Hello and thank you in advance for any help or feedback.

I have a 2010 Fit Sport with relatively low mileage (15K or so). I live in a rural neighborhood and need the car to get anywhere. Many mornings it won't start, leaving me stranded and having to hitchhike, or simply give up and stay at home (the reason I am writing this right now).

Here is the background. We have had the vehicle for three years and I cannot remember a problem until I didn't close the hatch fully overnight, which killed the battery at the beginning of winter. We jumped it, I drove it almost 400 miles and figured that would be that. Kept dying. Took it to a dealer who took a look, tested the battery and found normal strength and no issues.

It has been warm out lately but it still keeps dying all the time. My wife usually uses this vehicle and her commute is only 20 miles or so roundtrip.

By contrast, my 1998 CRV has died and been re-jumped multiple times over 14 years but has never ever had this issue, not even on the coldest mornings when I lived in Gunnison Colorado -- 1 of the coldest places in the state. It is frustrating than that this vehicle (Fit) -- 12 years newer has become so unreliable that most mornings my wife has to take my CRV leaving me stranded when I try to leave later.

I have read extensively on this forum about people replacing the battery with a larger Costco one (but having to do some modifications). I'm don't want to have to modify anything. I bought a Honda (instead of a VW golf) for the reliability and to avoid this type of thing...

Any ideas why this keeps happening despite the fact that we have normal battery strength and have taken several long trips after killing the battery once? Granted, it has been winter here in the Colorado mountains, but it simply has not been cold... no one uses a blockheater around here, so the cold wouldn't seem to explain it -- except for maybe the fact that the battery is so damn small and not very very deep in the tiny engines so it is so closely exposed to temperatures.

Thank you for any advice or ideas you can provide to a worried and frustrated Fit owner.

 

I, more or less, went through similar things with my Fit. It died on me back in Nov '11, then again in Dec '11 (I was overseas for a month). A third time later because I left a light on (forgot when though).

Until this winter, that was it... worked fine otherwise. But once this winter got bitterly cold, it didn't do so well and repeatedly failed to start at first. Eventually, I got my maintenance charger plugged in and let it charge for a few minutes and it started. This happened three times in one week, so I decided to simply get a new battery. And it seems all is well now.

But, in my case, I do a TON of short drives because I do deliveries. All these short drives aren't good for the battery.

There are probably a bunch of additional factors that get it to this point, but after 3-1/2 years... a new battery is a worthwhile option... for me, at least.

 

Get over it and buy a new battery.

 

I did and problems solved. No screwing around trying to find something else to fit either. Just took it to Honda dealer.

 

Ha ha, yeah… That is the direction things are headed. My dealership and any affordable parts store is 40 minutes away. It's Saturday and I can make the time so I'm headed there today. Thanks for the pep talk. They are going to retest the battery and also test alternator. My guess is it might be the alternator since every time we jump it, it starts three or four times before dying again.Black3sr Glad to hear that just replacing the battery worked for you. I am likely headed down the same road. Will report back.

 

It could be a bad starter or bad electrical connection too.

 

yeah but those are more easily diagnosed. I'd change the battery as the most likely problem. Make sure they check the starter/charger when they do this, and have the cable ends cleaned (these are normal services when installing a new battery). Yes, there could be bad spots on the starter that aren't apparent. Let them know this could be a concern so they spend extra time testing the starter.

+1 for not messing around, get the Honda battery. If you take it to another shop the OE size may not be in stock, but is available from many parts houses.

I replaced mine with a NAPA battery for about $90 after trade-in of the old battery. The OE YUASA battery did well for 4.5 years but was starting to turn the engine more slowly. The new battery performed well in January parked outside all night in the 10F weather we had.