Battery question 2019 Civic

[keamon]

TL;DR - Multiple bad batteries, lack of driving, or parasitic draw?

Long version:
We bought a new 2019 Civic for our daughter back in 2019 to take to college. She has only put 13,000 miles on it so far. It's been extremely reliable until about 6 months ago when she started having battery problems. AAA recommended battery replacement based on their readings and to be fair, it was the original battery. We had the replaccemnt done at the Honda dealership in the college town. About a month later, the battery died again, and AAA was called for a jumpstart again. Because it was a new battery, we drove it back to the dealership and they attempted to do a slow, trickle charge. A few hours later, the service guy told me that they were going to replace the battery because they were having trouble charging it and it was under warranty. I can't remember if he said it was overheating or smoking. Well, two months later, the battery dies again. It was the day we were moving daughter back to our home town and her car was loaded up, so once it had been jumpstarted by AAA, she just drove the car 3.5 hours without stopping back to our house. The battery seemed fine for the next few weeks, and then it was dead again. We took it to the Honda service center in our city, and they replaced the battery under warranty and said it could be that the last two batteries at the college dealership were from a bad batch but it could be that the vehicle isn't being driven enough.. I asked if it could be a parasitic draw, but they said they noticed the very low mileage and said that the vehicle doesn't get enough road time. A couple of weeks later, the new battery was dead. so I had a different battery installed by O'Reilly Auto Parts (Super Start 51RPRM CCA 450 RC70) . That battery has also died several times since we had it installed. The latest time was when the car had been sitting in the garage for two days. I just went back to O'Reilly today to get them to replace it under warranty. How can it be that if you don't drive this car around town for 30-45 minutes every couple of days, the battery is dead? This problem just started this past spring. Until then, we never had one issue with this vehicle. Also weird and maybe just a coincidence, but we have had to replace the key fob batteries in both key fobs 4 times in the last 6 months, and neither fob has ever needed battery replacement prior to this.

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[Narumi]

Here are some resources on how to test for parasitic draw using a multimeter.



I would give this a shot first before taking it to an independent shop.

You can find electrical component locations for your civic here: https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...-si-type-r-fc1-fc2-fc3-fc4-fk4-fk7-fk8.46297/

 

[bluehatch17]

I have 2 civics. I obviously can’t drive 2 cars at once. So there are times where 1 car will sit for weeks on end. I recently didn’t drive 1 for about 2 months. It died. I just got this and it worked super well. So in total, my civics are 4/5 years old. 1 civic has a new battery after 4 years and it gets driven more often. The one that just died, it jumped and worked fine.

Your issue isn’t the battery. It’s the total lack of driving. Drive your car once every 2 weeks or so. It will be fine and last long.

 

[BrandonSmith]

What’s the alternator output?

 

[keamon]

I have 2 civics. I obviously can’t drive 2 cars at once. So there are times where 1 car will sit for weeks on end. I recently didn’t drive 1 for about 2 months. It died. I just got this and it worked super well. So in total, my civics are 4/5 years old. 1 civic has a new battery after 4 years and it gets driven more often. The one that just died, it jumped and worked fine.

Your issue isn’t the battery. It’s the total lack of driving. Drive your car once every 2 weeks or so. It will be fine and last long.

Five days is about the longest we can go without driving the car before we have a dead battery.

 

[keamon]

What’s the alternator output?

I don't know other than AAA guy always gave us a good report on the alternator when he would jump the battery, and the two Honda dealerships have said the alternator is fine the three times we had the vehicle there (March, June, August).

 

[keamon]

Here are some resources on how to test for parasitic draw using a multimeter.



I would give this a shot first before taking it to an independent shop.

You can find electrical component locations for your civic here: https://www.civicx.com/forum/thread...-si-type-r-fc1-fc2-fc3-fc4-fk4-fk7-fk8.46297/

Thank you. I will check this out.

 

[Montana Miner]

Obviously the battery isn’t the problem. I agree, something is draining power. Use the video to help find it. I just left my car at the airport (free parking) for 6 weeks and it still started. And I have an $89 battery from Autozone, the cheapest they sell.

The stock battery required replacing as I bought the car in December last year and didn’t pick it up until April so it sat on the dealer lot for 4.5 months, and it did go dead and froze.

 

[lunarsilver]

Five days is about the longest we can go without driving the car before we have a dead battery.

I've had a 2016 Honda Civic since 2015 and have only replaced the battery twice. The car is going on 8 years old 50,000 mi. So there's got to be something else wrong with your car.

 

[Gregory_Carter]

TL;DR - Multiple bad batteries, lack of driving, or parasitic draw?

Long version:
We bought a new 2019 Civic for our daughter back in 2019 to take to college. She has only put 13,000 miles on it so far. It's been extremely reliable until about 6 months ago when she started having battery problems. AAA recommended battery replacement based on their readings and to be fair, it was the original battery. We had the replaccemnt done at the Honda dealership in the college town. About a month later, the battery died again, and AAA was called for a jumpstart again. Because it was a new battery, we drove it back to the dealership and they attempted to do a slow, trickle charge. A few hours later, the service guy told me that they were going to replace the battery because they were having trouble charging it and it was under warranty. I can't remember if he said it was overheating or smoking. Well, two months later, the battery dies again. It was the day we were moving daughter back to our home town and her car was loaded up, so once it had been jumpstarted by AAA, she just drove the car 3.5 hours without stopping back to our house. The battery seemed fine for the next few weeks, and then it was dead again. We took it to the Honda service center in our city, and they replaced the battery under warranty and said it could be that the last two batteries at the college dealership were from a bad batch but it could be that the vehicle isn't being driven enough.. I asked if it could be a parasitic draw, but they said they noticed the very low mileage and said that the vehicle doesn't get enough road time. By the way, talking about the college: if you're looking for some distraction or insight, you might find examples on "To Kill a Mockingbird" from EduBirdie https://edubirdie.com/examples/to-kill-a-mockingbird/ very helpful, especially for students. Hopefully, you can find a resolution to this puzzling problem soon. A couple of weeks later, the new battery was dead. so I had a different battery installed by O'Reilly Auto Parts (Super Start 51RPRM CCA 450 RC70) . That battery has also died several times since we had it installed. The latest time was when the car had been sitting in the garage for two days. I just went back to O'Reilly today to get them to replace it under warranty. How can it be that if you don't drive this car around town for 30-45 minutes every couple of days, the battery is dead? This problem just started this past spring. Until then, we never had one issue with this vehicle. Also weird and maybe just a coincidence, but we have had to replace the key fob batteries in both key fobs 4 times in the last 6 months, and neither fob has ever needed battery replacement prior to this.

It's possible that the replacement batteries themselves are faulty or not suitable for your vehicle. Ensure that the batteries installed meet the specifications recommended for your car and consider consulting with a trusted mechanic or dealership to confirm compatibility.

 

[Ducota]

Anything plugged into the USB ports?

 

[vtecr]

I would first test for parasitic drain on the battery when parked.

The mileage is very low though, so it is possible that the car isn't being used for long enough to charge up. If the journeys are short then you're probably not getting enough time to replace the energy that was used to start the engine initially. Exact time depends on the output of the alternator, but as a rule of thumb, you'd want to run the engine for 20+mins to get back what you spend on cranking, otherwise your battery is constantly in a state of slow discharge.

You can use a multimeter to identify circuits that are drawing down when the car is off and you can do a test by pulling the fuse for that circuit and waiting to see if the battery is still draining.

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