First-time Honda Fit owner. Medium-level car mechanical skills.

Had this stored for the winter, found it had a dead battery when I went to fire it up a few weeks ago. Put it on a trickle-charger for two days and it started without hesitation. Everything worked fine.

Apparently the charge was insufficient because it died when I drove it about five miles because it went from "fine" to "dead." I had to have it jump-started. But the trouble happened after it was jump-started, when I noticed that I no longer had the dome light, nor the radio, and nor the power door locks. Power windows, blower, head and tail lights, etc all still work, but those three are out, and apparently all at once.

I checked both the under-the-hood and interior fuse boxes and all of the listed fuses for these features are intact but that is the limit of my diagnostic attempts. The one item that I have found that raises a question is a metal ring /ground on the negative cable for the battery (see images). Other than that, I can find nothing physically out of order. Let me also state that this vehicle had NO previous issues with ANY of these systems until all of this happened at once.

What in the world might take out these three all at once? I'm at a loss. I can safely and legally drive it with these not working but the fact that it even happened makes me want to chase down the cause. HELP! (and thank you in advance).


Battery cable - detail - 1

Battery cable - detail - 2

 

Pretty suspicious looking ground - someone's been there before. Here's what it's supposed to look like. I'd take that apart and make sure everything is clean and free of corrosion.

 

That doesn't look like the original OEM ground cable, to be sure...I've got an OEM replacement ordered. Meanwhile, the grounding effect seems to be working for ignition and basic performance...but the problem persists. Thx, BTW for the comparison pic...running the VIN shows this to be a salvage title, so I'm betting that someone cobbled together the ground cable from another vehicle, perhaps.

 

UPDATE: Replaced the 2-gauge OEM cable with a 4-gauge Duralast battery cable (complete with a new top-post mount, added two flat washers at the ground point to guarantee connectivity, and replaced a 10A blade fuse that had burned out in the engine fuse compartment (number "8" position in the diagrams, BTW) and not only have all systems been restored, but startup is great and multimeter shows me steady at 13.70, whether running or at rest. THANK YOU for your help, everyone...I am glad that I found this forum as I normally own domestics (Buicks, GMC, etc) so it's really helpful to know that we have a community here. Thanks again, and good luck to all!

 

Awesome, glad you fixed it!!

 

Has this fix lasted so far? I'm having the exact same problem on my 2007, been worsening for a couple of years now. I was thinking maybe the alternator was going but now my dome lights don't work though the light and fuse look fine. I noticed the power wasn't constant and checked my battery contacts to find the inside of the contact was corroded and not as tight as it should be. My sub amp was not getting enough constant full power to run. I also noticed the only battery available near me for the fit has sadly tiny contacts so I had to add shims as well. However, I've never replaced the OEM cables.

I'm just going to try replacing them but I am curious if my cables have just gone. Might pull and check all of my fuses just in case too. Did you meter the connections to see if it was the cable vs the contacts/screws?

 

You say #8 10 amp fuse was bad. That's for backup lights so it's puzzling it affected several other things.