Sitting FIT - Battery Charge?
 

Fortunately I don't have to use my car for commuting to work but that can leave my Fit sitting for extended periods of time with the stock alarm engaged.

With the Fits small battery I was wondering what others experiences have been the starting reliability over extended periods of time such as a 2 week vacation?

Also if one would need to fire up the car to charge the battery up how long would it take to get a decent charge?

2weeks should be fine, unless you trashed the battery before.

If a standard car battery get drained, even after it is charged back up, they took a bit of wear from that.
I have a trickle charger (battery minder), i'd use that over firing up the car just to idle and charge the battery. (you will need to find a plug).

As far as how long it takes to charge back up, hard to say. I think once you use your car and drive around for 30min every 2weeks that should be fine.

I don't often go more than 2 weeks without driving but the small battery in the Fit had left me wondering about its durability when left with the alarm using power off it.

Trickle charger isn't an option in the garage I park in but last resort can always call for service to get a jump which I have done with my previous car but it's a hassle.

Get yourself a jump start battery. You can have it charged up in your home until the day you may need it to jump the Fit, if the battery dies on you. Newer batteries can take 2 weeks without using... the older a battery gets the less time between uses it can handle.

other option is if you're not going to use the car for awhile, disconnect the battery...

Get a voltmeter and check your battery occasionally, the plates will start to sulfate (harden) at any voltage below 12.4V. I use Battery Tenders on my 6 motorcycles that are stored allot of the time, I have 1 MC battery going on 7 years old and another going on 5 years old.

http://home.comcast.net/%7Estykers/bt01.jpg

Now that's an idea and I actually have a volt meter, thanks!

I know with being having a new battery sitting 2 weeks +/- or so won't be an issue for awhile and lately I've just been finding an excuse to take the car out.

Using the volt meter from time to time would be a better way to keep tabs on the status rather than listening for the starter struggle when turning the engine over.

Disconnecting the battery doesn't seem to appealing as I would have to re-enter the security code for the radio and all the presets plus wouldn't that effect the ECU?

It shouldn't affect the ECU, other than resetting the adaptives.

The body shop had to disconnect the battery while doing work on my car. I popped in the radio code and went on my way. :)

For about $5 you can get a battery monitor that you can plug into your accessory 12v outlet. You can use it to check the voltage before your engine start and during engine operation and again after shutdown to get a good understanding of your battery's condition. It's well worth the price and you don't have to keep popping the hood open.

This will give you a "ballpark" idea of what's going on with the voltage while the car is being stored, I say ballpark because to make the Accessory Socket work you have to turn the key to the Accessory #1 position and then the voltage drops because the key is in the Accessory #1 position. I did a test with my voltmeter at the battery...

Key Off door shut: 12.64V @ battery
Key on ACC position, door shut, radio off: 12.50V @ battery

If your going to check a vehicles voltage while it's in storage via the Accessory Socket, you might as well just start it up and take it for a spin. Popping open the hood and checking the voltage at the battery with a voltmeter is the most accurate way to measure the voltage on a vehicle in storage, any other time a meter plugged into the Acc Socket for reference is fine.

If you're worried about a .14 volt difference to analyze your battery you have more problems than a slight battery drain.

If sulfation starts @ 12.40V and not @ 12.54V then I would say yes.

Interesting topic.

After some reading, I've concluded that testing voltage with the cables attached is not accurate. There's enough parasitic drain to give inaccurate readings.

Testing a battery by simple voltage requires disconnecting (open circuit) and letting it rest for several hours to get some indication of charge state. The specific voltage varies by battery type and manufacturer.

I'd skip voltage testing and use a hydrometer. Temperature has an affect on specific gravity so this test must consider the battery temperature. Some hydrometers come with a simple thermometer for making this adjustment manually. The Fit's battery is low maintenance giving access to the acid. Something like this would work well.

Batteries sulfate when discharging, and the sulfate goes away when charging. Leaving a battery in less than a fully charged state over long periods allows the sulfate to form hard crystals that impair battery performance.

Sitting idle for two weeks will result in some battery degradation. How much is hard to say. I wouldn't worry about it. The designers figure people sometimes go on vacation and let it sit. If you have access to 120V AC then putting a float charger is the best way to maintain it. Failing that you might disconnect the negative terminal so it maintains a higher level of charge, but I think this is going overboard.

Just enjoy your vacation and don't worry about it. The lifespan of an average car battery is only a couple years anyway.

source.

edit: and to further answer the OP's question, several here have posted positive results letting their cars sit for many weeks and starting fine (even with the Fit's dinky battery). If you were going away for more than a month I'd give someone the key and ask them to start it once a week, and let it come up to operating temperature (radiator fan cycles a couple times) or just take the battery out and store it inside with a float charger

Your over thinking the simple process of monitoring a stationary vehicles voltage. I also replaced the first battery in my CR-V at the 7 year mark (current battery is 100% at the 5 year mark), so I don't know how you are coming up with 2 years as an average? It wasn't showing any signs of degradation, winter was coming and I figured it was time for a new one. The CR-V now sits in the side yard with a Battery Tender Jr hooked up to it 24/7, just like my riding lawn mower and my 6 bikes. 12.4V is the magic number, anyway you look at it, cables On/Off I would question/charge any battery showing less than 12.50V.

I used to sell batteries back when Sears had real service centers and did everything from batteries to rebuilt engines. Back then 1.5 years was considered average. Some lasted less, some more. I'm glad you're an outlier on the high end.

Die Hards died easiest. Too many plates, too hot temps (usually in luxury cars) and they'd croak faster than the OE capacity batteries.

I'll replace my Fit's battery sometime this year (it's 2.5 years old). Just because. Waiting to see if someone comes out with a cheap 151R.

And I think you're over thinking checking a battery's charge state using a multi-meter. Use a hydrometer (unless it's sealed or gel type).

Messing with electrolyte is yucky! :(
K.I.S.S...if it don't hold a charge, it gets replaced ;)

My first fulltime job was in 1973 at a place called "Airport Truck Repair" just off what is now called "Air Cargo Road" we serviced/repaired fleets of Air Freight/Container Vehicles around Seatac Airport... Airborne Freight, Wings & Wheels, Flying Tigers Air Cargo, Airport Drayage, Air Freight Expediters are a few of the outfits I remember. I moved on from that, but stayed in the field for decades, I ended up working on other peoples rigs/stuff/crap to the point that now I just want to turn the key and drive my own rig :cool:

That batteries at Sears lasted only a couple of years sounds like a good reason to avoid shopping there.

As far, though, as regular battery life? How long do you think your Fit sat undriven from the time it left the factory to when you bought it?

Sorry, didn't mean to imply Sears products were any worse (they weren't) and they stood by them better than most retailers. Just that lead-acid batteries degrade with an average life of a couple years. Die Hards in the day were only the top end battery with the most CCA. That they did worse than the cheaper batteries was a function of use more than anything. They had long warranties; we adjusted a lot of them.

From the reading I did above if you drive an ideal daily commute resulting in a saturation charge that removes the sulfates, lead-acid batteries can last a long time. Climate plays a large part too.

A degraded battery will still start your car. Except that first really cold (or hot) day.

$70 every couple years to avoid a delay due to a dead battery seems well spent. Especially if when your battery zonks out you probably won't have the option of shopping for a good price; that $70 becomes $140 for waiting 3 or 4 years. A degraded battery can also harm other components in the car. My wife gushes about how long her toyota's battery lasted, but she's also had to replace the starter twice, the alternator once. Those are expensive. My 12 year old honda had battery replacements every couple years and I sold it with the original starter/alternator. Purely anecdotal, but there is a case to be made for just not waiting for it to die.

So far, besides Honda ($110) the only retailer carrying the Fit's battery is Autozone ($132). It's a bit high for what is essentially a $50 battery. I'm torn. I'm also OCD enough to not shoehorn the wrong size in there. Reminds me of Sears. Some jerk insisted on putting a group 48 battery in his mercedes. It was too high and shorted out on the hood. Sears paid big time for that. Don't know who sold him the wrong size battery.

Sat undrivien factory to when I bought it? Manufacture month was July. I bought the beginning of August. Maybe 8-15 days. Probably less. If it sat on a dealer's lot for months then expect a sulfated battery with a lousy life expectancy.

edit: advance auto has one for $105. Still too much, but it's getting better...

edit edit: O'Reilly has them for $99. Still too much...

edit edit edit: NAPA has it too (no price listed). Obsessing much?

I've gotten probably 5+ years out of batteries. Don't drive every single day, sometimes in the winter 3-4 days can go by that I don't drive. My mother's car often sat for weeks undriven, batteries lasted 5 years or so. I don't know anybody whose battery lasted only two years.

And yeah, it sucks when it dies but usually you get an indication that it's weak- trouble starting when cold- so you have some warning. Or you get a jump-start and head over to the store. I'd rather overpay a few bucks under duress than replace a battery after 2 years instead of 5.

And I've never heard of anything in the car destroyed by a weak battery- starter, alternator, etc.