I have a 2009 Fit, had it just over a year and it has about 4500 miles on it.
Recently on 2 separate occasions I have been driving in rain(lights on) and have stopped and shut the car off without getting out, but forgot about the lights. After 5 minutes I tried to restart and get about half a crank and then just clicking. It starts with a jump and will start normally after that even if it sits for a week. Obviously headlights shouldn't kill a battery in 5 minutes, but has anyone heard of this on a Fit? I plan on taking it to the dealer, just trying to prepare for any excuses they might have for not doing anything.

You don't drive it enough, battery will die: both times were right after extensive drives

anything else?

 

Check your contacts... see if the battery connection is tight. The battery might not be getting the full charging effect from the alternator if the contacts aren't tight. (a good sign is corrosion around the posts.)

Have your battery checked too.

~SB

 

Does your battery have the little window indicator on it? If it does chances are it's a bad battery....there have been reports of that particular battery from Japan having issues (in and around these forums), and I even had mine replaced just a few months back because it started sucking.

 

to see a one year old fit with 4500 miles on it leads me to think its not driven that much, that could put a strain on the battery

 

My first battery died within a year.

 

Usually when you run down your battery, it takes a while to charge just using the alternator.

You are better off charging it with a battery charger if you know you have run it down.

 

just got back from the dealer and ...drum roll please...

nothings wrong, everything's normal.

The service guy basically said 'these little cars with all the electronics, we jump cars on the lot all the time' Great.
They said the batt was down a little and they charged it, nothing wrong with the charging system.
I've been looking online for a better battery, don't want to get stuck this winter, but not having any luck finding something better in this size. Any recommendations?

 

Here's a good thread to read if you haven't...

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...s-ge-take.html

As far as I know, there aren't any off-the-shelf batteries that you'll find at an auto parts store or Sears that are a direct replacement for the GE Fit's. There are some specialty/racing batteries, but they tend to be special-order and expensive. I'm sure we'll get some options eventually, it's just going to take some time and market demand before a compan starts manufacturing a new battery that only a car model or two actually use.

On soap box ... with all the vehicles out there, I don't understand why any manufacturer has to design a car that uses a new size oil filter, air filter, cabin filter, battery, etc unless it's to make money by forcing people to go back to the dealer for replacements. I just can't believe that there isn't an already-available part within an inch or two in size that wouldn't work just fine if that were a design criteria.

 

You got to be careful with those battery tests....they only test certain things like if there is an internal short in the battery that prevents it from charging or not. Those tests, which take them <1 minute to do, don't actually test to see if all the cells in the battery work or not. If I were you I'd continue to watch your battery voltage over the next week or 2 to see how much it drops. Typically a battery should hold a charge > 12.5 V long after it's been shut off (At least a few hours). If it's below that level or continually drops then you know your battery isn't holding the charge long enough, a nd if you make a big enough fuss about it Honda will just warranty the battery because they'd rather not pop the caps off and test all the cells.

 

I'd get a portable jumpstart battery. They're gel cells and come with cables/charger.

That said, I think your battery is marginal. You shouldn't be able to kill it in 5 minutes. First cold day this fall, look forward to an unwelcome surprise. I'd take it to a different honda dealer or talk to the service manager.

 

I definitely think the battery is marginal, thats why if there was a better one out there I'd just go buy it. The best outcome from Honda would be to replace it with the same thing. I guess I'll just go buy a jump box and wait for the inevitable!
It can't hurt to have one, and it should make for less dinking around when I have to take it back to Honda.

 

I know how frustrating it can be when you get the ol' "Everything is Normal"..response from the dealerships.

But in this case they might be right. To the OP you admitted to twice leaving the lights on and running the battery down. Plus at 4,500 miles in a year, you aren't driving your Fit a lot.

My purely speculative guess is that you ran your battery down, and have never really driven it enough to charge it back up.

So the dealers results make perfect sense. Low charge, but the system is working alright.

Given the rather whimpy reputation of The OEM Fit battery I would recommend charging with a battery charger.

I'd also recommend purchasing a one of those portable jump start set ups. They are nice to have for camping and other applications, and in the meantime if you've worn out your battery, at least you shouldn't be stranded.

So outside of the possibilty that you have drained you battery prematurely...and discovered that The Fit battery isn't the most robust battery to start with, the dealer just might be right...nothings really wrong...

I've heard Honda has had trouble getting enough of those batteries produced, so I'm thinking on first "marginal" complaint a dealer is going to try charging it up and sending you away, hoping time and your alternator solves the problem.

I'd charge it myself...and then prepare for the possibilty of future failure.

On a related note:

The link to the thread about the struggles of finding a replacement battery was disheartening. Before purchase I had read some articles and threads about Honda having some issues with battery quality and maintaining supply, I chalked it up to the early success of The Fit and expected that these issues would be resolved with time. Disturbing to see that without modification there seems to be a real limitation or absence of aftermarket options for Fit Batteries.

It hasn't been an issue for me yet, but given that most people today want or add a lot of electronics and accessories to their vehicle, too bad Honda seemingly decided to go with such a small underpowered choice. This perhaps by design will force a lot of people to default to OEM dealership replacement when they discover that aftermarket mainstream batteries are so difficult to obtain. Seems like Honda could of allowed for a bigger more powerful and simply more common configuration.

Guess I add that to my small, short list of Fit negatives.

Carpet
Battery
Fuel Filler Door Non-Locking
No locking Glove Box

Still not bad. I think I can live with these drawbacks...and eventual challenges.

 

But not 5 minutes. That's silly. 5 hours would be extreme for the Fit's small battery, but it should be able to go 50 minutes with the lights on and still start.

Even with today's electronics drain while the car is turned off, any car's battery should be able to start it weeks later after sitting in an outside parking lot at MSP in the middle of winter (without leaving the lights on of course).

The dealer can do a more extensive load test on the battery after it's been fully charged to determine if it's marginal. The service guy just attributed it to, "Idiot owner left the lights on" and shooed him out the door.

 

thanks for all the input everyone, and the link txmatt, I just ordered the braille b3121. More than I wanted to spend but if it solves my problems I'll be happy.
I know the way I use the car(or don't!) isn't helping, but I'll let you know in the middle of January whether this helps...

 

um the factory battery is warranted 3 years/36k miles with no pro-ration. you should be able to get a free replacement.

There's only so much they can do with lead-acid technology. It's still just a 31amp hour battery. I think that thread someone linked above indicates the factory battery is 32 amp hours.

 

I have had my Fit for 50 months and don't use the car for weeks at a time.... I do hook up variable rate charger to the battery every now and again to break down sulphation that builds up on the battery plates too extend the battery life.... Doing so has saved me a lot of money and a charger isn't as costly as replacing one battery.... We have an old truck I do the same way and it hardly gets driven. I filled the tank 4 months ago and used 1/4 of the tank so far. The battery in it is over 5 years old and still going strong thanks to occasional use of the charger on it.

 

Well, it was two seperate occasions where the battery was drained to the point where it didn't have enough charge to start the vehicle.

I agree a healthy battery should be able to have more juice than that. But we don't have the entire picture or any possible way of knowing exactly what drain was potentially put on the battery. We do know it was weakened twice to the point of not being able to crank enough to start, and we do know by mileage of the vehicle that The OP doesn't drive a whole lot.

It is possible that it's a defective battery, which is why I recommended the OP prepare for potential failure in the future.

 

Turned off my car, but left the lights on. 2 days later, the car won't start. So I hook up a charger and let it run awhile (an hour, approximately) on 10amps. The charger says the battery is charged from the first minute it's hooked up but I disregarded that and let it charge anyway.

Come back to garage. Disconnect charger. Car won't start.

So I'm thinking I might not have properly connected the cables. Disconnect the charger. Reconnect the Positive cable, then...as I go to connect the Negative cable—this time on the thicker metal of the car frame (versus the weak thinner metal above)—the car's panic alarm goes off.

Which makes me jump, of course.

I try it again: Negative cable clipped on to the car frame? Same reaction: panic alarm going off.

So my question to you guys charging your batteries: Is this normal? If not, what am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

 

Does hitting the unlock button on the remote deactivate the alarm? If so, it's just the security system powering up into the active state, detecting the hood open, and going off. I dunno if that's normal, but electronics can get weird if you're supplying not enough voltage.

 

I've never had that happen.