Hole in Battery

Andri

Andri

Andri

Associate
Joined
8 Jun 2005
Posts
519
Location
London
Hi guys,

question for ya.
This is for my Triumph Sprint motorcycle but as it's a general piece of hardware i thought i would ask here, also.

i bought a new Yuasa 12V YTX12-BS battery for my sprint as the winter killed my last one off.

About a month ago someone tried to take the battery out of my bike while i was out. The alarm must have been going off for a good few hours.

anyhow, fast forward to yesterday and my bike failed to start.
I had a chance to take it apart today and found this.

Picture of my battery

now, I've already swapped it out for my old battery and the bike fired up first time.
My main question is, even with that hole in it the battery is still showing just over 12V on my ancient volt meter.

Is this normal, i would have thought with one of the cells empty of acid it wouldn't be producing 12v.

(yes, the bike was run with this damage for over a month)
 
Amazing how stuff keeps on working sometimes!

It may well show 12V because the plates are probably still dipped in a little bit of acid, or there's some residual in the cell, connecting the plates. The difference is there's not enough surface area to get any current out and not enough acid left in there to hold any charge.
 
It's the internal impedance that goes up as the electrolyte level gets low, so it will still read the correct open circuit voltage, it just collapses when you put a heavy load on it. You only see a cell down on open circuit if it has internally shorted.
 
Hi guys, thanks for putting my mind at rest.

Owning a Triumph is damn expensive as it is without having to worrie about other electrical problems.

The battery isn't cheap but it's easier to replace than pretty much everything else on the bike.

well, even though they didn't get the battery, the scum of the earth still did me out of £60 by destroying the battery.
 
chaparral said:
That cheap for a motorbike battery...................

Think it was around £100 i payed last year for a Yuasa battery for my FZ1 :(
Click to expand...

Ow, that's painful.
I've seen the YTX12-BS cheaper at 1 or 2 places
I ordered mine from Busters.

Agent_Smith357 said:
I would be more worried about where the acid went :O
Click to expand...

That was my main concern, there doesn’t appear to be any damage beyond what was done to make the hole in the battery.
 
those batteries are either absorbed glass mat or gel filled. I am pretty sure they are AGM, as such the glass mat stays 'wet'. That coupled with the valve regulated top will mean it is unlikely to have fully dried out even with the hole. Same sort of thing would apply with the gel fill as it goes, but I think the self fill (-bs) models are generally AGM.
 
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