A little over 500 miles on my 08 610 and the Varta battery is leaking acid out the side of the case near the top. It still works but has made a mess under my seat. I've pulled it out and sprayed every thing down to neutalize it. I am going to call my dealer and find out if I can get a better replacment under warranty. Has anyone tried an Odyssey pc310?
I've heard good things about the pc310. Several guys have tried them over on Advrider (detailed in the 610 thread). Maybe some reports here as well. I believe it's rated lower CCA than the Varta, but out-cranks it. My Varta lasted just a wee bit longer than yours. I was 30 miles out from camp on an organized run when my exploded and left me stranded. They're junk.
I replaced the stock Varta in my 610 with an Odyssey PC310 and have been very pleased with the performance, reliability and size. They are a bit more expensive than a conventional battery however, the CCA rating and lighter weight/space savings is well worth it IMO. I ran one all last season with absolutely no problems. cheers, Mike
I may try one of these myself if it will solve my slow cranking problem. From what I have heard it is a bit smaller in size. Any issues fitting in the 610?
I have not even riden my bike and the battery is junk. It started twice in my gargage and would not start the third time. My dealer is getting me a replacement (not varta). Hope to get my first ride in a couple of weeks. My suspension is due back from les Tuesday.
My experience is that it completely cured slow cranking, even when the temps were down in the 30's here in the midwest. Even when the temps dropped near 0degrees I just put a small electric heater next to the engine to soften up the molasses in the crankcase, waited about 20 minutes and fired right up. The battery seems to behave like a deep cell in this regard with longer, consistent cranking power than the stocker. As far as fitment, it's about 3/4 the size of the stock battery and I cut some dense packing foam 1/2" to 3/4" thick blocks to make up for the extra room in the battery tray. Also, I have not used a tender over the winter, only started and ran the motor up to temp a few times in the last 2 1/2mos with no apparent drop off in performance. cheers, Mike
I know you're not the only one that does it. I try and a least put mine on a milk create to get it off the floor a bit. And never on High... Seen gasoline vapor do some strange things in the cold....
Thats good to hear. My dealer opens tomorrow I have to call him and see if I can get a credit towards a pc310. I'll gladly pay the difference to not get another varta.
Well, my stock Varta went last week on my 610 after six months. One it worked one day. Then the bike sat for two days and when I turned the key on. There was no power at all. The battery was even hooked up to a Battery Tender too. The Dealer replaced it with a Durbatt YTX14-BS and all is good.
Dealer is replacing it under warranty with a Yuasa. Not as good as an Oddessy, but much better than the Varta.
I just picked up a Yuasa YTX14H-BS to replace my generic brand unit that replaced my Varta. The generic was doing fine, but I'm looking for a bit more CCA. Not sure what Yuasa you guys are using, but this is the high performance rated for 260CCA. The regular xx14-BS I had was only 200CCA. I'll report back on how it does.
I finally got around to installing this battery and it fixed my cold-cranking problems. My bike was not starting when the ambient temps were <40F without opening the throttle. It would turn over, but just not quite fast enough to fire. Now it starts just fine.
I have around 2000km on my '08 610 with the stock battery. I just put it back in after a winter of not using it and it started right up. Looks ok as well. I don't have the battery out now but I thought I remember reading that the stock battery can only be charged at a very low amp. If you use a regular battery charger on it the amps maybe too high. I did this on my R6 battery a few winters ago. I ended up being the problem and over charged it, not the battery. Or maybe I'm just lucky
Well it looks like I'm a victim of the electrical system. Went for the first real ride (more than a couple of miles) and it was pretty wet, since we just got a lot of snow. Got about 20 miles from home and the low battery light came on. I thought no big deal, I just won't shut it off. Next stop light, the thing dies on me. I try running down a hill and use the clutch to start it. No go... worked for over an hour. Finally got my wife to come get me in the pickup. Taking it 50 miles one way to the dealer tomorrow. I'll put it on a charger tonight, but I think it has to be a short somewhere. Some guy stopped and had one of those hand held jump starters, and we got it fired up once, and I held it about 3500 RPMs for several minutes, but when I let it drop to fast idle it died. No luck ever since. More than a few curses were uttered toward my brand new bike.
Not sure what year bike you have but if you still have the stock battery it's likely gone bye bye. That or you have a charging problem. EFI bikes generally won't run without a battery. I found out the hard way myself. You may want to do a visual in there to make sure the battery hasn't shorted internally, blown open, and leaked the acid out onto your bike like mine did. I was lucky we were doing water crossings all day and no damage.
I checked out the battery when it died on me, and it looked fine. Turns out the dealer attached the blue wire to the positive terminal, when it should have been hooked to the negative terminal. Lesson to all 610 owners... Mine is an 08 btw.
