R1200RTW Battery & Cover

I added a two-pin battery SAE connector to my R1200RTW's battery this weekend so that I could attach a charger and learned a few things along the way.

The battery terminals were snug but hardly tight. When finished I torqued the terminals to 5 NM but I won't know the spec until my service DVD arrives. Does anyone have the battery terminal torque spec handy? (Also the Positive charging post torque spec?)

Since I had the battery out it seemed good time to measure the parasitic draw. Hitching a DC ammeter in series with the battery ground I measured a short term draw of about 50 mA while the bike's computers were restarting themselves after reconnecting the battery--eventually going into sleep mode after about a minute.

The final parasitic current draw was 1 mA

That was lower than I'd expected (the R1150 is about 2.5 mA) and is good news. Multiplying that 1 mA/hour times 24 hours times 14 days means that the battery is drawn down only 0.34 Ah in two weeks, which is only 5% of the battery's capacity (16 Ah). In a month the battery is drawn down 10%, which is as far as I'd go without connecting a charger. (If you've added other options to your bike you'd need to remeasure the parasitic draw.) With this low drain, a trickle charger is hardly necessary if you ride your bike for an hour every couple of weeks.

While removing the battery I noticed that the battery cover under the elastic retaining strap was a two-part plastic casting, which seemed like overkill so I decided to take it apart. Looking closely at the outer part of the cover, there is a calendar with punch marks on its inside. The punch marks on mine start on 8/15 and end on 3/17. I assume these are the manufacturing dates of the bike.

Battery Cover Separated

Interior of Cover Close Up

2017R1200RTW Battery

I added a two-pin battery SAE connector to my R1200RTW's battery this weekend so that I could attach a charger and learned a few things along the way.

 

The battery terminals were snug but hardly tight. When finished I torqued the terminals to 5 NM but I won't know the spec until my service DVD arrives. Does anyone have the battery terminal torque spec handy? (Also the Positive charging post torque spec?)

 

Since I had the battery out it seemed good time to measure the parasitic draw. Hitching a DC ammeter in series with the battery ground I measured a short term draw of about 50 mA while the bike's computers were restarting themselves after reconnecting the battery--eventually going into sleep mode after about a minute.

 

The final parasitic current draw was 1 mA

 

That was lower than I'd expected (the R1150 is about 2.5 mA) and is good news. Multiplying that 1 mA/hour times 24 hours times 14 days means that the battery is drawn down only 0.34 Ah in two weeks, which is only 5% of the battery's capacity (16 Ah). In a month the battery is drawn down 10%, which is as far as I'd go without connecting a charger. (If you've added other options to your bike you'd need to remeasure the parasitic draw.) With this low drain, a trickle charger is hardly necessary if you ride your bike for an hour every couple of weeks.

 

While removing the battery I noticed that the battery cover under the elastic retaining strap was a two-part plastic casting, which seemed like overkill so I decided to take it apart. Looking closely at the outer part of the cover, there is a calendar with punch marks on its inside. The punch marks on mine start on 8/15 and end on 3/17. I assume these are the manufacturing dates of the bike.

 

Evening Roger

Battery terminal bolts are 4nm according to my manual. (I'm not sure on the positive charging post)

Those date marks on plastic parts usually don't reflect build dates or install dates but more likely part manufacturing dates with part design change or part update dates. (be a very strange way to record a build date especially with a beginning date of 8/15 on a 2017 motorcycle)-- BMW doesn't move very fast but I doubt they started building a 2017 bike in 2015.

Evening DR, Thanks for the torque spec. They made this two part enclosure for no other reason than to hold the date punch marks—on my bike more than a dozen irregular punch marks.

I added a two-pin battery SAE connector to my R1200RTW's battery this weekend so that I could attach a charger and learned a few things along the way.

 

The battery terminals were snug but hardly tight. When finished I torqued the terminals to 5 NM but I won't know the spec until my service DVD arrives. Does anyone have the battery terminal torque spec handy? (Also the Positive charging post torque spec?)

 

Since I had the battery out it seemed good time to measure the parasitic draw. Hitching a DC ammeter in series with the battery ground I measured a short term draw of about 50 mA while the bike's computers were restarting themselves after reconnecting the battery--eventually going into sleep mode after about a minute.

 

The final parasitic current draw was 1 mA

 

That was lower than I'd expected (the R1150 is about 2.5 mA) and is good news. Multiplying that 1 mA/hour times 24 hours times 14 days means that the battery is drawn down only 0.34 Ah in two weeks, which is only 5% of the battery's capacity (16 Ah). In a month the battery is drawn down 10%, which is as far as I'd go without connecting a charger. (If you've added other options to your bike you'd need to remeasure the parasitic draw.) With this low drain, a trickle charger is hardly necessary if you ride your bike for an hour every couple of weeks.

 

While removing the battery I noticed that the battery cover under the elastic retaining strap was a two-part plastic casting, which seemed like overkill so I decided to take it apart. Looking closely at the outer part of the cover, there is a calendar with punch marks on its inside. The punch marks on mine start on 8/15 and end on 3/17. I assume these are the manufacturing dates of the bike.

 

 

Evening Roger

 

Battery terminal bolts are 4nm according to my manual. (I'm not sure on the positive charging post)

 

Those date marks on plastic parts usually don't reflect build dates or install dates but more likely part manufacturing dates with part design change or part update dates. (be a very strange way to record a build date especially with a beginning date of 8/15 on a 2017 motorcycle)-- BMW doesn't move very fast but I doubt they started building a 2017 bike in 2015

Funny I was thinking the same thing!!

Sure but they went to a lot of expense to record the eco date of a two part plastic cover that they didn't need in the first place.

BMW built that locker to note that something happened on each of the punched dates, including 8/15. I have no idea what it means.

When I replaced my battery last year I found the terminals were both loose as well. Probably contributed to my battery's demise......