pleased to hear it, if you wade through the many regulator threads on the forum you'll find many 848/1098/1198 that haven't been...... have we got to the bit where I get hung drawn and quartered yet?
Flag of St Antiviolenti actually. It’s a white cross on a white background. You will know this St as the patron St of soldiers often seen raising their hands skywards to praise the Lord. Can be heard chanting their mantra ‘Dontashute’ repeatedly. Well it’s what my Grandad told me
Had 2 848’s never a rec problem. 3 multis, nope. Several monster, one issue. St2, nope (but every other electrical problem!) Fireblade had it, along with generator. Older Suzuki and Kawasaki had it. It’s not uncommon but it’s not common only to Ducati
lucky you* ^ of course it's possible on any vehicle, just more possible on an 848/1098/1198 due to location of regulator particularly if ambient temperature high. *thread is about 848 just to remind you.
usual uphill battle here, but out of interest, had your Fireblades covered less than 4,000 miles from new?
My 848 had the R&R fail and with it, the normal melted plug and 3 yellow wires. My 998S which followed also suffered from the same but I spotted this just in time. Fitted mosfets to both of them and no further issues.
And I and others are simply pointing out Chris this isn’t a ducati thing; it’s an every make thing. Op losing heart on his new bike: telling him it’s all doom and gloom isn’t helpful imho especially when it’s not.
I agree it isn’t just a Ducati thing, but as said originally, it sadly happens to be more the case with Ducati than with other manufacturers , I’m just repeating myself here. And I didn’t set out to make it all gloom you know very well, I’m just stating what I’ve discovered over the years instead of being in denial about a well-known fact. As ian and several others have said in other posts, you simply change the regulator to a more modern type and ideally place it in another position, not doom and gloom at all. Had your Fireblade covered less than 4000 miles from new when the regulator packed up?
60K melted at the connectors, I’d run it on a 100 mile trip on motorway headlights blazing away. It misfired a little before leaving the motorway almost like it was starved of fuel. The final junction turn about 100 yards from home it just cut out stone dead, I dread to think if this had happened on the M6 at 5pm. I’ve had a rectifier go on my Paso after around 20k but would only flatten the battery with headlights on, I asked an auto electrician I knew and he diagnosed the issue without looking at the bike. It would seem a shame to hand a bike back due to a fairly common problem to Ducati but not confined to them IMO. Other manufacturers suffer with the same issue it isn’t confined to Ducati.
My 1098 did this within a few weeks of ownership (13 year old bike). Dealer took it back and replaced battery (which Wass just eggy not blown up) and reg/rec. No such issues since. Make sure any acid is rinsed away ASAP, but keep the faith, the bike will reward you if you look after it and it's foibles. Welcome to the forum, a great resource for knowledge.
Michael, regulators can fail to low, no or high voltage. I have had one of each on my 748(s) and 999 over 15 years. A regulator failure to high voltage cooked the battery on my 748S with a DC voltage measuring 19v at idle across the battery, much more when the engine was revved. This high voltage melted a hole in the battery case and boiled the acid, there was an unmistakeable smell of rotten eggs which would not go away. As it was an AGM battery it lost maybe a thimble full of acid which left minor but permanent paint spotting on the frame plus it reacted with the plastic of the battery tray. The AGM battery meant that loss of acid was limited but it enabled the battery to show fully charged with good voltage when tested without the engine running. The hole in the case was invisible until the battery was removed, this slowed the discovery of the problem until the voltage was tested with the engine running. Your experience looks to be due to a similar failure. The exact same component is fitted to many vehicles and can affect any one of them due to poor maintenance of the electrical connections or simply bad luck. A high voltage regulator failure is quite rare, you can imagine what can happen if the reg failed to high with a lithium battery fitted. For those of us with older Ducatis a reg failure is a right of passage, eventually you will have one if you do many miles, however the same applies to many other bikes. It may sour your impression of the bike but don't give up on the brand for the sake of a £100 regulator that is not even made by Ducati, if you do you will miss out on one of the most involving and enjoyable motorcycles to ride.
FWIF - over 30yrs or bike ownership and the only bikes that >haven't< had the rec/reg fail are: 1998 R1 (that had other more serious issues) 2015 MV F3 800 Panigale V2 (although I have had the battery fail on it). The battery failed on the V2 by losing a cell - hardly Ducati's fault. Batteries can fail at any time in that manner.
