your bike, and it fails the first place to run to is your battery.
Since other factors are likely to cause ignition failures, you should ensure you check your battery first to count it out of the equation.
If the battery is weak or dead, it will fail to start the starter motor which ignites the motorcycle. If the problem is with the battery, the only viable solution to this problem is replacing the old battery with a new one.
3. Deformed Battery
Any time you want to check your battery's condition, you may want to have a close look at its physical appearance. It is easy to detect physical deformations such as discolouration, leakage, broken terminals, bulges, cracks or bumps.
You should rarely ignore any of these signs upon spotting them. A bumpy or swollen battery would be potentially dangerous to continue using. The swelling up and expansion happens because of the construction of the lead-acid battery.
The batteries are constructed to allow the absorption of gases released during the chemical reactions in the battery. If you don’t solve this early, your battery can end up cracking at various points leading to complete physical battery damage.
4. Unable to Hold Charge Forcing You to Get a New Battery
A battery that's unable to hold power is a dead one. This type of battery drains all the charge it has after you have immediately charged it. This is not the kind of battery you want to depend on for the ignition and operating parts of your motorcycle that depends on it.
While the lead cause of your battery's failure to hold charge could be the battery, other problems could cause this. For example, a bad alternator could drain your battery, causing it not to store a charge for long. So the next time your battery fails to hold a charge, you may need to check every possible root cause.
5. Alternating Multi-meter Reading
Inconsistent voltmeter reading is something you should worry about if you try taking readings from your battery.
You should be able to read accurate measurements from your voltmeter when you use it correctly. But if every attempt you make to read the voltage gives you inconsistent readings every time you attach the voltmeter, you should worry about your battery.
The worst-case scenario would be when you test your battery after charging, and it fails to record any measurements. That would mean your battery is bad and needs a replacement as soon as possible.
Sometimes, recording nothing on the voltmeter means the battery is just flat, and it needs a recharge. But if the same reading persists even after charging, congratulations—you are going to buy a new battery soon.
6. Dimming Headlights and Fading Horn
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. When your battery is in its last moments of life, its deteriorating power will directly affect the parts of your motorcycle it powers.
If you sense your headlights are becoming dimmer by the time and the horn sounding less loud, then you may want to check your battery status. These are common indications that the battery is losing charge and needs to be recharged.
Charging is only an option if the battery is still new and useful. Otherwise, you might be heading to the shops any-time sooner than you had planned for.
7. Corroded and Broken Battery Terminals
The battery terminals are some of the key physical indicators that will alert you when your battery is in its last days of service. When your battery's terminals are badly corroded, the resultant effect may cause your battery not to function well. But all hope is not gone as the battery might still work if you clean the terminals.
Corrosion does not necessarily mean the terminals are broken. But if by any chance they are broken, you may have to get a new battery for your motorcycle.
Also, you must prevent corrosion from happening. You should maintain regular wiping and cleaning of the terminals to minimise the effects of sulfation on the terminals.
8. Leaks
Severe oxidation is the only reason behind a leaking battery. The leaking acid may come out through the terminals or cracks. These cracks develop after a build-up of chemical gases in the battery, which usually leads to bulging and cracking of the battery's case.
A battery in this condition is not only a near-death stage but also unsafe to drive with.
Extremely cold weathers are also main causes of leakages in motorcycle batteries. In such weather, the battery acid may freeze up and lead to expansion of the body of the battery. If water pipes burst in cold weather conditions, you can as well know what can happen next with such conditions for your battery.
The viable solution for cold weather could be storing your motorcycle in a warmer room when you’re not riding it. You can as well remove the battery and keep it separately away from the cold garage.
Using an old battery and overcharging your battery may also cause your battery to leak. Keep an eye on your battery's age and how long you charge it to avoid accidents.
9. Discoloration
One cause of discolouration of your motorcycle battery could be stained emanating from the interior of the motorcycle. But another cause of discolouration could be a result of the electrochemical processes within the battery.
The electrochemical processes lead to leaking of acid, which not only corrodes the outer casing but also de-colour it in the process.
You ought not to take any discolorations on the battery lightly. Instead, investigate and trace the root cause of the same as you might be dealing with a bigger problem than you may want.
A battery losing its colour is its way of telling you its days of serving you are closing into an end. You should plan on replacing the old battery as soon as you can.
10. Old Age
Do you recall the last time you replaced your motorcycle battery? If you can’t even remember, then this is an obvious indication that you need a new battery before it turns against you.
A top-notch motorcycle battery should take you through four years of service without any indication of wearing out. This is only true if other external factors do not affect the operations of the battery.
At the hit of full age, your battery will start exhibiting some troubles. It will stop retaining full charge that leads to other related mechanical problems on your motorcycle.
A motorcycle battery that has served you for four years or more has achieved what you bought it for. You should consider getting another great battery for its replacement and relieve it of its duties before it starts spoiling your bike.
Take Care of Your Motor Cycle Battery for Long-lasting Services
The main reason most motorcycles’ batteries never survive to full age is carelessness on the owner’s side. If you give your battery the care it needs, it will reciprocate by serving you well for a long time.
However, even with great care, some things are just inevitable. Some faults will always come, and your battery will be problematic either way. You should always be on the alert to read these symptoms in time and where possible, get a new battery for replacement.
RB battery has some of the best motorcycle batteries you could find in the market. Anytime you need a long-lasting and top-quality batteries you can always contact us, and we will deliver to you what you need.