09 FE450 ignition constantly on

got back from a ride, pushing the bike away, brake lights are still working, check a hr later, still work, headlights, horn the lot.
come out a week later, flat battery....

any dodgy relays to check to stop this?

cheers

Johnniep,
first step is to establish if it's the battery losing charge, or there's a parasitic drain of some sort.

I'm assuming that when you turn off the igniton, everything actually appears to be off? And there are no other issues like the bike dying when on a long run and you find the battery mysteriously flat? Difficult to tell from what you've written. Brevity is often good, but in this case it's not helping you. Sorry, pet hate of mine, as is poor punctuation, grammer and spelling, but this doesn't help you fix your bike... so mooooving on...

Charge the battery and disconnect it from the bike, but leave it in the garage. If it goes flat in a week all by itself QED; go buy a battery. If you don't want to wait a week, you'll need a multimeter.

Charge the battery, disconnect it from the bike's wiring, set your meter to read current and put the meter in series with the bike wiring. Don't try to start the bike or you'll destroy your meter. Turn on the ignition and I'd expect something well under 1 Amp. Keep the ignition on, and turn on the lights (up to 4.5A or so depending on your headlamp wattage. Play with the other loads (brake light, horn...) and you'll see the current go up and down in response. Turn your ignition OFF. The current draw should be ZERO. If it is, go buy a battery. If the current is not zero and you have an alarm fitted, throw the alarm away and buy something better. If the current is not zero and you don't have an alarm fitted, the fun starts...

My first guess would be the ignition switch. Unplug it and check it against the wiring diagram for function (normally you're looking for continuity or discontinuity between different wire pairs depending on the switch position. Set your meter to measure resistance or continuity, depending on how sophisticated it is, and follow the logic table you should find in the wiring diagram. If this all checks out OK, re-plug the switch and move onto the next likely problem: the regulator/rectifyer. Just unplug it. Don't start the engine. With the meter now back in series with the bike's wiring and the ignition OFF, is the meter now reading zero when set to measure current?

If that didn't work, re-plug the reg/rect. and unplug the alternator. Don't start the engine. Zero now?

If not, carry on unplugging, checking, re-plugging: the main relay, any diodes... etc. When the meter reading falls to zero (remember the ignition must remain OFF during all these tests), you've probably found the culprit. Plug and unplug whatever you've found a few times just to be sure.

Next step is to peer hard at the wiring diagram, identify the circuit which contains the culpable component and physically check every junction and connector involved with that entire circuit. If you find nothing, try to check the component function (tell us what it is and we'll undoubtedly help), or if you're feeling flush (and lucky), just replace it with a new one.

If you still find nothing, maybe there's a break in the wiring, or a corroded connector? Anything after the main relay is not going to be live, so focus before that and look out for a continuously live cable, partly shorting out to ground. Bend and twist the cables around the suspect area of the headstock and see if you get a response on the meter. Try anywhere you can grasp the loom. Wiggle connectors too. Eventually you'll find something that affects the meter reading... and that should draw your focus. Usually once you find the problem, the fix is pretty obvious.

Tell us what you find, and the endless fun you have. Oh, and don't forget that beer often helps.

Cheers... Paul

If you have a standard UK spec bike it will not have a conventional ignition switch. The only live circuit when the engine is stopped is (should be) the starter circuit. When you hit the starter button and the engine turns over, the output from the alternator operates the Power Relay which is, in effect, like turning on the ignition with the ign key on a road bike and supplies power to the ECU, injectors, lighting circuits etc. When the engine is stopped the power relay switches off a few seconds later killing the power to everything. If this relay sticks on it will give the symptoms you describe.

Tinwelp, thanks for the walk through and apologies for my rubbish spelling, punctuation etc etc, i ride bikes and twissel electric up poles. neither require being anything special at literacy! but thanks for sticking with me!

Pegscraper, this is the problem i have, any idea where to locate the relay? it is like that stuck.

Thanks

IIRC the power relay sits behind the battery underneath the ECU.