I bought my 2013 Fit at the end of 2013. Today, I checked the batter. A blue circle with a red dot in the middle means good. A red circle means add distilled water. A red dot in the middle means needs charging, and this final combination is what I saw. I figure this was because I drive only one day a week, and it is on a milk run, i.e., much starting, no extended driving. So I took it on a 45 minute drive with high rev. The red dot remained.

Is there anything further I can do before bringing it in to Honda?

 

do you have a garage? if so, you should get a battery tender and have the battery plugged in during the week day. the battery will be charged to full at all times and in a float state so you dont over charge the battery. (dont use a trickle charger).

search battery tender jr on amazon

i use it on my hobby cars during the week as i only drive them on weekends..and in the winter i put them away for 5-6months at a time.

 

Unfortunately, my measures are restricted to those of a highrise apartment dweller. Getting an outlet to even clean the car is challenging. I drive around and find outdoor outlets, then use it during the weekend when businesses are closed -- only a solution for summer time. It's sad.

So sorry, but I should have stated the restrictions up front. Furthermore, working on the car in the parking garage is prohibited.

BTW, there is no corrosion on the contacts.

 

If it's not giving you any trouble as yet, I'd just keep driving it while budgeting for a replacement battery before too long, maybe before next winter. Four years isn't too unreasonably short of a battery lifespan, particularly for a car used such that it doesn't always get a good charge.

If you can park in the open (top floor of the garage?), a small solar battery maintainer might be useful. You can't use the ones that plug into the lighter socket with a Fit because the lighter socket is switched off with the key; it would have to be wired in elsewhere. Obviously if you're stuck in the middle of a dark garage a solar panel won't be of very much use.

 

I didn't realize that my poor charging patterns was impacting the life of the battery. I thought it would just be a matter of going for a long drive when I started to get hints of poor performance. Which I never got.

Unfortunately, all of my building's parking is underground, except for daily pay parking (much more expensive). But I find it interesting that such a thing as solar maintainers exists.

I like the idea of running it for now, and changing it later, but definitely before winter. Heck, since I'm in the 3rd sub-basement level, it's possible that I might not experience any issues even through the winter. Though I guess it's a matter of how much I want to tempt fate. I don't know how easy it is to get a tow truck down there. Not sure if the rafter heights would permit it. Maybe building codes ensure that this is not a problem, else the landlord would end up with an accumulation of dead cars through the decades.

Thanks!

 

You do not need a tow truck if the battery goes dead. Just Jump start it off of another vehicle or get one of these newer lithium portable starter packs. Even if you had to buy one, it would be cheaper that a tow truck service call.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/New-12V-2...llow/861752770

Lithium Ion Jump Starter and Power Pack

I looked at Walmart Canada, Crappy Tire, and Princess Auto All were over $100 cdn so I did not post their links. Even with the rate of exchange, it might be worth your time driving to a US Walmart and buying one there. God knows I have left tons of money in Canada. (Call first to make sure they have them in stock.)

I could not tell your location since all you said was Canada. Since 90% of the Canadian population lives within 100 miles of the US border, I assumed that it might be plausible for you to go to Walmart somewhere in the US. Now watch, you will tell me you are in Ft. St. John or Whitehorse. I'm guessing that you are in Southern Ontario or Quebec.

 

Where exactly is that dot?
I see the sticker with the 3 circles...but I can't see these or any colours on the battery itself. It's all consistently black, even that plastic circle near the sticker.

I drive my car daily 15-20 km (20 min) each way to work. On weekends I take it for one hour drives, so should get charged on a regular basis. However because it's such a tiny battery it's kinda weak and sometimes I need to crank the engine a second time to start.

There's a mod to upgrade to R51 batteries (stronger, common, cheaper) but it seems like a bit of a hassle...

 

u really need to drive 10miles or so at a time to keep the battery charged. try making a trip 20miles or so on the weekend on a hwy at least once a week.

go for a stroll..get out of the house. keep ur mind and car healthy.

 

@n9cv: Thanks for the booster links. I'm in Ottawa. I might just ask an apartment dweller to provide a boost, if needed. Hopefully, though, I'll get warning sign before the end.

@Andrei_ierdnA: There should be a nickel or dime sized indicator port. If the batter is dusty, you may have to wipe the top to see the port. The red dot indicating that the battery needs charging is in the center. You have to stare straight down to see it. You said that you drive it for 20 min each way to work. I drove it for almost an hour during the weekend on high rev, I thought that would fix it. It seems that I've permanently damaged the battery, which is odd since I don't notice any hesitation on starting.

@kenchan: I drove it at high revs for almost an hour, so it's a lot more than 10 miles. It seems that there is permanent damage, even though there is no hesitation in starting.

 

N9cv's lithium battery booster suggestion is a good one. I've had to use my Genius GB40 (from Can. Tire) several times already, and my Fit isn't even 2 years old yet. The booster has never let me down.

 

Thanks. I'll keep it in mind.

 

You might give him some ideas where to look for one. I am not in Canada though I visit several times a year. So I gave him the only places that I have used and know. We had a sale here at Walmart about 3 years ago for a high capacity one so I bought 3 for $100 total price. They had a pallet of them there at the time. I have not seen them anywhere near that price again. I recharge all of them once a year in the spring if I have not used and recharged them in the past year. It is surprising how much current you can get out of those small things.

 

Sure. Right now Canadian Tire has them on sale :
NOCO Genius GB40 Boost+ Jump Starter and Power Bank, 1000 Amp | Canadian Tire


I haven't used anything else, so I can only recommend this. As I've said, it's never let me down, plus it's also a light source and charges my cellphone.

 

Thanks again, I appreciate it. The battery isn't dead, and doesn't behave sick yet. The indicator just shows it as needing charging, and I wish that driving would fix that. The fact that it doesn't tells me that I may need a boost soon, though the lack of trouble starting contradicts that. Due to the cost, I might try asking another resident for a boost. Or I might simply take transit to get a booster product. I don't mind paying a premium in cost and time for a boost on an on-demand basis rather than buying ahead of time for a standy-by contingent booster (it also means having less stuff, which helps in my situation a lot). Other possibilities are calling a service:

Average cost of a tow / battery boost / out of gas? - RedFlagDeals.com Forums

deadspin-quote-carrot-aligned-w-bgr-2

 

Don't forget the time spent waiting for someone to come to boost you, versus just being able to do it under a minute.

So (hypothetically), if I needed to boost my car 3 times, it's 3 minutes of my time. How much time will you spend waiting for those same 3 boosts?

 

I have an ultra gage in my 07 fit so a couple things ,,
1. If your doing a short distance drive turn on the headlights, or turn the heater fan up to 3, counter intuitive, but if none of the electrical stuff is on it drops the alternator voltage to 12.8 (Or lower) but with any load it kicks up to 14.5, so it actually charges better if you give it something to do..

2. You can add a switch at the battery that clamps on the battery post, then the cable clamps to the switch, so for extended parking you can disconnect the battery easily. It will clear the radio code and occasionally you may need to let the car idle for a few minutes after starting to get the ECu to re-learn the sensors.. (It will idle a little rough till it resets. )

 

Action Jackson, I haven't ruled out a booster. Which is why even knowing of it as an option is useful to me. In my status quo, however, I'm taking into consideration that I won't be boosting three times. I'll only boost once, and that's to get me to the garage to get a new battery. The fact that there is no trouble starting now, and that fact that driving doesn't make the indicator of need-to-charge go away, makes me wonder how indicative that indication really is. I might not ever need to use a booster. Also, I might get a signs of trouble in advance, so I can make an appointment to replace the battery. So in my subjective assessment, the prospects of actually needing the booster might be quite low, and might be distant in the future. I'm not sure what the lifetimes of the boosters are, and I'm not sure if there are hazards of keeping them in an oven-hot car in the summer.

dwtaylorpdx, your suggestion to load the electrical supply by turning things on does seem counterintuitive. I'm not really trying to prolong an almost-dead battery, however (meaning at the end of its useful life). I posted really because I wonder whether there was anything more I could do to revive the battery, assuming that it isn't almost dead, i.e., that the charge was simply low, and that there was were perhaps measures that I overlooked in restoring the charge. Or perhaps the battery was in a temporary altered state, from which it could be restored with simple measures. However, I wouldn't want to change my habits in the extreme such that I reset the ECu or the radio just to squeeze the last drops of operation out of a battery that is out of life. Nevertheless, I appreciate your sharing the tricks of the trade.

 

I believe there is a major design flaw on how Honda did the grounds for the GE8. The battery to chassis ground is to very thin sheet metal. It may seem ample enough, however my ground bolt there always seems to come lose and I was having alot of battery dying issues despite upgrading to even a 51r battery.

It was bad enough that the intermittent charge killed the bypass module for my Viper alarm causing it to lose programming. The installer made a good point that even though I had the Big 3 done, it wasn't helping since the battery to chassis ground is to thin sheet metal. You can feel it get hot which is a sign of great resistance at that point.

I ended up adding more grounds and haven't had a charging issue since then, although it recently did start getting warmer ( no more freezing temps), so I'm still yet to see if it was truly effective when winter comes back.

My wife's Accord was horrible with this too. She has a 3 mile drive to work one way and the battery dies after 2-3 days of not using the car. I always figured it was because of the short commute. After doing my car's grounds and since I had a 250 ft spool of 8 gauge wire, I decided to look at her grounds. She had a battery to chassis and engine ground. The chassis ground was painted so I took a file and scraped paint off. The "engine" ground was a thin sheet of metal bolted to the engine block. Really Honda? Why not just directly bolt it to the engine block? So I moved that ground to the engine block itself. Besides it was so rusted and when I tried to remove the bolt the sheet metal actually was bending. I ended up just cutting the ground wire. So same thing I haven't had to jump her car lately.

Check your terminals too. They may be loose. Both cars were tightened that you couldn't twist off, then I discovered that you can just slide the terminals off. I think this is an issue with Interstate batteries and Hondas. I shimmed the terminals and now they are snug in there and I applied dielectric grease.

I also hardwired plug terminals for my battery tender just in case for both cars.

My mom has a GK. Completely stock. I had a look at her engine bay and the grounding points in the engine bay are solid. She had no issues starting up the car after being laid up from a surgery for over a week.

 

xxryu139xx, my background is electrical engineering, but more for math and algorithms for digital signal processing than power circuits. I recall basic circuit concepts. I understand what you say about the sketchy connection with chassis ground. As long as the circuit for recharging the battery doesn't include that resistance, it would be fine. However, I have no idea whether this is the case, and your experience seems to indicate that it is not.

If I ever have to bring it in to replace the battery, I'll choose to do this at Honda, and I'll pose the question to the techs.

Thanks for sharing.

 

I this may be specific to 1st gen Fits.
I tried replicating this today with my ScanGuage2, which I've had for a couple years, just don't usually monitor the battery voltage as I didn't see much difference in the past.

I've tried several scenarios on my 20 min drive to work:

1) For about 5-10 minutes headlights on, music on, high fan and the voltage was between 14.1-14.5 V.

2) Next 5-10 min turned the headlights, fan and music completely off, while being in gear and still have the voltage between 14.1-14.5 V.

3) Then I reached a big hill where I put it in neutral and let it coast downhill at regular idle (around 7-800 RPM) for about 2 minutes. 1 minute I had all accessories off and the other minute I turned them all back on and the entire time I still saw 14.1-14.5 V without any correlation to whether accessories were on or off.

When I reached work, I also tried idling 30s in the parking lot with all accessories off and still had the same 14.1-14.5 V.

I have the '13 Fit with a 4 year old battery, which I know for sure was discharged completely once or twice. My battery is probably damaged as well and I've noticed the occasional tricky start. I will try to look for the red dot to confirm.


__________________________________________________ _______

later update:

So I tried looking at the voltage after a longer weekend trip. After about 1 hour driving, I was surprised to voltage drop to 12.6-12.9 V for several seconds, then jumping back to 14 and down to 12 alternatively every few seconds when all the electronics were off. With light, music & fan it stayed consistently in the 14 V range.