Hi All! My 2009 Honda Fit is still under a bumper to bumper warranty but I've only got 1 month left before it expires so I wanna get this problem fixed quick

My battery kept draining despite driving 90% interstate. I brought it in and they replaced the battery (5 days ago) and the new battery is also draining slowly. The car runs fine when started, telling me that the alternator is working enough to power the headlights and such, but somewhere between the alternator and the battery is a problem.....any suggestions on what to tell the mechanic? Thanks all and stay fit

 

Sounds like you have a good grip on things. Yes the battery would be the easiest fix. Then again, a bad "new" battery is not uncommon either. Bad batteries can still carry surface charge but won't hold charge. But what makes you say (indications) your battery is slowly draining? Have them check your charging system. Just my thoughts.

 

Check battery voltage with engine running, should be 13.8~14.2volts, anything less tells you your alternator is not outputing enough.

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Besides an OBD check to see if easily checked things are OK the mechanic needs to check for grounds from the battery with the engine off. If they find a current loss from the battery they will then have to track it down which may take some time. A wiring diagram is handy to determine the ground points on the chassis (disconnect one at a time to see if the current drain goes away. Sometimes 2 or more grounds must be disconnected. why the wiring diagram is handy.)
We have spent 2 hours finding a current drain and not surprising the fault was in an owner installed accessory like a fancy radio. We start with those now.
PS Honda has had a number of bad batteries and it could just be the replacement battery is bad, too. They should do a load check on the reoplacement battery. seems a number of their batteries had internal cell shorts.

 

Intresting you mention this problem. My battery was in troubleat the end of the warrenty. I have never seen such a thing. I tried to buy a replacement battery that would be more powerfull in cranking amps but none are available. A tow truck driver suggested I search for a lition ion battery since they have good cranking power.
Most importent in this post is that my neighbor has a newer honda fit and it has been jumped several times. today it was towed to the dealer.... The first time she told me about the battery problem I was buying a new battery. I am just supecious about about the whole thing.
when I replaced my battery the dealer informed me that computers and additional accecory items drain the battery when the key is in accesory mode. OK that sounds lagitament. For sure the batteries are small and may be underengineered for trhe car. This may be what to expect from new cars.... visiting this site I hoped to learn why honda fit cars sold in the USA are going through batteries. We are having this problem in the northwest so what is it like in places with extreem weather?

 

Honda has had battery failures all over the US. A dealers load test is first needed and then a check for current draw with the Fit off.

You need to do a current check on the battery when the keys are removed to see if there is significant current draw and if so track down the source. Its painstaking work and not often done by dealer techs as they can consume hours of work for little reward cause you won't like the cost. you think its Honda problem. More often than not, its some aftermarket device like a super sound system.
You may be better off having your alternator checked first for charging and uits belt for proper tightness, both of which many autoparts chains will do for you..

 

thanks for the good advice and direction. I have no battery problems now. It has been some time now since the incident. both myself and my honda fit neighbor are not having the problems mentioned. It seems that with the compact lightweight platform that the car has the battery is inadiquite by my expectation. I guess if you have one you give up the other. My statement is of course subjective. What I expect someone reading this is that it is two experiences witch Honda fit sports came up short on the batteries. Both cars are stock with out accesory upgrades . The weather around hear is modest. little extream heat or cold. No reason for A/C most of the time. thank you for looking and your helpfull coments

 

I'm not sure what you mean by cranking power but your problems screams of faulty alternator. If you are driving on the highway and you battery is still draining, something is definitely up with the alternator.

Also, you mention that the battery gets drained in accessory mode. It does. If you must keep your car in accessory mode, turn of your main headlights to save battery or let the engine idle in neutral or park so that your alternator can provide power to the battery.

 

Marketing batteries on the basis of cranking amps (or length of warranty) is one the biggest scams in the replacement auto parts business. Its amp-hours or reserve minutes that accurately tell you the true capacity of any storage battery. Even worse, high current batteries tend to die sooner in hot climates because of the fragile internal construction. A 1.5l engine, even with high compression, needs few amps to start. Leaving acc on and running the radio when parked, or even leaving a car off for a couple of weeks with an aftermarket alarm system uses up reserve capacity. Alas, there are very few replacement battery choices due to space restrictions.

 

Here's a 51r alternative/upgrade a few here have done: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...tery-swap.html

 

There';ds two possibilities;
1. there is some short in the power distribution system so that the battery is powering some device or wiring short even when the ignition key is out. That means tracing the power draw with a volt ohm ammeter.
2. The second possibility is a bad battery were the charge is dissipated between the anode(s) and cathode(s) internally. Honda has had a bunch of those battery failures and covered under warfranty so a load test would be the first thing to check.

 

A one hp starter draws 62 amps at 12 volts. A battery rated at 350 amp hours will consume the capacity quickly. There's a reason for those 6 and 8 gauge wires. The higher the amp-hours the better. Fortunately, Consumer Reports regularly tests batteries and not surprisingly the amp hours quoted aren't always the ones produced in those tests.

 

You totally misunderstood my post. Amps is an instantaneous measure of current flow, Amp-Hours (current x time at a nominal voltage) is a measure of stored energy, capacity. It is almost never stated in the catalog and never stamped on the battery anymore. Think of it this way. If you buy a 50 gallon water heater for your house, you have more hot water to use than a 30 gallon unit. If you attach a one inch pipe instead of half inch, you can get a bigger blast of hot water for a short time, but it doesnt change the available total gallons before you get a cold shower.

Since it only takes 62 amps to turn a 1hp starter, what is the point of 350 cranking amps anyway, marketing? I want the most minutes of Reserve Capacity. That battery is better constructed inside (thicker plates) and will last longer. Thin plates deliver more current quickly, but arent as tough. Vibration and heat kill them quicker.

 

my 09 with 50k miles still has original battery with no issues

 

Yeah, I misunderstand your point.
I checked today at both Sears and Wallyworld and their batteries are clearly marking in amp hours (of stored electrical power), typically 350 Ahrs. As CR tested, some of those claims are a fib like highway mileage is 34 mpg but real wortld drining yiels 18 mpg. Never say Maketing is truthful). Even so if a battery is labelled 350 Ahr I expect theoretically to get 29.16 hours of 12 vdc supply. Now I know I won't but I might get 15 minurtes. Thats the measure of what I expect from a battery at zero degrees F. Amps indeed is flow and AmHr is the volume or how long the flow will last and to me thats the most important attribute.
I have no idea what reserve capacity means so I can't choose a battery on a meaningless attribute. I do choose a battery for the highest cranking capacity for the money I want to speend and will choose the battery choices based on the best batteries tested by CR.
Why do you want to choose a battery on 'reserve capacity' ?

I have a 30 gallon water heater that was chosen because it had a much higher heater power in kilowatts than the 50 gallon heaters. Because my heater has so much more heating capacity it will heat the incoming water so fast it cannot run out of hot water at 130F. In case you missed the latest inline heaters at the water outlets will heat water from60 to 120F in only a few seconds and their internal capacity is more like 2 gallons.Batteries are same, I want the longest cranking at 12 vdc when it takes 62 amps to drive the motor. Or powering my portable TV, which of cources draws only 3 A (36 watts). Reserve capacity doesn't mean a thing. Reserve after what? For what?
I'll understand if you show me why you want to choose a battery on what reserve capacity means.

 

The 350 (or whatever) number on the battery is not its capacity in Amp-hours, but "cranking Amps" or "cold cranking Amps", i.e. the maximum current output the battery can supply at some nominal voltage. A typical car battery stores something like 45 Amp-hours, more or less; the Fit's tiny battery presumably less. A 350 Amp-hour battery would be huge. (350 Amp-hours at 12V is over 4 kWh; if that were really the capacity of normal auto batteries, we'd have a lot more and cheaper electric cars.)

 

Honda batteries are an oddball size and apparently the insulation between cells is not very good and a substantial number are losing cells in automotive service, aka heat a vibration environments. Honda tested the batteries probably at the minimum level considering the batteries are made by Azura, a long time supplier, and Azura dropped the ball and Honda has to replace them though I suspect that Azura reimburses Honda for every failure. Its still a black eye for Honda. And more so for Honda choosing a battery not a common size. Wonder if marketing specified the oddball size to parts sales for Honda dealers.

 

that has to be correct though there should be some time involved. Only supply up to 350 Amps at 12 vdc (auto service) shouild have a standard time for the measurement in SAE engineering standards procedures. If it does and surely it must, then higher the cranking amps the better the battery.
Still I'd like to know what reserve capacity is.
And:
North America marks the reserve capacity (RC) of starter batteries in minutes; RC applies a 25A discharge to 1.75V/cell and measures the elapsed time in minutes. Europe and other parts of the world use ampere/hours (Ah). The RC to Ah conversion formula is as follows: RC divided by 2 plus 16.
Oh sure. There's a table comparing reservecapacity against CCA but cannot be displayed here. Here's the commentary though.

Further,

 

Hello
I have a 2009 Honda Fit and I have been recently having trouble with my battery/alternator. My battery died and so I jumped it off in hopes to charge the battery back up because it was a good batter that I got less than a year ago but after driving for approximately 30 mins and turning off the car it wouldn't start again. so I replaced my battery and a few days later the same problem occurred so then I replaced my alternator and charged my battery back up with a trickle charger and a few days later the same problem occurred so I literally have no idea I'm not familiar with vehicle electronics.

 

First thing you need to do is check alternator output. Fully charge your battery and start the car. Check voltage at the battery with a multimeter. It should be around 13.8V to 14.2V. Report back with reading and then others can help you troubleshoot from there.