Disclaimer - I am absolutely happy with the service I received from the dealer I bought the bike from. SO I bought my 1198 a few months back, managed about 4-5 rides on it before lockdown. My last ride was post conversation with a member on here about replacing the Lithium battery as in his opinion, they should never be fitted to this bike. Off to Halfords, I went with tools in my backpack ready to change the battery out on arrival. Ride number 6 in the sunshine, beautiful day. Arrived at Halfords and I noticed smoke pissing out of the fairing on my LH side, holy shit. Turned bike off, side stand and woof.....flames. After what seemed like far too long, the confused people inside the store finally managed at bucket with a piddly amount of water in it...I poured it in and flames went out. As you can imagine, I'm freaking out in a grown-up way, first thought, call the wife, oh crap, forgot my phone. Now I'm stuck. Right, So I've let the thing cool down, took the fairing off and had a look. The junction between the regulator and stator has over heated and melted and caught fire, that melted mess has dripped down onto the lower fairing and almost burnt a hole through. The flame has melted the upper fairing vents. The wires where the junction used to be are bare and charred, the trickle charger lead is melted through but that's about it. So, no phone and all this mess and, I have no clue what to do as I'm no mechanic. A young fella came out of the shop to see what was going on, he went back and had some tape and I taped up the ends of the wires so they wouldn't toucn anything. I figured that the stator had one job to do and the regualter had one job to do and if I popped the new battery on, I might be able to get her home. Turns out, I was correct. It was the longest journey home ever. What I know now is this, Lithium batteries carry too many volts during usage, in the tune of 100% whereas normal batteries output somewhere in the tune of 40%, so the Lithium battery creates issues elsewhere. The upshot is this, I'm learning heaps about my Ducati 1198, I'm getting stuck in and I'm doing all the work myself. I have ordered a new Stator, Reg/Rec and RH side fairing, new coolant and off we go. I now know where the water pump is, I know where the stator is and how to find it, I know what the reg/rec is, what it does and how to get to it. I even know how to take the fairing off and airbox thingie to get to the radiator cap, very proud of myself. Plus I get to clean the shit off everything as I go. Hopefully, I'll not be a "Noob" at the end of all this. Like I said at the top, the dealer has been great and they are funding all the repairs as it's within 3 months.
Bloody hell. Really sorry to see the mess it’s made of your lovely bike but I also think you were really lucky it happened where it did otherwise it could have been a total loss. The two essential things I always take with me on a ride are phone and credit card.
Ah, I see. This is why you needed fairings! Which brand of Li battery did you have fitted? I run Magneti Marelli on all of my Ducs and in five years plus I have had 100% success. I have however chosen very carefully and ensured each one is model specific to each bike and the recommended fitment to each bike. The MM Li’s have a built in safety circuit to protect against such issues. It could be a previous owner has just slung any old cheapie Li battery on?
Very lucky escape.... especially when the bike has a plastic fuel tank, check it out for sign of heat damage before you do many more miles if I were you. I spoke to a auto electrician about Lithium and he told me absolutely don’t consider it on a older bike like 1198/848 as I was (and I quote) asking for trouble. He said the panigale onwards and bikes like the 2015 onwards R1 are fine because they use up to date digital mosfet reg recs and are designed to manage the LiPo better
@SF Kiwi, if you search on here, @Robarano upgraded his 1098R regulator (same as yours) to the current spec. He did a very good run down of parts and process. I would advise you do the same. Good luck. Andy
Can you explain this? I have run a Lithium battery on my 848 and my 939 Supersport for about 5 years now and both bikes work on 12 volts with any battery fitted.
I knew it would be a JMT battery as soon as I saw the thread title. They have no battery safety (protection) strip which would have prevented it overloading and catching fire. They are cheap but they are shite. If your regulator was pushing out even slightly too much, those batteries just keep taking it until they expand and catch fire. Every quality Lithium battery has a safety strip fitted internally which stops any overcharging. JMT - well, you see the result. It is a very well known issue in the motorcycle trade. Skyrich (the ones NOT built to a budget) or Shido (made by Skyrich) are far better and have the safety protection.
I think it is worth raising that older Ducatis with high resistance / broken down insulation in the output wiring from the stator to the reg rec have been (occasionally) bursting into flames in that area since well before Li ion tech was invented, and it typically has a limited amount to do with the battery (whichever type). If your reg-rec had passed unreg voltage to the battery, and you actually did have the “Lithium Ion battery fire” as your title suggests (which luckily you didn't) you would not be putting it out with a splash of water, nor any realistic method (needs a vacuum and cryogenic cooling) as once a Li ion battery starts to decompose, they wont stop until all the fuel in the area is burned. I do agree with the general view that Li ion batteries on old bikes with this type of reg rec isn't something I would do, especially not on one with previously overheated wiring/ faulty reg rec, as the ability of a lead acid battery to absorb the power and boil its cells and tell you about it with white efflorescence at the caps / requiring repeated top ups (wet cell) or mis-shaped case / just not starting one morning (AGM) is just not possible with Li ion chemistry, but in your case, it looks like your battery actually did not go pop and burn, and why you still have a bike to fix rather than a burned out wreck.
had the same happen on my 748 years ago ant that was with the standard battery fitted so its not necessarily a bat problem at all.
If you have ever seen a lithium battery catch fire, its very apparent and different to a normal electrical fire. They have even brought down planes when they combusted in the hold. Have a look on Youtube for some examples. They do not need a whole lot of disturbing to fire up either, unless that BMS is fitted.
Thank you for your well-rounded thoughts, very insightful. I agree that the title is a bit "click bait ish" but I wanted to reach as many people as possible, as it has done so far. I have enjoyed reading your thoughts though, very good. It's great to hear from people that really know their stuff. Thanks again
I am puzzled why you guys bother with these things. When it came time to replace the original battery on my bike I went for a military spec AGM battery. By ditching the fuse board housing I was able to accommodate a slightly larger battery than standard which increased capacity from 12 amp/hours to 18. With the current lockdown my X3 told me that it had shut down all non essential functions and needed taking for an extended drive or charging. So I took my Optimate 4 off of the bike and put it on the car. Every day I check the battery voltage on both vehicles and today, after 8 days the bike battery is down to 12.2 volts. Oh, and the battery has been on the bike for 10 years.
Yes, I thought the grey foam was a bit naf so made this out of sheet ally and it is held in place by double sided tape. If anyone is interested I can provide a fully dimensioned dxf or pdf file.
