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third damn battery

1637 Views 11 Replies 9 Participants Last post by  slimerdogs
this is the third time ive had my battery replaced in three years. its ridiculous. is anyone else having this issue this frequently?
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No, your problem is quite unusual. Judging from postings here, normal battery life seems to be four or five years, tho' YMMV.

Do you do frequently do things like run the stereo for an hour or more with the engine off? How about leaving the lights on? Some folks have normal (to them) habits which are heck on the newer small batteries like we have in the E. How about an aftermarket alarm system?

Other than that, get the alternator and connections checked. A bad diode could be cooking the battery, or a bad connection could be chronically undercharging.
Some other things
Short trips=no time for battery to charge, high frequent draw

High output radio/amps= lots of drain, no time to charge

factory battery=not the best in the world

leaving things plugged into aux ports= large parasitic drain

Bad ground connection or weak terminal connections= does not allow the battery to recharge well if at all like mike said.

Has the vehicle been in a wreck?

Has the vehicle been in a flood?

Has the electrical system been worked on in anyway that may cause a parasitic drain.


Chris
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A little more info would be helpfull to give the best advice...

Have all three been the same brand?

Why were they replaced? Because they drained down and went "dead" (and car wouldn't start) or was it tested and found to have a bad cell?
(Just because it was run down doesn't mean it needs to be replaced.)


I'd check the things mentioned by others above and/or try a different brand.

Good luck.

Will
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Have you had your alternator tested? If its OK. Try checking each circuit for a drain.
I live in Michigan, and even with our six-month winter, my stock battery has three winters and 51,000 miles on it now.

The others have brought up some good points. It sounds like you have a drain on the system somewhere... You didn't leave an interior light on somewhere for a year or two, did you?
A little more history would help too....

Was battery 1 in the car for 3 years from new, battery 2 replaced it, and battery 3 just recently installed 'cause 2 was found to be defective? or was battery 1, 2, and 3 all installed by you in the last year? (big difference in these two situations....1st is "stuff happens" but 2nd is "wtf?!")

Who has done the replacements and why? A dealer or reputable shop should have checked the charging system the first time....and certainly before a subsequent replacement if they were aware of the problem.
none of that, all honda batteries, i dont pay for them because their under warranty but its annoying when your on the road and you come back to your car and then bam it wont start.

they had to be replaced because they were drained dead.

latest one. i drove down the road to the store got out came back 5 minutes later, tried to turn on the car and nothing.

tried to jump it and it wouldnt jump, it was actually pulling down the superduty truck we hooked it up to

decided ok ill go get my jump box so thank god i had my bike in the back of my car so i got out road the 4 miles home grabed my jump box and loaded up my motorcycle with some tools and then went back. put the jump box on and i started up istantly. left all the stuff in the E and road the motorcycle back and got on my bicycle and road the 4 miles back again and then the E started up.

pulled up to the light and it died, jumped it off the box again and got home, it died in the driveway. jumped it in the morning and brought it into honda and they replaced the battery again, said the alternator was fine. only other thing wrong was a belt tensioner was loose which would have nothing to do with the battery.

only thing i have pluged into the aux is a phone charger.
my normal trip when im staying up at lsu is 6-10 miles.
i dont get whats wrong.
ive been trying to sell my s2000 for about 7 months now and it wont sell and im highly debating just bringing it to honda along with the element and trading them in towards a new element. theoretically if the prices are all what i assume them to be, i would owe 2-3k more on the new Element then I currently owe right now on mine that has 30k miles and this battery issue, and so I would have a brand new one, new warranty from this point on of course and navigation in it as well and only about 2-3 more....isnt the 10k i wanted in cash for the s2k but hell it might just be worth it at this point.
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This is starting to sound like an intermittent open somewhere - that it dies en route even though you successfully jump started it tells me that the battery disconnected itself. My conjecture-think at the moment is a bad crimp at the starter end of the positive lead.

Suggest to the Honda dealer that replacement of the battery leads might be the next step.
Did anyone check the battery voltage in all this time? If the car dies and won't restart but the battery is =>12V, then I like Mike's theory of a bad connection.
battery

6+ years, 130,000 miles....and I'm on the battery that came from the factory.
I drive 88 miles a day, mostly highway.

Watch, now my battery will die because I just posted that.
Hey, You are not the only one with the original battery that is 6 years old... Still going somewhat strong.:rolleyes:
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