CoVID-19 Isolation? Start your Civic

MoTeC R

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Just started it for the 1st time in 3 weeks yesterday. No issues, batteries shouldn't be dying in weeks they sit on car lots in some cases many months without starting, and still remain charged. So not sure what issues anyone should be having.
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jtrader

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I'm teleworking now, so it had been 3 weeks since I've driven my sweet little Hatch Sport. The other day, I took her around the block (and then some) and my wife thought I was crazy for driving when I have nowhere to go...just for the fun of it. She doesn't get it. Never has, never will.
 

MoTeC R

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I'm teleworking now, so it had been 3 weeks since I've driven my sweet little Hatch Sport. The other day, I took her around the block (and then some) and my wife thought I was crazy for driving when I have nowhere to go...just for the fun of it. She doesn't get it. Never has, never will.
Mine goes on rides with me sometimes but I can't drive like I want to because she doesn't get the "fun" in driving either. So I can definitely relate!
 

Donkeyhotay123

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mine has died in the garage once due to sitting for two weeks. And I left the dashcam on. '19 hatch.
 

shadow

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I am on total lockdown. Only essential trips are allowed. Since the wife has groceries delivered, there is no need for me to go out. I live in a condo building with no outlets in the garage so a battery trickle charger is out of the question. We are not allowed to idle the car for more than two minutes too.

So on the first day, I disconnected the negative terminal from the battery. I have an Ancel battery tester.

https://www.amazon.com/ANCEL-BA101-...ds=an01+battery+tester&qid=1586213392&sr=8-19

I use it to determine the state of charge. In 3 weeks, with the batteries disconnected, charge has gone down one or two percent.
 


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Not in three weeks but I was laid up after heart surgery in 2017 and didn’t start my Si for about 3 months and the battery was basically dead. Jump started and it recharged Ok. It certainly isn’t silly to run your car A little every few weeks if you’re not using it.
 

alias Igme

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I drive around (not highway) for around 20mins every Saturday. Battery and aircon still seems fine.
 

Dario1101

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Why can't we disconnect the negative lead from our car batteries if we're really not going to drive them for a few weeks?
 

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When I was away for a month, in the Philippines my brother just started her up using the remote. So after 10 ten minutes it shuts off.

He didn't wanna drive it.
 

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When I was away for a month, in the Philippines my brother just started her up using the remote. So after 10 ten minutes it shuts off.

He didn't wanna drive it.
I hope only once a week at maximum - That's a perfect way to build up a substantial amount of oil dilution.
 


Gruber

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I'm trying to stop the the Wuhan virus from killing the battery in my CR-V. It's a Honda OEM 31500-SR1-100M, same group 51R as the civic and I want to see how long it can last. It was installed in November 2013, so by Easter it will be 6 years and 5 months since then. Wife has been working from home and when I took the CR-V for a ride after a little over one week of sitting in the garage, the starting was a bit anemic. So I put it on Battery Tender. :love:

She's a classic
Perfect in every way
One of a kind
Now that's what my daddy would say

"Hang on to her, boy
With all your might
She's got so much to give
If you treat her right

"In a world where things are changing fast
Ain't too many things that are made to last
Hang on to her, boy
They don't make them like that anymore"

She's a beauty
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Well, that's what my daddy would say


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I'm sorry to confirm that the famous and celebrated Wuhan coronawirus killed my wonderful CRV battery. Today it failed to start after being charged and driven just several days ago. So after it was dead today I put it again on my 3A Battery Tender and it again reported full voltage after only about half an hour. This means to me that it's as good as dead, although just after charging it started the engine and wife went to the store (and came back).

Well, this battery lived 6.5 years in the car, so in human years it's like 90. If it was driven normally, I'm sure it would survive the summer, so it definitely died of COVID-19.:drool:

Btw. I drive my civic almost as usual, so I'll not let its battery catch the virus.
 

Dario1101

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Why can't we disconnect the negative lead from our car batteries if we're really not going to drive them for a few weeks?
Any response?
I still haven't driven my car in about two weeks though so I should drive it today.
 
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Lol I actually made a video on YouTube about starting my Honda Civic up the first time in 2 weeks (The video title does say about a project car but ignore that and skip to 1:01 to see it and the cold start). I didn't get it on video but the brakes or whatever did jam up against the disc so it felt weird and made a weird noise but it obvs went back to normal
 

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Any response?
I still haven't driven my car in about two weeks though so I should drive it today.
I posted my experience with disconnecting the negative terminal in post #35 above. It works for me.
 

Gruber

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Any response?
I still haven't driven my car in about two weeks though so I should drive it today.
I will never just disconnect the battery, because I don't want to lose any settings and memory. Too much trouble. Much easier to connect an intelligent charger, which can stay connected and will maintain the battery forever. Of course, this may not be an option if the car is parked on the street.

If the car only takes 20 mA to support the alarm and keyless entry receivers (which I expect may be the low side) then together with auto-discharge it may easily lose about 10% of the new civic 51R battery charge per week. So in three weeks a new battery (if it even was initially fully charged) will be at about 2/3 of full charge. This may be perfectly enough to start the car, and the happy owner will not see any problem. But if the battery is not young, and maybe it was not fully charged, and already had a reduced capacity, and maybe its self-discharge was faster, 3 weeks may drop the charge so low that not only it won't start the car, but also will become terminally damaged.

So like with the virus, a young and healthy battery is not likely to be seriously affected by 3 or even 4 weeks of not running the car, but an older battery may easily just die.

Btw, if someone decided to disconnect the battery who has a mA meter, I would be curious how much current the car draws when asleep. But measuring this may not be as simple as it seems.
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