Please help if to can. I have an 04 night train and the check angine light and battery light came on yesterday so I went to the local HD dealership and they told my me battery had a dead cell so I bought a new one and they sent me o my way. I rode 17km home got up this morning and rode 2km the lights came on again and code p0562. Brought the bike home and tried to start it battery was dead. Stator and battery replaced 3000km ago. Any suggestions would be great. Thanks.

 

Code P0562 is an SAE Specified OBDII Diagnostic Trouble Code.

Code P0562 is "System Voltage Low"

I do not know precisely what the threshold voltage is that Harley-Davidson uses to set this code but I'd imagine that it is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10.5 Volts. In other words; the ECU will set this code if System Voltage at the ECU terminal falls below the threshold voltage while the engine is running.

The Battery Light will come "On" if the output of the Charging System (Stator) is less that Battery Voltage at the Voltage Regulator.

The Charging System Alternator consists of a Permanent Magnet Rotor, and a Delta Wound Stator. The three terminals from the Stator go to the Voltage Regulator which also contains the Rectifier Bridge Diodes.

In addition to the three Stator wires; the Voltage Regulator has a Ground Wire and a Positive Wire that goes through a 40 Amp Main Fuse to the Battery (+) terminal at the Starter Motor.

So-o-o-o-o where to start? You will need a Digital Volt Ohm Meter (DVOM). These can be purchased for as little as $5. For your purposes a more expensive DVOM is not required. But in any case Start with the easy stuff first; items 1 and 2 below:

1.) Check for a blown Main fuse.
If the fuse is blown you'll need to find out why. This doesn't happen for a random reason. Unfortunately the scope of this site can't encompass all of the possibilities for this but a damaged wire between the fuse and the Starter Motor or maybe a faulty Voltage Regulator would be the two most likely culprits and I would check them in that order.

2.) Check the wiring connections at the Voltage Regulator:
On one side of Voltage regulator there are two wires. The Red wire goes to the 40 Amp Fuse. The Black Wire goes to the Main Wiring Harness ground near the Battery. On the other side of the Voltage Regulator there are three wires and they are all Black. These three wires go to the Stator. All of the wires should be clean and tight. If you have any doubts; disconnect the terminals/connections and clean them with "Electrical Terminal Contact Cleaner" or B&W TV Tuner Cleaner. The former available at most Auto Parts stores and the latter from Radio Shack or similar. Other cleaning agents (like Carburetor Cleaner or Brake Clean) either will not work or may actually damage the plastic connectors. Also disconnect and clean (Bright and Shiny Clean) the Ground Wire for the Voltage Regulator (Black Wire).

3.) Check the Stator:
First with an AC (Alternating Current) Voltmeter. With the Voltage Regulator disconnected: Read the AC Voltage between each of the three wires and the other two wires. This means you will test each wire twice. (This is more readings than are actually needed, but I am assuming that you are not a trained technician and it's easier to do it this way than to explain which readings to get and which don't matter.) Take your readings at approximately 2,000 Engine RPM. All of the readings should be between 32 and 46 volts. If some of the readings are good and others are bad you will need a Stator.
Second, If all of the AC Voltage readings are low or zero; switch the meter to the Ohms position and with all three wires still disconnected from the Voltage Regulator and the Engine Off read the resistance between each of the three wires and the other two wires. All of the readings should be 0.1 to 0.3 Ohms. If any of the readings are infinite (The Ohmmeter may read O.L. for Open Loop) the Stator has failed. If the Ohmmeter tests are Good, But the AC Volt test is Bad the Rotor has failed.

4.) If the Rotor and Stator are Good, and the Wiring and the Fuse are Good. The Voltage Regulator has failed.

 

Hi Blue --

I have exactly the same issue as Nightrain, with an '06 FLSTSC/I. The check engine and red battery light come on practically together, and the bike won't start again after I shut it off. When I check the code, I get a p0562 and p/n 34365-06, which apparently is the ECU flash code.

The thing is, I know battery and stator are OK (when this hassle first started a month ago, I jumped the gun and replaced both -- the stator and rotor looked fine, by the way, even though I still replaced the stator). AND I just got it back from the dealer last week where they told me they checked the starting system and it checked out fine. Wouldn't a bad voltage regulator or short of some kind show up if they'd checked the system properly? If so, what else could it be? I was a little suspicious when this first happened, because the lights started coming on after this same dealer installed a new starter clutch for me. What could he have screwed up that might make my bike do this?

By the way, Night. Did you get the problem solved and what was it?

 

I had this just happen to me on my Heritage. Went to dealer and both the voltage regulator and stator were toast. Luckily it is an 09 and is covered by warranty. Also, not sure which piece (reg. or stator) but one of them HD knows is a problem. Dealer was not able to order a replacement part. They weren't available yet (being redesigned) so they had to pull a part off the assembly line to send. I don't have the bike back yet but when I do I'll post here which part.

 

Thanks for the input.

That's interesting. I've taken my bike to the dealer who is now telling me they don't know why the lights come on. That just seems odd to me. I'm glad they were abe to identify your problem

My battery and stator are new. I'm wondering if a voltage regulator can test OK, but still sometimes fail intermittently. Does anyone know?

 

Well got the bike back today and all is well again. The service advisor said the problem was the voltage regulator, it went berserk and toasted itself and the stator. The problem with getting a replacement Voltage reg. was that the MoCo was redesigning it and they weren't available. Hence, they pulled one from the assembly line. He said that the regulator is not defective "just stuff happens in the electric world". I don't know know sounds a bit smelly to me. Why would the MoCo redesign something if it aint broke! Anyway it is fixed and we are ready for our 5 day trip after the 4th. Oh, I also asked in reference to a poster here whether a voltage reg. could go again and could it be an intermitten problem. He said yes but that it only will get worse not better. His suggestion was if the battery light comes on get it checked as quick as possible so that someone can diagnose it immediately.

 

Glad you resolved your issue and thanks for confirming that VR problems can be intermittent . Getting worse over time sounds like my bike. The engine and battery lights used to go on for just a few seconds at a time, but now tend to stay on longer. I still haven't heard back from my dealer, who told me the other day that they couldn't tell what what causing my problem but were looking into it (they checked the charging system a few days ago and pronounced it OK, but then the battery drained after I got her home and the bike showed that P0562 code; but given the that the problem is intermittent, maybe it was charging OK when they checked it ...). Maybe I'll suggest they recheck the VR, although having to prompt them to look into something like doesn't exactly inspire a lot of confidence. Yikes.

 

Well, bear in mind that a Code is a symptom of a problem. I used to tell my students that a Diagnostic Trouble Code (DTC) was an Adjective not a Noun.

So anyhow; a "System Voltage Low" code like P0562 doesn't say what is bad, only that the Volatage at the B+ terminal of the computer is less than specifications.

To try and answer your question: Given the parts that you have already changed; and assuming that the Dealer did something that might have caused your problem (other than simply bad coincidence) . . . I'd first go over your wiring harness as I described earlier. Pay particular attention to the two Main Grounds (under the seat). Failing that I'd have to assume a bad Voltage Regulator. That would be the only other thing left. Checking the Wiring Harness is time consuming but as long as you are doing the work it has the advantage of being the less expensive option. On the other hand you could replace the Voltage Regulator . . . and if that doesn't fix it THEN you could check the Wiring Harness. Just kidding, check the Wiring Harness first, it is what a good Technician would/should do first before changing any parts.

Keep in mind that sometimes an experienced Technician, who has seen a lot of one kind of problem, will jump to a quick parts change rather than taking the time to thoroughly check the entire system. In all fairness to the Technician that does this . . . if 99 times out of a 100 it's part "X" then it would be unfair to charge those 99 customers the time it would take to check all the things that might cause the problem the other 1 time out of 100. Even if Checking Everything Every Time is technically the "Correct" way to approach the problem it may not make the best Business policy to do so. That being said if the Dealer charged you to check everything as a part of the repair . . . then they dang well better have checked everything.

 

Thanks, Blue. I understand what you're saying. The bike is now at the dealer. The service advisor tells me the tech doesn't know what the problem is, and that kind of worries me. If Harley can't figure it out, who the hell can? I hope the tech isn't just relying on his experience and is actually doing the checks.

Let me ask you this: assuming it isn't some sort of short of bad wire and the tech did indeed check the whole charging system, is it possible for a voltage regulator failure to be intermittent? In other words, for the battery to charge normally one minute but then drain the next?

Also one thing I noticed when I brought it home after the tech supposedly checked the system, its that when I hooked it up to a battery tender after the seven mile ride from the dealer to my home, the tender showed an amber light, which means the battery has a less than 80 percent charge. That seemed odd to me.

 

Yes it is possible for the Voltage Regulator to be intermittent. Not very likely but it is possible. It's also possible that you could get hit by lightening . . . not very likely . . . but it is possible . . .

The Battery Tender will probably start off attempting to charge the battery no matter what the condition of the battery is. After some time has passed it will recognize that the battery is charged and go into "Float" mode. What you're describing sounds normal.

If the Dealer finds "Multiple" problems and/or several fixes where they tell you that "Each repair makes it a little bit better" . . . but it's not quite fixed yet . . . beware! This sort of scenario is typical of a technician who doesn't really know what is wrong and he's changing parts hoping that he'll stumble on the real source of the problem. In this sort of a situation you can pretty much bet that the last part that was replaced or the last repair that was made was the actual and the only problem you had. There can be multiple problems but 99.999% of the time there is only one failure. Always ask for all of your old parts back . . . even if you don't intend to do anything with them . . . it'll make them wonder a bit and they'll often be just a little bit more careful about their diagnosis. If they ask why you want them back just say that you want to have a friend of yours take a look at it/them to see what went wrong so if it's anything you did you can prevent the problem from happening again in the future . . . This is probably 100% BS on your part and you're just going to take them home and throw them in the trash . . . but they don't need to know that.