Fact or BS - Dealer said it's normal for CTR to not start after sitting for 6 days

[kilo959]

Mine sits for 3-4 weeks sometimes. That’s bs.

there’s a parasitic leak on that somewhere.

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[Galaxythief]

No, Honda stock batteries just suck. I've owned a 2012 Si, and a 2016 6-6 both were toast before 20k miles.

 

[BostonCTR]

If you leave your key fob too close to your car while not in use this may drain your battery quicker also.

 

[CivilciviC]

If someone is paying 40k or more for a car, even after a month it should start. Have the battery tested to see if it is within specs. The battery could be defective, it happens.

I’m curious... I haven’t really ever looked at my battery in the CTR, but, is it any smaller than what any other Civic has? I’m wondering if Honda put a slightly smaller battery into the CTR for weight savings, but along with that, you also get less of a charge being held. I’m wondering if this is a case of “lightweight” performance vs normal driving habits. You want a smaller battery for performance purposes, which doesn’t really work with off-track drivability. I dunno. I’m just speculating here.

That being said, I have left my CTR for up to 8 days when I was last on vacation and it seemed to fire up ok afterwards, using the factory battery that came with the car. That was fairly recent, too, back in mid October 2019.

 

[DRKSYD]

No, Honda stock batteries just suck. I've owned a 2012 Si, and a 2016 6-6 both were toast before 20k miles.

Have a 2019 R and took it off the lot when it was delivered in JUN2019. Replaced the battery in SEP2019 as the OEM one just felt weak when starting, e.g. longer cranking time. Put in a new one from A/Z/ and it has not hesitated in any 0-30 degree weather in WI. Still have the OEM one but I do personally believe they are crap. Not interested in a replacement of the same as I can't afford to be stranded somewhere.

The CCA are low on the OEM one and I suspect cooler climates will see the battery deplete quicker. Notice that the "no issues", are mostly in the warmer states.

Ditch the OEM one and get a good CCA rated battery.

 

[ez12a]

If you leave your key fob too close to your car while not in use this may drain your battery quicker also.

This. Left my fob in my car overnight and experienced some weird issues. When I turned the steering wheel it was like there wasn't enough power for the infotainment and it would restart. After driving it more it went away.

The factory batteries in these cars are hit and miss.

 

[DRKSYD]

I’m curious... I haven’t really ever looked at my battery in the CTR, but, is it any smaller than what any other Civic has? I’m wondering if Honda put a slightly smaller battery into the CTR for weight savings, but along with that, you also get less of a charge being held. I’m wondering if this is a case of “lightweight” performance vs normal driving habits. You want a smaller battery for performance purposes, which doesn’t really work with off-track drivability. I dunno. I’m just speculating here.

That being said, I have left my CTR for up to 8 days when I was last on vacation and it seemed to fire up ok afterwards, using the factory battery that came with the car. That was fairly recent, too, back in mid October 2019.

Not sure on if they are different from factory but pulling the SI (2019) and Type R (2019), bring up different codes from Autozone. The H5 one weighed similar to the OEM Type R one, and has zero issues. Over ~200 CCA more than the one stated to fit the SI Civic. And that one is listed as lighter.

 

[alvav]

Whipped mine overseas in a container. Took 3 months before I was able to pick it up. Fired right up.

 

[alvav]

Shipped, no whipped...

 

[LongRun]

I was working from home before the pandemic, and not driving much outside a a couple long (~1,000 mile) road trips a year. With the pandemic I cut way back on driving, to the point that my 3+ year old CTR has less than 7,000 miles on it.
Since mid 2020 I was driving maybe 2-3 times a month, going less than 15 miles a trip and having multiple stops per trip. Then as Thanksgiving rolled around and pandemic went wild, I cut back even further. I had a tracker on my car that recorded battery voltage and it would get down to 12.1v in the garage and still start, though it seems iffy. But it seemed to me that even 3-4 miles of city driving would get it back up to 12.4v, so I thought I was OK. I have since learned that 12.4v is the bottom limit of OK, typically thought of as having 50% charge. So I was living with a half-charged battery for over 6 months.

Finally, though, after 5 weeks of not driving the car (where the battery was already depleted from the previous short trips), the car wouldn't start and I needed a jump. (The battery at that point was charged enough to run the smart entry system and dashboard and so on, but not enough to crank the engine. In the bad timing department, I let my subscription to the tracker lapse, since I was driving so little, but in the process lost my tracking of the battery charge.) I drove around 6 miles with 3 stops (20-30 minute driving time) and it started each time, so I thought I was out of the woods, but I waited another 3 weeks to try to start the car again, and this time the car felt really dead. The smart entry system didn't work and I had to use the physical key to open the drivers door.

Instead of another jump start, I bought a battery trickle charger with repair function (LeicesterCN EPA1205A) and max charge rate of 4 amps. Hooking it up, it said the battery voltage was dangerously low at 7.4 volts and I had to disconnect the car from the battery and put the charger into a "special repair mode" to bring the battery back to full charge, starting with desulfation and then a slow charge to make sure the battery can handle it. Overall it took about 20 hours to recharge the battery. That was OK with me as I know that slower charging rate puts less wear on the battery. (I have mixed feelings about the charger. Seems to have done the job, but took me several tries to get it into "special repair mode", and the manufacturer is the typical Shenzhen, China manufacture with a web site that does not work (9 FAQs, but you can only read the questions, not the answers) and slow (3 business days) and poor support, but it seems to have done the job for only $30.)

I haven't had a problem with the battery since, but I also haven't let the car sit 3 weeks again either. Still, I am contemplating replacing the 3 year old OEM battery with a new AGM battery, which I'm told will hold a charge longer and charge back (while driving) faster. I definitely expect the car to be sitting for weeks at a time until I get vaccinated, but even after that it is likely to be sitting in the garage like a show car more than a daily driver.

So, any suggestions/recommendations pro or con on AGM batteries? Lithium is out of the question, as are any other batteries that need regular charging. I think, though, that the car uses a decent amount of juice just sitting around, keeping the alarm system active, plus the tracker is still probably sucking a bit of power even as it is turned off. So I want a high capacity battery, not just one with low self-discharge.

 

[wildbilly32]

Ok so all this talk made me curious. My 2019 CTR has been sitting in the unheated garage not started since the second week in December without the benefit of a battery maintainer and locked, therefore, activating the security system. This winter has been lovely. I.E. low temperature was -31f actual, weeks below freezing and one week it never got above zero! There are things in the garage that froze that never froze in the previous fifteen years.

Today at 38f I went out, climbed in, pushed the button and the car started right up. Did it crank slower than when it was 80f? Yes and I expected that.

If your CTR won't sit for several months and start back up, as mentioned above, your battery is crap or you have a parasitic electrical drain. My situation even includes the allegedly crappy original battery.

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