12 volt low warning

[MichaelGSX]

I noticed today when I start the seadoo I get a 12 volt low warning, happens only when it's cranking, then goes away when started, does this mean my battery is on it's way out? The battery was fully charged.

 

[Brad Ramirez]

I use to get that all the time on my GSX. I just ended up ignoring it. My Doo always runs good great with that warning. Happens with a new batter too. Must be a glitch somewhere.

 

[TowerDog]

I have the same problem on my 96 GTX, The only way I can get it to go away is to fully charge the battery (2AMP) for about 8 hours. My ski always ran great even though it flashed. Not sure of the exact cause, may be a bad ground connection, or the battery just needed charged.

 

[Coastiejoe]

It is probably an indication of the battery starting to fail. It is just a trigger. Once the detectable voltage drops to a certain point the light is triggered..

 

[MichaelGSX]

Also not sure if this is related to the problem but the first start of the day it's very hard to get started, then suddenly it will start then have no problem starting after that.

 

[Mekanix]

Normal. But it is either a sign of a battery getting old, being very discharged, or is the wrong capacity

for example: (everstart 16 AH 210cca(only the first time its ever used )) After that its just not going to

Manual actually specifies 19ah

I found that with a battery that drops too low while cranking the first time and that will not recover to a high enough charging voltage quick enough will trigger the warning.

I saw it on mine every run but never again after it was running for a bit.



Oh and that hard start is directly related to spark and the battery being too low of voltage !!
mine will not fire below 10.5V which is actually 10.9 because there is a drop in the wiring between the battery and mpem.
But anyways. What you would see is it cranking and sounding like its cranking over fast enough and sounds great but just won't fire.
Add another battery to raise the voltage and cranking amps and it starts on the first barely touch of the start button!!

Just keep that in mind. The thing will trick you. oh and if it doesn't start and you pull the plugs out to check for fire, guess what, you don't have any drag on the starter anymore so your going to have enough voltage to give it fire. That would lead you to believe everything is good and that's the trick

 

[MichaelGSX]

Normal. But it is either a sign of a battery getting old, being very discharged, or is the wrong capacity

for example: (everstart 16 AH 210cca(only the first time its ever used )) After that its just not going to

Manual actually specifies 19ah

I found that with a battery that drops too low while cranking the first time and that will not recover to a high enough charging voltage quick enough will trigger the warning.

I saw it on mine every run but never again after it was running for a bit.



Oh and that hard start is directly related to spark and the battery being too low of voltage !!
mine will not fire below 10.5V which is actually 10.9 because there is a drop in the wiring between the battery and mpem.
But anyways. What you would see is it cranking and sounding like its cranking over fast enough and sounds great but just won't fire.
Add another battery to raise the voltage and cranking amps and it starts on the first barely touch of the start button!!

Just keep that in mind. The thing will trick you. oh and if it doesn't start and you pull the plugs out to check for fire, guess what, you don't have any drag on the starter anymore so your going to have enough voltage to give it fire. That would lead you to believe everything is good and that's the trick

So I guess what your saying is I need a new battery, but will test it, so what readings should I have on the battery?

 

[MichaelGSX]

UPDATE.....so had it on the lake yesterday, the first start of the day, it seems to be running on one cylinder and the 12 volt low warning is on....will do this for approx 20sec, then suddenly the warning goes away and runs on both cylinders.....could this be because of the the spark plug cap wires?

 

[Strizzo]

probably the battery is beginning to give up the ghost. the ski has to run on the battery for a few seconds after starting so the regulator/rectifier can get warmed up. you'll see this if you hook a voltmeter to the battery and start the ski, it'll recover to battery voltage and then climb up to around 14v.

 

[MichaelGSX]

probably the battery is beginning to give up the ghost. the ski has to run on the battery for a few seconds after starting so the regulator/rectifier can get warmed up. you'll see this if you hook a voltmeter to the battery and start the ski, it'll recover to battery voltage and then climb up to around 14v.

These are the readings I got from the battery when the Seadoo was on the trailer:

Volts before start....13.00
Volts when cranking...11.20
Volts when running 13.30

 

[Strizzo]

i'd have that battery tested, usually when they are static above 13v, they're starting to let go. at least that was my experience from testing a ton of batteries over the years when i worked at autozone.