Load on the battery? Dead after a week?

i-VTECH · 12-09-2009, 08:22 AM

Recently I went to Florida to visit family. I left my car at my job inside a garage. My dad went to go start it to pick me up at the airport with it and it was dead. After the car sits for a week the battery is dead. I was thinking of putting a battery tender on it but before I did anything I wanted to find out if anyone else is having or had this problem. I already had the battery replaced once under warranty. And of course when I brought it to the dealer the idiots couldn’t understand that I wanted them to check for a LOAD being drawn on the battery when it sits. So they load tested the battery which was fine, checked the starter which was fine and the alternator for parasitic draw. Everything checked out fine. But yet they didn’t do what I asked. Right after I post this I'm going to throw an AMP clamp on the pos cable and see how many amps its drawing if any.

Any thoughts / comments are greatly appreciated.

asndragonboii · 12-09-2009, 09:39 AM

Ask them to test for "parasitic draws"

djjones5520 · 12-09-2009, 09:44 AM

Sounds to me like a bad battery. Do you have any amplifiers hooked up? On my old car, this would happen to me all the time, I didn't drive it much because it was a show car but even with an Optima red top in it, if I let it sit for more than a week without starting it, the battery would be too low to start the car. This was all due to a very small draw from the amps when the car was off. I know when I bought my FG2, when I first went to start the car on the lot to test drive it, it sounded like it barely wanted to start. And every time after that it seemed to struggle and the service manager told me that it is normal because of the high compression in the motor.

DavisLasVegas · 12-09-2009, 12:25 PM

you should put the amp clamp meter on the ground cable of the battery and depending on the type of meter you have to make sure there is only one wire in the jaws or it will give you a crazy reading. anything above .15 amps after the car goes to sleep is too much in my opinion. so from there i would start pulling fuses till it drops.

billd · 12-09-2009, 12:27 PM

I bet u it's a bad battery, sounds like a bad cell.

DavisLasVegas · 12-09-2009, 12:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billd

I bet u it's a bad battery, sounds like a bad cell.

most likely. most of the batteries we get now are made of recycled lead so they're not that great from the start, but hey when you have a choice between a $70 intestate opposed to a 150+ optima the choice is easy if you're broke

carpayments4life · 12-09-2009, 12:40 PM

After 1 year, my 08 SI with 3000 miles had the OEM battery go bad.

Honda ran a load test, before they would replace it under warranty.

I've owned a hand full of new Hondas, since 1984 and I know the OEM battery will only last 2 - 2 1/2 years.

jredison · 12-09-2009, 12:55 PM

My alternator went at 74000 miles and the dealer replaced the battery under warranty (5 days left on the 3 year warranty) even though the battery tested fine

12-09-2009, 08:22 AM	#1 (permalink)
i-VTECH Member Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: West Milford, NJ Posts: 56	Load on the battery? Dead after a week? Recently I went to Florida to visit family. I left my car at my job inside a garage. My dad went to go start it to pick me up at the airport with it and it was dead. After the car sits for a week the battery is dead. I was thinking of putting a battery tender on it but before I did anything I wanted to find out if anyone else is having or had this problem. I already had the battery replaced once under warranty. And of course when I brought it to the dealer the idiots couldn’t understand that I wanted them to check for a LOAD being drawn on the battery when it sits. So they load tested the battery which was fine, checked the starter which was fine and the alternator for parasitic draw. Everything checked out fine. But yet they didn’t do what I asked. Right after I post this I'm going to throw an AMP clamp on the pos cable and see how many amps its drawing if any. Any thoughts / comments are greatly appreciated.
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12-09-2009, 09:39 AM	#2 (permalink)
asndragonboii Senior Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 5,167	Ask them to test for "parasitic draws"

12-09-2009, 09:44 AM	#3 (permalink)
djjones5520 Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Wonder Lake Il Posts: 505 DJ Jones	Sounds to me like a bad battery. Do you have any amplifiers hooked up? On my old car, this would happen to me all the time, I didn't drive it much because it was a show car but even with an Optima red top in it, if I let it sit for more than a week without starting it, the battery would be too low to start the car. This was all due to a very small draw from the amps when the car was off. I know when I bought my FG2, when I first went to start the car on the lot to test drive it, it sounded like it barely wanted to start. And every time after that it seemed to struggle and the service manager told me that it is normal because of the high compression in the motor.

12-09-2009, 12:25 PM	#4 (permalink)
DavisLasVegas Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Capitol Hill Posts: 1,941 Dave	you should put the amp clamp meter on the ground cable of the battery and depending on the type of meter you have to make sure there is only one wire in the jaws or it will give you a crazy reading. anything above .15 amps after the car goes to sleep is too much in my opinion. so from there i would start pulling fuses till it drops.

12-09-2009, 12:27 PM	#5 (permalink)
billd Junior Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Greenwood Lake NY Posts: 12	I bet u it's a bad battery, sounds like a bad cell.

12-09-2009, 12:40 PM	#7 (permalink)
carpayments4life Senior Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: St. Louis Posts: 181 Steve	After 1 year, my 08 SI with 3000 miles had the OEM battery go bad. Honda ran a load test, before they would replace it under warranty. I've owned a hand full of new Hondas, since 1984 and I know the OEM battery will only last 2 - 2 1/2 years.

12-09-2009, 12:55 PM	#8 (permalink)
jredison Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Manchester, NH Age: 30 Posts: 126 Brian	My alternator went at 74000 miles and the dealer replaced the battery under warranty (5 days left on the 3 year warranty) even though the battery tested fine

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