Car Batteries in warmer climes
Discussion
2013 Honda CR-V 2.4 Auto here in Jakarta, I bought the car new in March of 2013 and just about a year later it failed to start. Wouldn't start off jump leads either.
Eventually recovered back home and dropped off at Honda who recommended a new battery. Duly purchased and here we are now 9 months later and the battery is starting to flag again. A little slower to start and I know it's time to get another.
Honda's explanation is that batteries only last a year!
So this battery won't be bought from Honda, off to a local Indy to buy and we'll see if this one lasts over a year.
Weather here is 32 every day and the AC is always on when the car is running. I assume that cars sold here are prepped for the conditions. Covered 22k miles in the 21 months we've had it so nothing overly excessive either.
Any thoughts on why 2 batteries from a main dealer in a brand new car would weaken so early?
To be fair, I've not really looked into it myself and checked the output from the alternator, but if the alternator is failing then the battery would be dead long before the year was up.
Eventually recovered back home and dropped off at Honda who recommended a new battery. Duly purchased and here we are now 9 months later and the battery is starting to flag again. A little slower to start and I know it's time to get another.
Honda's explanation is that batteries only last a year!
So this battery won't be bought from Honda, off to a local Indy to buy and we'll see if this one lasts over a year.
Weather here is 32 every day and the AC is always on when the car is running. I assume that cars sold here are prepped for the conditions. Covered 22k miles in the 21 months we've had it so nothing overly excessive either.
Any thoughts on why 2 batteries from a main dealer in a brand new car would weaken so early?
To be fair, I've not really looked into it myself and checked the output from the alternator, but if the alternator is failing then the battery would be dead long before the year was up.
No idea what you are on about, I'm presently in what is considered relatively warm to fekking scorching 38C in summer, and all batteries last as long as they normally would, I am about to replace a Landcruiser battery that has lasted 6 years, and I replaced an OEM Mazda battery after 13 - yes, 13 years.
Anything less than 4 years is just not right.
Try a (decent) battery with higher Ah rating perhaps the one you have fitted is marginal and gets too much of a workout. Very short trips obviously won't help. AC engine driven nothing to do with battery.
Or a drain, many modern cars have quite a high drain when standing, and if left, repeated deep discharging won't be beneficial to any lead acid battery, but you can buy (perhaps not for all vehicles - usually for boats) deep-cycle batteries that can tolerate being discharged quite substantially a large number of times.
Anything less than 4 years is just not right.
Try a (decent) battery with higher Ah rating perhaps the one you have fitted is marginal and gets too much of a workout. Very short trips obviously won't help. AC engine driven nothing to do with battery.
Or a drain, many modern cars have quite a high drain when standing, and if left, repeated deep discharging won't be beneficial to any lead acid battery, but you can buy (perhaps not for all vehicles - usually for boats) deep-cycle batteries that can tolerate being discharged quite substantially a large number of times.
Matt Harper said:
I've lived in central Florida for 14 years. Temps 60-80F in cool half of the year and 85-95F in the warm half. In my experience a car battery in a daily driver lasts about 2 years.
60-80F................WTF. Its snowed in Tampa b4. I've had sleet just to the north of there.Do you use the aircon all the time and charge your phone up while playing the radio? My battery was starting to get tired when starting the car because I was using the heating all the time, charging the phone up and playing the radio. I now only charge the phone up on every other journey, and turning off heating and the radio within a mile of parking, and the battery is back to turning over the engine like it should.
Hoofy said:
Do you use the aircon all the time and charge your phone up while playing the radio? My battery was starting to get tired when starting the car because I was using the heating all the time, charging the phone up and playing the radio. I now only charge the phone up on every other journey, and turning off heating and the radio within a mile of parking, and the battery is back to turning over the engine like it should.
This stuff all runs off the engine/alternator not the battery surely. Unless you're from the 1970's and have a dynamo?PositronicRay said:
Hoofy said:
Do you use the aircon all the time and charge your phone up while playing the radio? My battery was starting to get tired when starting the car because I was using the heating all the time, charging the phone up and playing the radio. I now only charge the phone up on every other journey, and turning off heating and the radio within a mile of parking, and the battery is back to turning over the engine like it should.
This stuff all runs off the engine/alternator not the battery surely. Unless you're from the 1970's and have a dynamo?Unless it's a Mazda using a socking great capacitor.
Riff Raff said:
PositronicRay said:
Hoofy said:
Do you use the aircon all the time and charge your phone up while playing the radio? My battery was starting to get tired when starting the car because I was using the heating all the time, charging the phone up and playing the radio. I now only charge the phone up on every other journey, and turning off heating and the radio within a mile of parking, and the battery is back to turning over the engine like it should.
This stuff all runs off the engine/alternator not the battery surely. Unless you're from the 1970's and have a dynamo?Unless it's a Mazda using a socking great capacitor.
PositronicRay said:
Hoofy said:
Do you use the aircon all the time and charge your phone up while playing the radio? My battery was starting to get tired when starting the car because I was using the heating all the time, charging the phone up and playing the radio. I now only charge the phone up on every other journey, and turning off heating and the radio within a mile of parking, and the battery is back to turning over the engine like it should.
This stuff all runs off the engine/alternator not the battery surely. Unless you're from the 1970's and have a dynamo?No start stop on the Indonesian market Honda, I doubt there will ever be a market for it here either. Traffic is so bad it would be ruinous to have such a system.
On another note...
The car is a 2.4 petrol with an automatic gearbox. Paddles on the wheel should you wish to control the gears yourself.
If the car is in D and you change gear, after a while the system reverts to full automatic which is absolutely fine. However, if S is selected and you subsequently change gear with the paddles, it will not revert to full automatic. Annoyingly you have to change back to D and then back to S (if you wish to keep it in Sport mode).
If anyone knows how to have the gearbox revert to full auto when in Sport mode I'd be very grateful.
On another note...
The car is a 2.4 petrol with an automatic gearbox. Paddles on the wheel should you wish to control the gears yourself.
If the car is in D and you change gear, after a while the system reverts to full automatic which is absolutely fine. However, if S is selected and you subsequently change gear with the paddles, it will not revert to full automatic. Annoyingly you have to change back to D and then back to S (if you wish to keep it in Sport mode).
If anyone knows how to have the gearbox revert to full auto when in Sport mode I'd be very grateful.
Claudia Skies said:
It's all very curious. If anything a battery should have an easier life in a warmer climate, as those who remember their schoolboy physics and chemistry will attest.
You are right, the higher temperature does increase the chemical reaction so you get better performance but unfortunately it also increases the chemical reactions that age the battery so you get a shorter life span.Having looked into this a few years back for Lead acid batteries used in standby applications the rule of thumb is for every 10C rise in temperature above room temperature (22C) the battery life decreases by around a half.
Given the average life of a Lead acid car battery with ambient of 22C is around 5 years then I would expect half that in hotter climates with 10C higher ambient. Obviously position of the battery under the bonnet can effect the life span too, placing it near hot objects such as exhaust manifolds won't help matters.
Replacing 150+ failed Lead acid standby batteries because of air conditioning failure in a hot summer was not a nice job!
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