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Old October 22nd, 2022, 06:53 AM   #1
Apex
Livin' the Minimoto Life
 
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Name: Mark
Location: Riding around in TX
Join Date: Mar 2009

Motorcycle(s): 2022 Honda Navi, 2018 Z-125 Pro

Posts: A lot.
Exclamation Electrical issue on the Z125

I'm posting this here because it could apply to the ninja at some point.


The Z is tiny and it doesn't go over bumps smoothly due to the weight. Still, I love riding the thing.

I was having an issue on my way home from work last week where the bike would die, the display went blank and the neutral and hi beam indicators went dim. It always happened at after a bump.

My brain thought: short or loose ground.

Kicked on again and got me going. Happened several times before it really died. Luckily I was by a side street to a highway and got out of traffic easily. I poured over the bike and found zero shorts, loose connections, or rubbed wires.

Tried again after a couple of minutes of searching and it was working. Weird. Started it up and got the bike rolling, it died before I got out of the little parking lot I was in. Took more panels off and searched. Got to and pulled the ECU, lightly re-seated the connection, came back on.

Threw my leg over it. At this point, I had been fighting it for an hour. Got it rolling. As I drove down I hit major traffic. An accident. Not what I wanted or needed. U-turned and took a detour. 25 min into the detour it completely died. Messed with it, but no luck. Just gone, zero power. A friend towed me back. At this point it is after 8 pm, I left work at 3:30.

Searched and found nothing obvious that next day. Talked to the dealer, he said he never heard of any issue like that before from the Z. We kept talking and he suggested to check the main ground, as the ground would totally do that. He just said that he had never even heard of a Z needed an ECU replaced for anything even remotely like this. I decided to hold off on swapping an ECU.


Looked at the bike and had a thought. When I got it, it has <600 miles on it. It started shifting badly from 1st to 2nd. I changed the oil because I was like it wouldn't be surprising if the original owner never changed it due to low miles. Changed it and it shifted beautifully.

So I looked at the battery. Probably the same battery that came with the bike in 2018. Pulled it and had it load tested.
1st test: 50% capacity
He twisted the battery around some while we were talking and mentioned he'd run another test.
2nd test: 0%

We both said the battery looked like it was a goner. Picked up a new one, added the fluids and put it on a charger overnight.

Tossed it into the bike and twisted the key, the display ran its initialization process. Shook the bike hard, zero issues

Took it to work, zero issues.


Just wanted to throw this out there just in case you have the same problem come up. Never hurts to check the battery if you can't find an electrical problem!

New ECU was $450 and was not the issue. Battery was $50 and was the issue. It had shorted internal plates, and that is what killed it.
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2022 Honda Navi && 2018 Z-125 Pro
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