I got my battery replaced under warranty!

 

That the same reason I use too...hahaha So end up buying a new battery to solve my problem.....

 

I'm having a similar problem, but my question is: does the battery need to have certain specs??

 

I just got back from a 5 week vacation, my car sat for the entire time undriven. It started up no problem, I also have the sport with the alarm.

 

Besides the 12vdc and negative ground specs, it should have at least the same ampere-hour power rating as the original and the same size. Size is by 'group' based on the dimensions and placement of positive and negative terminals.
Without checking my owner's manual or looking under the hood my guess is at least 350 AHr.
Sears, Wallyworld, and all auto parts stores can help you.
Naturally there are several 'grades'for each group and AHr. As Consumer Reports showed its generally bestto go with the least costly battery that meets the minmum power and group.
Make sure you clean the terminals and clamps thoroughly when you switch batteries.

 

my spoon battery goes dead if i dont drive my car for a week. but that battery is as big as a motorcycle batter and i have alot of accesories drawing current from my system (turbo timer, five gauges, aftermarket headunit, greddy emanage, etc). actually ever since i installed the T1R ignition stabilizer, my battery hasnt been going dead.

 

I have a 2007 Fit Sport with an aftermarket alarm system (installed by Honda). I left my Fit undriven for a week and the car required a jump-start. I took it to Honda and they tested the battery and said it was fine. I drove it for several days after that and then it sat for four days and... dead battery again today.

(I didn't leave the headlights or dome lights on. I always check these things after I've parked and locked the car.)

An aftermarket alarm system really shouldn't be draining a full battery completely in four days. Maybe the battery wasn't full?

My guesses (I'm taking it to Honda tomorrow for the second time to complain):

Alternator is not full charging battery
I have a stealth current draw I don't know about
The stock battery doesn't have enough CCA for cold weather (20-35F)
Something to do with the starter

I am extremely annoyed. What good is a car you can't leave for a week? I may have to look into a trickle charger of some type.

(Please don't suggest disconnecting the battery if the car's going to sit for a week. A functioning car should be able to sit for that long without me having to disconnect/reconnect the battery and reset the radio every time I want to do the grocery shopping.)

 

I would be VERY interested in knowing what you find out. I had, in my old VW, the battery die, every single year for 15 years!!! And it had no rhyme nor reason. That's why it was sent to the crusher and not resold.

If I am going to have the same problems with this new car, I will be very upset.

Because I do not drive much. I knew there was some mystery problem that no one could figure out in the old car. But it was an old car. I do not expect to have the same mystery problem again that leaves me stranded.

I need a dependable car. Not another fainting car that dies when I least expect it.

And, yes, it has some KARR alarm put in by the dealer, NOT Genuine Honda alarm.

 

By the way, there should be no need for a trickle charger or repeated jumpstarts or constantly having to buy a new battery. Like my case it was a new battery yearly. There is something wrong with the CAR if it is dying (and you did not leave anything on to drain the battery).

At one point, one of the MANY places I took my old VW to told me it was the alarm that was draining the battery. So I had it disconnected, and still had the problem the following year. It might have been partially draining, but obviously wasn't the sole source. I have no idea what the problem actually was, as no one had been able to figure it out. Not dealerships. Not regular mechanics. Nobody. But they certainly did charge me plenty to tell me nothing was wrong and to just replace the battery. And I certainly paid enough in labor hours for people to "check" my electrical system and not find anything.

 

One more thing, I was reading over on the Owner's Link:

"Will I be asked to pay for any portion of a warranty repair?
No. With the exception of battery replacement after the second year, American Honda will pay 100% of the bill for warranty repairs. Battery warranty coverage is 100% parts and labor for the first two years, and then pro-rated parts coverage for the third year.
Sign up over there if you haven't already.
http://www.ahm-ownerlink.com

 

While the battery masy well be defective and unable to hold a charge, the dealer should also determine if there is a significant power drain when the system is shut down. He does that by checking the current loss between the battery positive terminal and the disconnected cable clamp with all accessories, etc, off. Yeah, you'll have to reset the radio channels at least, but then you'll know if the battery is the fault or the vehicle's electrical system.
In the case of the alarm system I expect that to have a draw heavy enough to kill the battery in 5 days.
PS it takes hefty connections on the ammeter.

 

Thanks for the info! I will ask Honda to do such a test.

In my case, the "alarm system" we're talking about is a vehicle recovery system, not a "sound the horn and flash the lights" kind of alarm. Systems like Lojack and Guidepoint (as I understand them) send a little bit of data every so often to report the car's position and that's it. A friend of mine has such a system and left his car for a month. His car started up fine.

I feel this definitely has something to do with cold weather. In 2007, when my Fit was new, it would often have trouble cranking when the weather was below freezing. It would eventually start on the second or third try, so I thought nothing of it.

TaffetaWhite: I'll post back here if I learn anything of interest.

 

I left mine for 2 weeks once and had no issues. Didn't disconnect the battery. I'd only do that if I was going to be gone for a month or more. I'd probably drain all fluids too.

 

As I said before, I have a 2007 Fit Sport. About two weeks ago, after not using the car for a week, it would not start and required a jump. I took it to Honda and they said my battery was fine.

Today it wouldn't start again, this time after only a few days undriven. I got it jumped again and took it back to Honda for a more thorough investigation.

They wanted to know if I had Guidepoint installed, and I said I did. They think that this is draining my battery, though I can't fully understand why it would start doing this now when it never did before. I haven't even had the car for two years! One theory is that the Guidepoint system might be having trouble connecting to its network, thus draining my battery as a cellphone might drain its battery when it can't find a tower. This might do as a working hypothesis, since the car sat for a couple days with many inches of snow on it. I'll have to call Guidepoint and discuss it.

I asked Honda to please check the charging system and see if there were any unexpected battery drains. They concluded everything was in working order.

When I got the results of the second battery test back, I noticed that my battery is supposed to deliver 370 CCA when new and currently only offers 317 CCA. They dont seem to consider a battery well and truly "dead" until I lose about 50 more CCA. I'm halfway between "new" and "dead" on their charts.

I asked them about installing a new battery with more than 370 CCA and they said that would void my warranty. They wouldn't replace my battery as they still consider it to be "good". I don't know enough about this subject to say, but my gut tells me that my battery is now too weak to reliably start my car in temperatures that are freezing and below.

I suppose I could always pay for a brand new battery...

 

i have to charge my battery at least once a week. i think i am going to buy a braile battery soon and ditch the spoon one

 

Not to sound like a broken record, but when I was working in OK, my Fit had to go up to two weeks a few times without being started, and at least 7 days otherwise for 2 months. Ran fine. Although I'm sure after maybe a year the little red flashing light on the OE radio would drain it.

 

As it happens, I am slightly concerned about my 7 month old Fit's battery/charging system. I have the Honda alarm/keyless entry add-on in my base Fit. My job requires me to leave my car overnight between trips. I find that when it's cold out, the starter sounds very sluggish compared to more temperate days. After two or three days, even with warmer weather, it sounds like the car doesn't want to start.

BTW: CCA, or cold cranking amps, is not the way a battery should be rated. The true rating is in AH, or amps per hour. CCA is a short duration/high draw rating. Really, you could have a battery that puts out 500 CCA that would only retain a charge for a couple of hours with just the radio running...

 

Newer Honda's have what is called "sleep" mode. The Ecu holds some poer to the car for 10 minutes after the vehicle is turned off. Then shuts down completely. If when you have added an aftermarket acc. you have used a wire that does not allow the vehicle to go to sleep you will have a constant draw on the battery and it will go dead the amount of time it takes depends on the draw.

We had a customer with an aftermarket remote start. The installer hooked it into the wrong power wire and created a 1 amp drain on the battery. This is likely the cause of most of you who have this problems situation.

Just be careful and find out what wires, typically wires attached to door multiplexes etc cause the problem. Hope it helps