2011 FZ6R won't start, please help


rhoffman13

New Member
Hello all,

I have a 2011 FZ6R. A few weeks ago, I accidentally left the key in, and on (duh) and my neighbor was kind enough to knock and let me know. The next morning the bike started just fine I took it to work, started fine again on the ride home. Fast forward, I haven't touched the bike as it's been cold and rainy where I live. I was going to make a quick job to the store, put the key in and flicked it on and the electronics wouldn't even come on. I groaned about it but thought hey, maybe it's just a dead battery. I do not have a battery charger and made do with jumping it from my car (Probably not the best idea) but the bike started. I let it idle for a bit, and decided to move it back behind my shed to let it idle a bit longer. Forgot that the kick stand kills it in first gear and the bike turned off and would not turn electronics back on. Brought the bike out again and jumped it. Got it started, took it out on a 4 mile jog let it idle for 15 minutes or so (thinking it might charge the battery back up itself). During the ride, the electronic components kept shutting off and cutting back on randomly. The Speedometer would be jumping all over the place and then cut out completely and whenever the electronics would cut out, the bike ran rough. When I got back home, I cut the bike off. I immediately turned the key into the on position and the electronics would not come back on. Thinking it was a dead battery, I went to Oreilly's to see if they could test the battery. They said it was a good battery. My neighbor was kind enough to loan me a trickle charger, so I've charged the battery since and placed it in the bike, I get the electronics now, but it won't even attempt to turn over. Kick stand up, neutral gear. Nada. I don't believe it's the starter, as I could get it started when I jumped it. Oreilly's said the battery was good (idk if that should be reliable though), and so now I have no idea where to start looking for what to replace. Please help??
 

Tothoseofus

New Member
So... a few things here.
Jumping with the car, was the car running? If it was you may have damaged the stator or reg/rec. If it was not running there shouldn't be a problem, but I'm not entirely sure about that. I fried a battery myself by using a car battery charger. Motorcycle batteries can not take as high a current as a car battery, and it will damage the cells. My battery tested good, but would still not take a charge.

The other thing is our bike will not charge until the revs are about 4k. Anything below that and it may actually drain the battery. Idle is definitely a net negative charge (i.e. your battery will slowly drain at idle). Not normally an issue with a good battery as we don't spend a lot of time at idle, but will not help a dead battery, which explains the electronics issues.

Hope this helps you identify the issue.

TLDR: Idle does not charge the battery, actually slowly drains it. Could be your charging system (stator or reg/rec) or could even still be your battery damaged by too high a voltage/current from the car battery.
 

TexanFZ6R

Senior Member
I'll second what he said. I bought a cheap chinese dual sport. For the longest time I thought I had a bad battery. After sitting over night it would not start. I kept it on a battery tender anytime I wasn't riding it. It wasn't registered so I never rode it very far or very long. The first time I had a chance to ride it around a little more, I noticed that my cluster shut off. Headlight was no longer on. No electronics. Fast forward a couple weeks and I pull the stator and sure enough, broken connection. Battery wasn't charging and it drained the battery as I rode it.

Pull the seat. Hook a multimeter to the battery. 20v DC setting. Bike OFF, see what it reads. Should be around 11.5v and 12.5v. Could be a little lower or higher and be fine. If it's 11.2, I wouldn't go buy a new battery just yet lol. I;d recommend taking it an auto parts store and have a battery test done. Oreillys will do it for free. If t tests good, put it back in the bike. Back to the multimeter: Start the bike, see what it reads. Rev it up and see if the voltage increase to around 14v. If not, it's not charging. Then move on to diagnosing the stator, regulator, and rectifier. I haven't done any of that so I couldn't tell you the procedure but... you get the idea.

Hope you get this figured out. Always sucks when your bike won't start.
 



Top