Hey y’all. Wife drove 12 miles to work, get into it 90 minutes later and tried to start it, but it made a rapid clicking sound. She said she kept trying and it stopped making the clicking and sounded like it was trying to turn over. I thought it was strange that it seemed to get better, but she isn’t stupid, so I believe her.

She was able to jump it with no issue. Strong start.

Tested the voltage today when I got home after it sat for six hours. Voltage reads 12.2v. It started up for me and read 14.4v while running.

No corrosion on the terminals and the cables look good, and are firmly in place making full contact.

Sounds like the battery is kaput though, yeah? Strange thing is that is only 13 months old, and a Honda brand battery from Honda.

Put it on the charger overnight. I can also load test it (haven't done it before but I have a load tester).

Before I take the battery back to the dealership, is there anything I’m missing?

edit: As I was posting this, she told me that she had her phone plugged in and charging for half an hour with the engine off. I'm guessing it'll be fine once it's charged up.

 

You should load test it. A voltage test is of minimal value -- 8 Ea AA batteries will produce 12 V, but they'll never start a car. Our battery is only a year old, but died after a week in the airport parking lot. No interior lights were left on. We're thinking the alternator might be failing.

 

+1
Do a load test.
Incidentally, charging a phone on a stopped car should have no impact on it since the power required by a cell phone battery is ....trivial. ....unless something else in the car was also on while this was happening.