Hey all, I have a 2009 Fit Sport, and last week, I went to start it and the battery was dead. It is usually in the garage, but I had been keeping my work vehicle in the garage, since I only drive the Fit once every week or two. Well, it had been outside, not started for 2 weeks when it died. I didn't leave any lights on or anything like that, and all interior lights would come on, there just wasn't enough juice to start it. I got it jumped, let it run a few minutes and turned it off. After that it would start again, but I took it up to Advance Auto to have them check it. They said the battery was good, it just needed charging. I had to drive about 30 minutes away after that, so I figured it would be sufficient to charge it. After driving the 30 minutes, it sat for a few hours, started right back up, then I drove it 30 minutes back home. It was fine for small trips that whole weekend. Well, now after sitting a week, it's dead again. All interior lights work, just not enough juice to start it again.

My question is, should I just buy a charger and let it charge up some, or should I just go on and replace the battery? If I should replace the battery, what's the best one to get, preferably not too expensive. Thanks

 

Charger.

It isn't acting up, it's your driving. Too many short trips means you aren't charging much, if at all. Starting the engine is probably draining your battery faster than you are giving it time to charge.

Some websites say it takes about 20 minutes JUST to recoup the charge it used to crank the engine on the average car. Plenty of sites say it's better to put it on a charger than to drive to charge a dead (or close to dead) battery, to avoid undue stress on the alternator.

I'm pretty much under the same threat too, since I do a lot of short trips for my deliveries. But I make it a point that every few days, I do an extended drive of some sort.

edit: just FYI, my battery has died twice in the past. Last year, I installed a new radio then played with it (with the engine off) until my battery died. The battery still had a charge, just not enough to keep a current with the engine off. So I let it sit a while and managed to get it to start. However, I didn't do much driving as I had to take a month long trip a few days later. When I came back, the battery was dead. It had just enough juice to put out some lights on the dash, but not enough to even sound like it was attempting to crank the engine. I jumped it and gave it a good lengthy drive. I'm still on that same battery.

 

Ditto what Goobz said. With your driving pattern, maybe a trickle charger would be a good investment.

 

If your driving patterns haven't changed, get a new battery.

The lapses in between driving discharge the battery to an extent that it gets sulfided. This in turn gives it less capacity. And it's over 3 years old.

NAPA has reasonably priced Fit batteries (151R for around $105). Someone else posted a thread with coupons for Advance Auto or some place like it.

I don't know what the handheld testers actually do, but I suspect they're not foolproof. A proper load-test would burn one up and this still doesn't give capacity.

 

How about a solar battery charger for your dashboard?

Buy.com - 12V Solar Power Panel Battery Trickle Charger For Car RV SUV Truck Boat

Very simple solution for $21.

 

I'm with Steve on this one, if you are only drive it on short trips two times a week replace the battery.

 

Even so, you're going to end up right back in the same situation with the short trips.

 

Yes, if his driving patterns haven't changed, he'll end up in the same situation after 3 years.

Average car battery life is less than 2 years.

 

I don't think maintenance free battery last that long anyway max 3 years, as lease here in FL I know I'm had to jump start my car last week because I left m headlights on for about 20 mins and my battery is at that 3 year mark.

Did Advance give you a print out of your battery test?

 

No they didn't give me the printout. I ended up just getting a 10A charger at Walmart for cheap. I figured I'd try that first, since I could always return it if the battery keep dying after fully charging, or I can keep the charger in case I need it for my lawn mower or another car.

 

Good idea. This would work for any car that is left for long periods of time without running.

 

Unless it's garage kept like mine.

 

There are trickle chargers that you can plug-in to an electrical outlet.

 

The brand new 2012 fit i test drove had some issues with the battery as well. We jumped the battery and i took it for a spin. The alternator was having a hard timing keeping up since the battery wasn't holding a charge. Each time the engine fan kicks on the whole car surges, radio turns on and off, electric steering fails and a bunch of cluster warming lights illuminates. It was kind of scary, almost like it had electrical gremlins.

 

my car's battery showed the same same thing the second time it died (when I came back from my trip).

it's because the battery was dead. the alternator can't supply enough for everything.

once you've driven it a while, it will smooth itself out. all the gremlins will go back to sleep.

 

I drove it for 20mins and it never sorted anything out, what made things worse is it was last night in the rain so all electrical stuff was in full force. IE: headlights, wipers, heater blasting, defroster etc. Few times it almost stalled, because the idle dropped near 200rpm then rose back up and down, i thought man what piece of crap am i getting myself into?

 

I have the 2012 fit sport. I have no battery problems whatsoever. So far. But if you look at the fit battery you'll notice it's very, very small. I think it's too small.

 

Like I said in my earliest post here... it usually take about 20 minutes of DRIVING just to recoup the charge from starting. And since you started on a dead battery, you have to go for MUCH longer.

Here's what I posted at the time I experienced this:

You'll notice that at IDLE, it was a slow recharge and only at higher rev did it sort itself. And that, when I let it sit at IDLE again, the issues came back. After I restarted the car the second time, I took it for good LONG drive, only getting home a few HOURS later (to give myself some piece of mind).

And there you go, you said it yourself... you had "EVERYTHING" (electrical) going... which means it would take even longer still. While my car died at the end of December, I made it a point to turn off everything I could. No heater, no radio, nothing (it wasn't raining, so wiper wouldn't have been needed anyway). I only used the lights once I went on the drive, and that was after some 10 minutes of revving the engine at/over 2k RPM. And yes, it was very cold without the heater (I eventually turned it on when I couldn't take it anymore).

I dunno about you, but I don't think it's fair to attempt to evaluate anything on a test drive that started with a dead battery (even if you did eventually end up buying such a car).

I know that I wouldn't even get in for a test drive if it needed to be jump started.

 

Well I bought the car, just not that one lol. So far I love my new fit, great little car for my 70mile commutes.

 

I think the battery in my 09 Fit is going bad. The eye only has the 'Red" dot. Which means need charging and the voltage is less then 12V. When I tried to charge it, the charger indicated the battery is full. My daily drives are over 40 min. They don't make batteries like they used to.

I wonder if I should replace it with OEM ?

NAPA or Auto Zone battery?