Your '08 CR-V has a dual-mode charging system that can choose between one of two charging voltages. Your '19 Pilot and '17 Accord have a "smart" charging system that can vary charging voltage between 12.5 and 15.8 volts in 0.1-volt increments.
Battery Dead Again
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You can get a newer version battery tester like the Solar BA9 or like it. It's what most places use now that tests capacitance I think in the battery. You can also watch the video on YouTube for Kent Bergsma he goes over a bunch of the old tests and new. It's nice that you can check and know that your battery is dying to plan ahead not be stranded.
From there you can also get into the project farm on battery tests and on portable jump starters, or carry old school cables IF you can find somebody willing to help these days.
I have one of CTEK smart chargers (also from the Kent Bergsma videos as well as Optima battery recovery one). My wife's old Sequoia with a big Optima 31M deep cycle would start to crank slow and needed a charge at least 2x per year. 90% of her trips were less than 5 miles and not long enough to give it a good charge.
And NEVER ASSUME, you know what happens. Best to check battery after sitting at least 8 hours AND if possible do that with opening doors etc. leave hood open and keep keys away as it will "wake up" many things as key gets close.
If you find an issue you'll need to watch/read how to do a parasitic draw test to see what is killing it. My daughters CRV had a bad AC relay which is a known issue.
Reduced load on alternator reduces the load on motor for a .00001% or something like that increase in MPG just like they are going to 0W-16 motor oil. All in the name of drag/load and CAFE MPG standards. What are the 9 most terrifying words in the English language?
not them
I finally took my 2017 RTL-E to my electrical battery guy and he did a test for draw on the battery. Every thing on the fuses were good and then he noticed a wiring harness from the battery to the horns that I installed and found the draw and he said it was a lot. I like some of us replaced the car's horn with a better sounding horn I purchased a Honda horn harness for someone recommend and selling the harnesses. I think it was a Honda parts store that a lot of us ordered from after reading a post that they sold the harness for plug and play. I bought the horns (recommend by some) on E-bay and all works fine. Haha, but who ever built the harness put the wrong relay terminal on and the relay terminal kept drawling from the battery. Never shutting off. The mechanic put a new relay and the correct one in on the harness and the draw went away an one purchased that d is now reading normal per Honda's recommendations. So if any of you purchased that horn harness that was posted in that post and your battery is going dead here is the cause. The new relay cost me $18.00 and I hope all is well.
I just went back to see where I bought the horn wiring harness from and it was from a member of our Ridgeline club that post on this site. So if you bought a horn harness from this person and your battery is going dead and you can't find the draw on the fuses..check the horn wiring harness that you bought from him. Nothin bad he just used the wrong relay switch.
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1,760 Posts
Bob doesn't know what he is talking about as far as "capacitance". I find this true especially when experts talk about computer stuff especially. My comment is always "ok fine" do what you want and walk away from the conversations. After all they are experts (but not if I'm walking away). Bob is one of these. The lead acid batteries have had a "ir" (small letters, internal resistance) for years and years and years and years. LIke since they were born. The internal resistance of the battery could be calculated by a complex equation and figuring load capacity and hygrometer readings and other junk. But now with this new breed of battery testers they take the complexity of the calculations out of it and just show you your battery capacity simply on a screen. This is the hold grail of battery testing. A real capacity meter which is accurate believe it or not. Sure a megohm resistance of a digital volt meter is good for just checking a voltage. Read my example below for why.
(I did this just yesterday testing my trailer wiring. I had a turn signal light out and i bought a new light asm to replace it. Put it on as I had "tested" it with my megohm voltmeter and saw the voltage swinging up and down across the terminals. Thinking the wiring was good (and it usually would be) I put the new bulb asm on and it had the same problem! Hmmm i went. So i checked the voltage at two other points under the trailer (that i could access since the wiring is inside of the box channels for the most part) and found the same things still. Looking closer at my connector to the truck it was in good shape but I noticed a BULGE about a foot away on the harness and suddenly remembered i had worked on that harness one other time. Sure enough I found a corroded splicing connector. Replaced three of the four wires and all lights work great again. The reason the volt meter was working ok was the megohm resistance of the meter allowed just enough current to work it and once under a load the corrosion lowered the resistance and available voltage to ZERO. These are the same things that you find with a battery too. Simple huh ? lol)
Anyway, enough of that baloney you say. I say this. If you are interested in all in the technical mumbo jumbo this page has as good of one as you'll find in a short read about Internal resistance. In this case the Z = the R1 and R2 and C1 .
(I did this just yesterday testing my trailer wiring. I had a turn signal light out and i bought a new light asm to replace it. Put it on as I had "tested" it with my megohm voltmeter and saw the voltage swinging up and down across the terminals. Thinking the wiring was good (and it usually would be) I put the new bulb asm on and it had the same problem! Hmmm i went. So i checked the voltage at two other points under the trailer (that i could access since the wiring is inside of the box channels for the most part) and found the same things still. Looking closer at my connector to the truck it was in good shape but I noticed a BULGE about a foot away on the harness and suddenly remembered i had worked on that harness one other time. Sure enough I found a corroded splicing connector. Replaced three of the four wires and all lights work great again. The reason the volt meter was working ok was the megohm resistance of the meter allowed just enough current to work it and once under a load the corrosion lowered the resistance and available voltage to ZERO. These are the same things that you find with a battery too. Simple huh ? lol)
Anyway, enough of that baloney you say. I say this. If you are interested in all in the technical mumbo jumbo this page has as good of one as you'll find in a short read about Internal resistance. In this case the Z = the R1 and R2 and C1 .
How to Measure Internal Resistance
Learn what resistance readings tells about a battery
batteryuniversity.com
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5,573 Posts
The 3 month old replacement battery on my 2017 Ridgeline completely discharged while I was on vacation for 10 days.
HondaCare came out and jump started it. I drove it around and parked it for the night. Now it won’t start again.
The problem is that when I connect the battery charger to the battery the charger does not recognize the battery. It should display 12V and the percentage of existing charge.
I left the charger on overnight with no change in battery charge level. I moved the charger to my wife’s car and it recognized the battery immediately.
Wondering if the battery could have completely failed.
HondaCare came out and jump started it. I drove it around and parked it for the night. Now it won’t start again.
The problem is that when I connect the battery charger to the battery the charger does not recognize the battery. It should display 12V and the percentage of existing charge.
I left the charger on overnight with no change in battery charge level. I moved the charger to my wife’s car and it recognized the battery immediately.
Wondering if the battery could have completely failed.
Do you have a way to measure the voltage? My CTEK and Deltran Battery Tender chargers won't do anything if the voltage is less than ~3 volts.
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5,573 Posts
Thank you. That is one tool that I don't have in my garage. I have a NOCO GB40 Jump Starter and it won't even turn on the interior lights let alone start the vehicle. I have removed everything so I have a direct connection to + and - terminals of battery. Might be time to call HondaCare again and drive it over to the dealer to see if the battery is faulty.
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I leave my truck at the airport for 8 to 10 days at a time two times a month in the cold Indiana winters never had a dead battery, if the truck is under warranty I would insist that the dealer fix that before the warranty is out, after that it will be your problem. I would also check your states lemon law to see if you have any recourse on that front. You should not be having this issue if the electrical system is working properly
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5,573 Posts
As I explained in another post, I believe ice buildup caused the tailgate to remain ajar, thus causing the battery to drain. My vehicle is 4 years old, so no lemon law and HondaCare will jump it for free. But as you noted, it could be something else.
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217 Posts
Well, when a battery is too deeply discharged (lead acid) it's usually going to be unable to be recharged.
If the battery is being discharged just sitting there, something is staying powered on and is drawing it down. That's not good. That shouldn't happen.
Due to the Texas weather last week, I didn't drive the RL for about 9 days. She started up just fine, and on a ~10 mile or so local trip, auto stop/start didn't engage. That let me know the battery state was lower than it wanted to be, but not low enough that she couldn't start up. The next day I took another short-ish trip, and start/stop did engage.
I do figure if I had to leave the truck for a couple weeks, I'd probably take my battery charger/maintainer out there and connect it.
If the battery is being discharged just sitting there, something is staying powered on and is drawing it down. That's not good. That shouldn't happen.
Due to the Texas weather last week, I didn't drive the RL for about 9 days. She started up just fine, and on a ~10 mile or so local trip, auto stop/start didn't engage. That let me know the battery state was lower than it wanted to be, but not low enough that she couldn't start up. The next day I took another short-ish trip, and start/stop did engage.
I do figure if I had to leave the truck for a couple weeks, I'd probably take my battery charger/maintainer out there and connect it.
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5,573 Posts
Got all my issues resolved and I discovered this very important FACT.
If the battery is discharged enough that the doors will not unlock, then the key from the fob will not unlock the doors either.
There has to be some current going to the door locks for the key to work. I was not aware of that until now.
@zroger73 was correct in saying that if the battery does not have sufficient voltage available (above ~3 volts), then the trickle charger will not work.
If the battery is discharged enough that the doors will not unlock, then the key from the fob will not unlock the doors either.
There has to be some current going to the door locks for the key to work. I was not aware of that until now.
@zroger73 was correct in saying that if the battery does not have sufficient voltage available (above ~3 volts), then the trickle charger will not work.
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2,225 Posts
So how do you get into the vehicle if the battery is dead and the fob won't open the door to provide access to the hood release?
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5,573 Posts
You have to break in or have roadside assistance come and open the vehicle by prying out the top of the door slightly, then placing a rubber balloon in that slight opening to widen it, and then they can reach in with a tool and open the door with the interior handle.
It does seem rather illogical that the vehicle cannot be accessed with a dead battery, via the key. The key is only useful if the fob battery is dead, not the vehicle battery.
Same with my Mazdas and most vehicles these days - the physical key only allows a switch to rotate to the lock or unlock positions. If the battery is dead or there's some other electrical/electronic failure that prevents the door lock actuator from operating, you have to break in.
Huh, didn't know that. I had to replace all the motors inside the door lock actuators on my old Tundra. Was kind of a pain, but the actuators were about $300 each and the motors for the diy fix were about $8 for all four.
Anyway, on that vehicle there was a mechanical key linkage so it would work with or without battery. Not sure I like the idea of having to break into the vehicle if the battery is dead. Seems like a poor compromise to make. I wonder if there is a way to release the hood latch without using the release in the cab. That seems like it might be better than bending the door.
Now that I think about it. I have my jump pack in the truck. Will the trunk open with the key with no battery?
Might have to rethink my whole strategy for what to do when I get stuck somewhere with a dead battery.
Anyway, on that vehicle there was a mechanical key linkage so it would work with or without battery. Not sure I like the idea of having to break into the vehicle if the battery is dead. Seems like a poor compromise to make. I wonder if there is a way to release the hood latch without using the release in the cab. That seems like it might be better than bending the door.
Now that I think about it. I have my jump pack in the truck. Will the trunk open with the key with no battery?
Might have to rethink my whole strategy for what to do when I get stuck somewhere with a dead battery.
Would it be possible to fabricate/install a connector to the battery and have it accessible through, say, the wheel-well so that a trickle charger or jumper cables could be connected to make it possible to at least power up the battery enough to unlock the truck?
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