honda accord battery

hey all

I have a 2004 honda accord. The battery on the car died. my mechanic
says it was the battery.

my question here is. How do I tell if a battery in the car died?

The cars instrumentation does not have a battery gauge, but it does have
light indicator for battery. the problem here when the car wouldn't
start up, it showed several light indicators. It showed the engine,
battery, brake indicator, I think 2 other indicators showed up too as
well, don't recall off hand what they were.

Horn worked, it seemed it was getting power, but wouldn't start. I
thought it may be the starter, but as my mechanic said, it was the battery.

--
Dilbert Firestorm

Opus is food for Orcas!!
Yummy! Zizzle that Penquin!
Rare, Medium, Medium-Well, & Well-Done!
Wheres dat penquin!
Zizzle that Zizzle!

 

voltmeter will tell you in a second.

starter takes 100x the power of the lights and radio, often little
stuff will work with a battery that won't start the car.

how old is the current battery? My OEM battery in the 2007 car died
in under three years - got a new one on warranty. if you have the
original battery there, you got a lot of life out of it.

my friend is driving around his 19xx Ford Tempo with a four year old
battery that loses charge now if he leaves it for three days, but he
seems bound and determined to get himself stranded a few more times
before he replaces it. "maybe it's a loose wire" he says. Right.
but he carries jumper cables, no problem.

J.

 

I don't think the battery was ever replaced to my knowledge.

It's actually my moms car. My dad handled everything with the car
before he passed on.

what kind of voltmeter??

--
Dilbert Firestorm

Opus is food for Orcas!!
Yummy! Zizzle that Penquin!
Rare, Medium, Medium-Well, & Well-Done!
Wheres dat penquin!
Zizzle that Zizzle!

 

If the mechanic said it is your battery replace it. I fail to see the
need for this discussion.

 

There's not a lot of kinds of voltmeters. You want one that reads...
Volts. DC.

I think the point is kind of moot, though. He said the battery was
bad, you replaced the battery, the car starts. Sounds like problem
solved to me... ;-)

 

Yeah, I know its moot. but this the kind of job I could have done
myself. it ain't that hard to replace a battery is it?


--
Dilbert Firestorm

Opus is food for Orcas!!
Yummy! Zizzle that Penquin!
Rare, Medium, Medium-Well, & Well-Done!
Wheres dat penquin!
Zizzle that Zizzle!

 

When you are 16 and get your license you should learn how to do basic
car maintenance like changing a battery.

 

dilbert firestorm wrote:

It should be one of the easier things you can do.
The only issue I'm aware of is the need to reset the radio security code.

 

That, plus all the ECM/PCM "relearn" stuff. It will take a few days for the
car to feel "right" again as the ECM/PCM does all its relearning.

A BIG word of warning: do NOT overtighten the terminal nuts. They are
tightened ONLY until the terminal cannot be easily rotated with light hand
pressure. And it helps to support the other side of the terminal as you
turn the nut.

If you overtighten the terminal nuts, you flex the terminal post in the
case, causing the case/post seal to break. That's when you get that green,
fuzzy corrosion.

As for the radio code:
<http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/radiocode.html>

 

Yeah, I know its moot. but this the kind of job I could have done myself.

Yeah, even I did it myself, once, before radio codes and all.

Drove into Pep Boys and wanted them to do it, but
looked like a three-hour wait so I did it myself
in the parking lot, took all of three minutes.

Actually, the new battery was physically smaller
than the OEM so needed a couple of shims on the
hold-down, but it was still pretty much kindergarten
stuff. Never had a problem with it.

OTOH the install fee was about ten dollars, I would
happily have let them do it while I sat at Starbucks
and kept my fingers clean,
if they could just have got it done sooner.

J.

 

5-6 years, it's a good bet. I just changed out the one in my '04. It
wasn't dead, but it was turning over a little slower. A new battery
worked out just fine for it.

It's probably time.

 

Most of my daughters friends didn't even know how to check their oil.
Shameful....

 

My OEM battery died on my 06 in less than 3 year. It was sudden death -- no
warning and the "little things" worked.

 

Because the starter draws a huge amount of power from the battery when
cranking the motor.
all the other stuff draws little power compared to the starter.
So,a bad cell may stil be able to supply enough power for the
horn,lights,radio,but fail when trying to crank the motor over.

Often it's because the electrolyte level has dropped too low.
If your battery has accessible cell covers(many "maintenance-free"
batteries do have them),you can check the level every 3 months and top off
with distilled water and your battery will live longer.

and have your charging system checked to see if it's overcharging the
battery,boiling off the electrolyte.

typically,car batteries last only 4-5 years.Perhaps less in hot climates.


--
Jim Yanik
jyanik
at
localnet
dot com

 

Where do you people live that you need to change batteries after 4-5
years?

I live in Northern Illinois temps can range from -30F to 102F.

1988-1997 Had Ford Escort never changed battery never a problem.
1997-2006 Had Ford Probe GT never changed battery never a problem.
In each of these vehicles had nice stereo systems (3 amps, 1000watts, 2
15"subs) sucking power at times. No battery issues.
Wifes 1995 Grand Am bought nov 1994 replaced battery dec 2007.
I have now a 2005 Pilot not even close to thinking about changing the
battery.

Ray

 

Also important (many a young man learned this one the hard way, I
learned by observation): attach the hot terminal (positive) first,
then the ground (negative). Done the other way around and you might
find yourself part of the circuit. 12 volts DC SHOULDN'T kill you,
but it can hurt.

--

- dillon I am not invalid

I love my country, It's my government I fear.

Hey, turnabout's fair play.

 

I've been wondering the same thing. My 2001 Accord has the original
battery in it and there are no issues with it at all. I have owned it
since December 16th of 2000. For that matter, the only things that have
been replaced in its 208,250 kilometres are the rotors and pads, timing
belt and water pump, air and cabin filtres and the two rear wheel
bearings since it was new. Along with the usual oil and filtre changes
and tires in its life.

 

Well, I live in Arizona, temps range 20F to 120F, usually six months out
of the year it's 100+. I don't remember getting much more than three
years out of a battery, Ford, Chevy, Mazda, Toyota, doesn't much matter.
And I'm pretty diligent about keeping them filled & terminals clean.
We'll see how the 08 CR-V does...it's just over 2 yrs old now but just
hit 10K miles the other day and spends a lot of its time garaged.

 

I used to live in Northern Illinois. I used to get 6-8 years on a battery
when I lived there.

The thing is, you only see those temperature extremes for a couple of days,
maybe a week, in any given year. (actually in the 18 years I lived in
Northern Illinois the coldest it ever got was -22F & that only lasted 2
days).

You also only get a few days of 102F, maybe a week or two in the high 90's
if its a really bad summer.

Here in Texas we get a month or two of 100+F. Its death on batteries. 2-3
years on a battery is considered a success, & that assumes constant
maintenance in the summer to insure the cells don't dry out. The longest I
ever got out of a battery here was an OEM Nissan battery from Japan in an
Infiniti that lasted 6 years. I have yet to encounter a Honda battery that
lasts longer then 3 years here.

 

Hi,

I just bought an 06 Civic which has Honda battery that I assume is the
original. This battery says "guaranteed 100 months". I'm really
impressed with the car, first Honda I have owned. I have had Nissans
for 15 years. To me as an engineer Honda's design and quality are
excellent. If the battery lasts for 100 months it will be a revalation
to me. Most of the batteries I have had of late, Autozone, WalMart,
Advance Auto have lasted 3-4 years. Tha'ts in Maryland where
temperatures range from 20F to 110F.

Al Moodie.