At 2.4A-h per day, it should take 5 days to run the battery dead, even with the tiny battery. Unless the computer is waking up and drawing a lot more current now and then I don't think that the Ultragauge can be the issue.

Still I wouldn't want to leave a tenth-amp load on the battery continuously.

 

Does your UltraGage stay on after you turn the key off and exit the vehicle?

I fought a similar issue a few years back on a GM vehicle. It took me months to find the problem. In the process I found that GM engineering specs say that a GM vehicle after the BCM goes to sleep must draw less than 20 ma. The BCM does not go to sleep immediately. It goes to sleep several minutes after you exit the vehicle. GM design specs state that a GM vehicle must be able to start after being parked unattended for 30 days.

What is interesting in your posting is that on most vehicles the diagnostic port, where the UltraGage is plugged in to, is turned off when the key is off or after the RAP (Retained Accessory Power) has timed out.

In my case my BCM was not going to sleep because of a compass / temperature mirror I had installed. The mirror was drawing just enough current to make the BCM think that I was still in the vehicle with a door open. Moving the mirror to a different power source not sensed by the BCM allowed the BCM to go to sleep and fixed my dead battery problems.

I'm wondering if Honda did it differently in the 2015 Fit and the diagnostic port is powered all of the time. Even with the key off. That is why I asked the question.

As a side note the parasitic draw on my Colorado with the the key off and the BCM sleeping is 18ma. That includes my ScanGage and the added mirror. Obviously the ScanGgage is turned off by the key. This is just to give you some reference number to go by. It is not a Honda number.

 

There is, use a small screw driver or a knife edge if you have to, there is a small cover to the right of the shifter on the black cover, you pop that out and take your key or the small screw driver and push down and you can unlock the shifter, this is what I had to do to get it out of the garage. You will most likely have to jump it from another vehicle as I had to do. I had mine on high boost charge for 15 minutes and it still didn't have enough juice to crank the engine.

I have sold the ultra gauge and will test the battery this week by parking it and checking the battery voltage at the posts, let it sit for a day or two and test it again.

 

Yes, apparently it does according to both Honda technicians and also Ultragauge in their manual.

I am not convinced yet that it was the Ultragauge that did it as obviously MikeMike just had the same issue. When I checked the battery this morning after driving to work (only a mile) I let the battery sit for a few minutes and stabilize and checked it with no load on it and it was at 12.2 volts. That is way below what a 12v battery should be showing. According to charts that is basically 50% battery voltage with 12.7 being normal static voltage no load. I fully expect this beast to rear its ugly head again.
BUT I will give Honda Customer Service credit, they contacted me right away when they saw this post and followed up with my dealer and me afterwards! YAY HONDA!

 

Its possible that it could draw more after periodically waking the system and going back to sleep. Don;t know how often that would happen but it won't happen now. I honestly believe it is just too small a battery. Time will tell but if you have the option I would always BACK into a garage if that is where you keep your car or into a spot should you have to jump it. Never hurts to play it safe.

 

MikeMike, if Honda Customer Service has not contacted you yet, call them at 1-800-999-1009, ext 118151, that is for the Honda rep I spoke with, Johnathon is his name. They are on Pacific time so if you don't get him leave your number and name and he will call you back. They are monitoring this possible issue.

4.3 volts, yeah I bet mine was that low but I did not test it before I attempted to charge it but it took several minutes on high boost to get enough juice in the battery to bring on the power in the car, the first clue was when the alarm went off! Still took about 45 secs for enough battery voltage to build before I could stop the horn by pressing the start button.

 

MikeMike, if your battery is that low you will probably lose your radio code. Hopefully not but if you do and you don't have it you will have to call your dealer and have him trace it down. You can get it from the Honda Owners site but you need your vin AND the device id number. Not sure you can get that once the radio is not working . When you get the car started if you just have a keypad on your display that is for entering the code.

 

Thanks for all the info tmfit (particularly about getting it out of park, that is my next challenge)!

Just had the car jumped. Started with no trouble under jump, though my volt meter check just before the jump showed 3.7v.

Car ran for 30 mins (10 idle, 20 highway drive) for me to get it to the dealer.

Dealer had no ideas about what could be wrong or what to check. They ran their normal shop battery test, which said the battery was good. I asked if they could come up with any way I could have caused the problem (given I know the head lights, dome lights and the car wasn't on). They had no ideas, nor any ideas on what to look at so I just drove the car back home. (another 20 highway miles) .

I'm going to keep watching charge via a volt meter, I've also ordered a jumpstart battery given that I doubt this is the end of this story.

Will post more as I know more.

 

The answer from honda sounds like a load of horse manure... Still, UltraGauge offers 2 nodes of power detection. Try and search the UG PDF manual for power on detect mode. That might fix the problem although I'm 99.99999% sure something is wrong with the car or the battery and it's just a mechanic that would rather blame it on something else rather than have to actually do work to figure out the issue.

 

Parked the fit to test the battery. It has been 28 hours and voltage is still at 12.25 volts. This is without the ultragauge connected. 12.25 is still low voltage but this past couple days was all short drives so not much of a chance for battery to recoup its charge.

 

When I disconnected the battery, the radio was dead after reconnecting. I did what was recommended on here and held the power button for about three seconds. That got it working.

 

those of you with battery issues, pay atgtention to how you are charging it when its dead.

a dead battery is damaged further if you crank high amps into it to charge it.


EX, you need a jump start. do the jumper cables, but let it charge off the other vehicle for a few minutes before attempting to start.

off a charger, do the smallest amp amount for several minutes then you can increase it a bit. The shop I work at has a charger that does 2, 20, 40, 65, and then 225amp car start settings. I will usuallly leave it for 15 minutes at 2 amps, about 10n minutes at 20, then I am comfortable doing whateverf it takes to get it started.



This will prolong the life a bit.

If you are currently having battery problems and not able to guarentee a jumpstart, buy a $15 battery tender at walmart and run it every night for several weeks. sometimes that can "fix" the battery. constant minor charging and forced discharging and charging again will bring most batteries back to over 90%. de-sulfating I believe is the term

 

I just wish Honda would get it through their heads that saving 5 or 10 pounds on a battery isn't worth the headaches they are giving their customers. Put a Group 24 battery in there and even a marginal unit will start the car and keep the customer happy. Those little motorcycle batteries are running at the edge of their abilities, particularly when modern cars are drawing more and more electrical power when the engine is off.

 

its not the size of the battery that is the problem. some people on here switch to 51R batteries, that are from the civics of old. the 51Rs are not much bigger, yet all who have switched have zero complaints.


I think the problem is the battery itself. Honda simply has a bad supplier chosen. CRZ and Insight owners have the same battery size, yet they seem to have a much lower battery failure rate.

My own factory battery is currently powering an 08 civic SI with no problems. It will now be almost 2 years old with zero issues.


bad supplier can mean something as simple as one really big batch of crap batteries. quality control most likely. I noticed the replacement batteries are of a different type for those who used the warranty

 

Over 50 hours and voltage has only dropped to 12.23

 

Just had my diatribe disappear. In short, check with a known good battery substitution. If it goes bad. Check the dome light and see if the kids left it on. Could also be a switch . Diagnostics at the dealeer should tell you. If a cell in dead in the battery, that would do it. a clue would be a bulge in the battery sides.

 

Yeah, still have the OEM battery in my 2010. Never had an issue. I might think about swapping to a battery with better CCA if I was somewhere it got sub zero, but I also don't think it's the battery's size that is the issue in normal conditions anyway.

Also going to vote for bad QC/bad batch that made their way into cars, otherwise you'd be hearing a lot more about this. I don't think it's an inherent design flaw in the Fit's charging system though.

I've bought 2x bad batteries for another car off the shelf at the store back to back before, third time was a charm though It happens.

 

My wife is the only kid I have. Lol

 

I think that you are correct, considering the directive to retain bad batteries for return to the Mothership.

The annoying thing is that Honda decided to install batteries from the known bad batch in new cars and then hope that not too many of them would fail. How many new car owners will now be inconvenienced first by non-starts and then by having to fight with their dealers over getting replacements for the defective batteries?

Honda should have the manufacturer's clout to demand that the battery supplier replace the entire bad batch.

 

You must also consider, even a bad battery can be used for years. Depends on vehicle use. I drive my Fit every day. I think the only time its sat for over 24 hours was when my General Altimax HPs decided to blow out the sidewall and bubble on the remaining 3 tires.

My point being, even if a cell was bad, sitting for less then 24 hours could mean it may have enough juice to start again.