Battery drain, '13 TXC250

I just purchased a new lipo battery thinking my old one finally gave in. Turns out I have a parasitic battery drain when the bike is parked. The multimeter reads .9 mA with the bike off (~2 mA with the LED tail light on, ~25 mA with the headlight on). I believe I've pulled every connector and fuse with no change in amperage. Disconnecting the ECU is the only thing I've found that will drop the amperage. It's an Athena GP1 ECU. What else might I be missing?

I was told the original ECU was corrupt although the only issue was hot starts (the new ECU has fixed that). I can swap it back in to check if the amperage changes with the old ECU.

Thats pretty small (0.0009 amps). Betcha a small motorcycle battery would last months with that draw.

And even if the headlight was an LED- 25mA seems small also (an incandescent would dissipate 2.5amps which would be a bit over 30 watts).

You sure about your units?

Multi-meter is set to the "DC mA" function so I believe so. Regardless, the battery is drained within 2-3 days if I keep it hooked up to the bike.

Charge the battery and take the connections off- if doesn't hold a charge still, you have a bad battery.

Bike is being stored with one connection off. New lipo battery is in good condition...aside from being drained twice.

remove the power relay or the power fuse while testing (controls the engine/fi/ecu stuff). if you still have a problem, it's somewhere in the wiring. what lights does your TXC have and how are they wired in?

the regulator on the keyless '13 & '14 TE controls the power relay. I believe the TXC uses the same regulator. Which, BTW, will sometimes turn the relay on/off/on/off... while charging.

Pulling the power relay fuse had no effect.

Lights were my first thought. I didn't wire them but it looks like all power is drawn from a single wire that attaches separately to the starter relay. Removing that lead makes no difference. I'll double check that the lights don't connect to power anywhere else.

I unclipped the regulator with no effect.

when you removed the wire for the lights... did they still work?

I thought that the ecu would be unpowered with the fuse pull (or better: regulator pull), but you seem to say that the battery still drained. did it? your 0.9mA and even 25mA should not drain a battery for a long time.

just to be clear: if you remove the ecu, the battery will stay charged indefinitely- correct? without an external charger, without the engine running (hah- no ecu).
is your power relay bad maybe?

btw- whats the battery voltage with the bike off? what's the voltage with the bike idling?

Lights don't work with their main power pulled.

I have not pulled the ECU and left the battery connected for a few days to test. Pulling the ECU is the only thing that has given a 0 draw readout so I imagine the battery would be fine.

I'll check voltage at idle. Should be fine as I've charge the battery from flat after 50 kick starts and 50 miles.

do NOT count on that; do the test. That is exactly why i was so specific with the question. after that test, put the other ecu in and check that out with the same test

also, since the power fuse is downstream of the power relay- your relay is probably good. The fan fuse is on this circuit too, maybe pull it at the same time

your regulator test proved the problem is not the internal diodes being shorted (dumping your battery into the stator coils).

those current draws you're measuring are fairly minuscule.

.9 ma sounds small but 25ma for a headlight? Which is what, 35 watts or 3A seems to indicate that the scale on the meter is off by a factor of 100, no?

Sounds like a .09A draw to me, almost .1 Amp. Not huge but not immaterial.

I am not even remotely competent with electronics, but I'm just doing the math????

well, at 12v, the 25mA draw is 300mW or 0.3W, which is about the amount of power I'd expect on a good red LED taillight to dissipate, not a headlight.

the 0.9mA draw is 1/100 of a watt at 12v which is zero power in my book, when we're talking motorcycle batteries.

dirtmerch, you said you changed batteries when your first LiPo battery died. (It still may be good.) Did anything electrical or parts-wise change right before this happened?

But the 25ma was the headlight.

2ma was the taillight.

yes. I understood that.

I am just referring to the actual loads, not what is purportedly dissipating them. 25mA was the max, 0.9mA was the min. draw- I don't really know/care was drawing that current... it ain't much. In fact, that was another point: 25mA would not be a headlight or even city light, it's more like a taillight.

I re-edited my other post to make it a little clearer.

Well...the bike was stolen a while back and recovered after 6 months. No ride time was put on the bike, I assume because the battery kept dying! The nice lipo battery was replaced with something cheap, it would not hold a charge when I got to it. I've cleaned the bike up and it runs as it should...but it still has the same issue. The Anthena ECU is draining the battery, not an issue with the stock (and corrupt) ECU.

I've zeroed in on the Athena ECU, I'm waiting for a response from Athena.