engine trouble light and dead battery

[toshi]

hello everyone!

i am the proud owner of a blue fz6 '06 and must say i am loving it. and almost as much, i am loving this forum with the wealth of information and knowledge here!

it's a little lengthy, but below is the issue i'm having.

i bought my fz6 used about 4 months ago (it had 2200 miles on it) and it currently has about 2900 from daily commutes and rides (my commute is about 5 minutes so i'm not putting that many miles on it despite daily riding).

last week, i noticed that the engine was starting to sound extra gritty/edgy when riding. yesterday, when i tried to start the bike before going home from work, the bike wouldn't start - i think on the morning of, it took maybe an extra second for the thing to start up. the LED, blinkers and rear brake light all worked but it wouldn't start - just a clicking sound.

after spending a couple of hours reading the forum last night, i decided the first option should be to at least push start the bike and see what happens. sure enough, the push start worked and i was back in business (thanks everyone!)

i spent the next 20 minutes riding around trying to keep the rpms between 4k and 6k but with all the traffic, i was idling some too. and then, the engine trouble warning light started to come on and off. i noticed it would come on when i would idle for awhile and after picking up some speed, it would go away.

i know i haven't given that much information on the bike itself but does anyone have any ideas what it might be?

before i purchased the bike, the guy took it into a shop to have the oil and oil filter changed and chain checked but that's about it. the bike was purchased new in 06 so it's about 4 years old at this point.

i haven't taken the bike in to be checked for anything at this point, so maybe now would be a good time? and if i do take it in, are there specific things that i should request be checked/changed?

sorry for the lengthy description but i hope someone can help me out. thanks all for the help in advance! :rockon:

 

[oldfast007]

First, :welcome: to the forum!

Here's my guess, the battery is toast (not holding a charge), given it probably is the original?

Get a new one and a battery tender, shop around, you can get them for less than your "dealers" price.

If your mechanically inclined, download the manual and do most of the service/ inspection work yourself! Save your coin for "mods" your going to need it!

 

[Motogiro]

:welcome:toshi!
I agree it's probably the battery and a sure way to find out would be to have the battery charged and load tested. Make sure the obvious things like connections to the battery are clean and secure. There are 2 other main components (other than wiring and connectors) of your charging system that can fail. 1- regulator-rectifier assembly and the 2- stator, although we don't seem to hear much in those component failures.

Again welcome to the forum and good luck on your repair.
Please let us know how you make out!

 

[toshi]

Sorry for the late reply but thanks for the nice replies!

I took my bike into the shop that my friend recommended and got a general check since the bike was used to begin with. They had to change a gasket that was bent and charged up the battery, but they said that nothing really was wrong with the bike and even the battery, despite it being 4 years old, was healthy.

From that, I'll assume that my short commutes gradually killed the bike battery since it wasn't able to charge enough but now I at least know I should get the bike up to 5k RPMs so it can start charging the battery!