My friend had an Accord of your generation and went through batteries just like you, but in Ohio. The dealer told him it was a common issue on that particular car.
Another battery bites the dust...
- Thread starter gregk24
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Where do you live? When I first moved to Texas I absolutely annihilated batteries due to heat. Best I ever did at high temp was 3 years.
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My Die Hard Golds always lasted 7 years in my 300ZX like clockwork. I just put one in my Accord a few weeks ago. I'm curious to see if it lasts as long in my Accord as it did in my Z.
Ill check and report back as soon as I can
What size battery ??
Is it the whoopty Doo group 51r ??
Aka the small weight saving battery ?
If so... Upgrade to a group 35... Which many people have successfully done. It is a good amount better of a battery vs the whooptified group 51r.
Or better yet... If a group 24f can fit .. put that in there. And if the group 24f can't fit... Would it be possible to get a new battery tray that would allow a group 24f to fit as long as the surrounding area would permit a large battery to fit ? ?
Is it the whoopty Doo group 51r ??
Aka the small weight saving battery ?
If so... Upgrade to a group 35... Which many people have successfully done. It is a good amount better of a battery vs the whooptified group 51r.
Or better yet... If a group 24f can fit .. put that in there. And if the group 24f can't fit... Would it be possible to get a new battery tray that would allow a group 24f to fit as long as the surrounding area would permit a large battery to fit ? ?
If that was th case people in Los Angelas,phx and vegas would be having battery trouble.
People in Texas do not get a very long battery life.
I got 80 mts then 7+ years out of my last 2 living in the south end of Death Valley.
$4.99 ctech wallwart from Harbor Freight. I have 2. And thanks for the reminder to plug in the one I have permanently installed on the Rat. Works great on OPE too. Newer cars have lower output regulators for max mpg. If you let a car sit for 2weeks , you should be using a battery tender for maximum battery life
Gonna get shot for saying this, but Florida isn’t really that hot. No different than a nice summer day in Indiana. It’s the humidity and sun that get you.
Interestingly ^^^^^^
That is a true observation... It actually gets hotter on average in areas northeast of Florida like Athens GA northeast to Columbia SC, and northeast from there into the Raleigh NC area.... And sometimes into my area of southeast Va... We hit 105° for a high temp in the summer of 2010 in my area.
It is very very rare for much of Florida to get over 100 degrees. The area in Florida more likely to get that hot is north of interstate 10 and going along and west into the Florida panhandle.
Of course Florida has maximum humidity... Dew points routinely 75°+... No sweat evaporation in that state.
Same temperature phenomena is found along the other Gulf states... Where it is hotter in Lafayette LA, Jackson Mississippi, and into Montgomery AL vs areas south towards the Gulf coast. Away from the waters of the Gulf of Mexico allows for more heat to build in those areas as well. Though the Gulf does supply plenty of humidity to move northward into those interior regions creating extremely high heat index's in those areas.
My 2009 F150 has a small constant drain. If the truck sits for a few weeks, the battery will be dead. As you might expect, because I travel the truck sits and the batteries get "deep cycled" with some regularity. Costco batteries have been the best deal going. 2-3 years is about what I get.
I don't drive to work and do mostly short trips on the weekend.
The occasional road trip brings my annual mileage to 5-6000 miles.
Before I got a solar panel I used to charge the battery every 3 months overnight with an adjustable power supply set to 14V.
Last time I changed a battery it was 9 y.o. and working well, but I didn't trust it for a 10th winter.
The replacement Everstart Maxx was 3 y.o. when a hit-and-run driver totaled the car.
The occasional road trip brings my annual mileage to 5-6000 miles.
Before I got a solar panel I used to charge the battery every 3 months overnight with an adjustable power supply set to 14V.
Last time I changed a battery it was 9 y.o. and working well, but I didn't trust it for a 10th winter.
The replacement Everstart Maxx was 3 y.o. when a hit-and-run driver totaled the car.
There are only a few automotive lead acid battery manufacturers, that the OEMs choose from as do we all, so all you really did was pay 200% the going rate for something that the OEM slapped their label on, unless it was an AGM then more like 50% higher cost.
I'm a few degrees warmer than (central) Indiana and my peak summer high temps may not be much lower than FL but the rest of the year it is significant. For example last night, the low was upper 70's in FL, but 38F here. Batteries aren't like humans with a set core temp and a need to sweat to bring that down, instead the lifespan can still decrease at less than extreme, increases in temp.
The use environment wasn't mentioned but a few things that can make battery life worse include undersized battery (even if the OEM spec'd that), idle traffic with hot engine compartment, longer periods unused so a deeper % of discharge from parasitic drain, or of course an equipment failure like leaky diodes in the alternator or corroded contacts.
I've no problem getting 5+ years out of Johnson Controls' made, Walmart Everstart Maxx, but even on a recent purchase where the OEM spec'd a downsized battery, I got the largest that would fit in the available space. I like to use group 65 if that will fit, good capacity
rice ratio and very common size. Of course it won't fit on smaller cars.If it had a 51 in it, I don't doubt it.
I bought my Accord new. The first winter with it (in a cold climate) it became very apparent to me that the prescribed battery was woefully inadequate.
I put a 35 in. The only modification required is bending back two tabs on the bracket.
Fits perfect. The V6 version used the 35.
Have had much better luck with the 35. Replaced the Autocraft Gold (#2 battery) with a top of the line NAPA a couple of years ago, due to the AG leaking like a sieve around the posts.
More appropriate choice, and it opens up a wider array of choice in batteries.
If you go with a 24f, the tray doesn't fit (or so I've been told.)
With the 35, the modification can be taken care of simply with a pair of pliers.
MOst people would be amazed at just how small of a lead acid battery could be used, when newish and fully charged, to start a modern fuel injected engine.
I've started my 5.2 liter v8 on an 11.1 Lb AGM with 18 amp hours capacity and what I estimate is about 170CCA, when it had not been started in 2 weeks. Starting a more recently run engine requires less peak amperage for lesser duration and starting a warm engine is much easier on the whole battery starter and the circuit between the two..
A bigger battery is a good thing, in everything but for MPG, as it is heavier, and automakers do everything they can within reason to cut weight. The easiest way to shed weight, is with a smaller battery along with other benefits upto the point the owner takes delivery.
A larger battery will be less discharged by parasitic loads all other factors being equal.
A less discharged battery, loses its capacity/performance/CCA slower than a battery that is more regularly discharged deeper.
The lower the battery voltage falls during engine starting, the more amperage the starter uses, and the more voltage drop occurs on the circuit feeding the starter. A starter getting higher voltage will not only start quicker and reduce stress on starter via less time cranking, but there will be less heating of the internals and they will wear slower as well.
These tiny special size batteries, can be as expensive as their much larger counterparts with much higher CCA and capacity.
If you can stuff a larger battery in the engine compartment, and are not a hypermiler, you will be replacing batteries less often.
If the size battery you can stuff in the engine vcompartment, is offered as a marine battery as well( group 24 for example) these have slughtly thicker less porous fragile plates and should last longer and still have more than enough CCA for the application, despite marine batteries in general having less CCA than starting batteries of equal size.
But all lead acid battteries lifespans are determined by their average temperature, and their average state of charge. Ideal is kept cool and 100% fully charged always.
'Ideal' is unrealistic.
Defects aside, The 'best' lead battery kept chronically undercharged will not outlast the worst kept fully charged.
A larger battery will likely last significantly longer, due to a larger thermal mass requiring longer to heat up to underhood temperatures, as well as being depleted to a lesser extent of % by the same parasitic loads applied for the same timespans.
The larger battery will maintain higher voltages during starting loads, taking some stress off the starter and its circuit.
The larger battery can be depleted to a lower level % wise, and stand a much higher chance of still starting the engine.
A larger battery, if well depleted, will require the alternator work harder for longer meaning running hotter and a corresponding reduction in lifespan. Not an issue if driving at a good clip with lots of underhood airflow, but much harder on alternator when parked and idling, not just because of lack of underhood airflow, but because the alternator fan is spinning much slower.
An unhealthy battery requires lesser amperage than a healthy battery to be brought upto higher voltages when well discharged
. A new depleted battery can therefore put significantly more stress on an alternator, than an older sulfated battery.
At higher states of charge, the healthy battery requires lesser amperages to be held at charging voltages, than the unhealthy battery.
For example a 99% charged group 24 battery might only require 0.8 amps to be held at 14.2c
A 99% charged unhealthy group 24 battery might only require 1.5 to 2.5 amps to be held at 14.2v
I have no Data on how much a battery with a shorted cell requires to be held at 14.2v. Would love some.
The Weak battery taking out an alternator claim often repeated, might only be valid, on a battery with a shorted cell, but the additional amperage the alternator needs to hold a healthy nearly fully charged battery, and an unhealthy battery nearly fully charged, is such a tiny difference as to be inconsequential.
It is highly likely, that it is not the failing weak old battery that takes out an alternator, but a weak failing alternator that took out the battery, and cause and effect might be reverse of what is assumed. Replace the battery then have issues with it and then it is realized the alternator is not working as it should, and likely has not been for a while.
Saying a weak battery (without a shorted cell) takes out the alternator is, in my opinion, an old wives tale, which will never die, and I know these words will be wasted on most, as they have heard it over and over so many times for so long it is etched in stone, without any supporting facts.
Without having collected data on just how much extra amperage a battery with a shorted cell requires to be held at charging voltages, I will not definitively state that this can not contribute to the premature demise of an alternator.
As somebody who works the living SNOT out of my alternators charging well depleted healthy batteries over thic copper circuits and manual voltage regulation for fast as safely possible charging, I've serious doubts even 20 additional amps of electrical load on an alternator is going to push it over the edge. The extra ~2 amps of a nearly fully charged sulfated battery requires over a new healthy one at nearly fully charged status, is certainly not the straw which broke the camels back.
20 extra amps is what I estimate a car sized battery with a shorted cell requires, but I have not collected data on this. Yet.
A failing alternator and failing battery might happen within a short period of time of each other, but I think in 95% of cases it is the weak alternator taking out the weak sulfated battery, rather than the weak battery taking out the alternator.
Consider it highly likely the cause and effect are reversed from the initial assumption.
If two additional amps required of an alternator were enough to overheat it and destroy it, then stop trying to charge your cell phone while driving. Well, one might be OK, but two, and Smoke will start pouring out from under the hood, and no one should ever drive at night as the 15 amps the headlights require will cause a complete meltdown of the stator windings.
I've measured a 2.4f increase in alternator casing temperature adding 20 amps of load, in around town driving, from 136f to 138.4.
Danger zone for alternators is in the 220F+ range.
Always happy for more data, but not for old wives tales devoid of it, repeated endlessly as if absolute fact.
I've started my 5.2 liter v8 on an 11.1 Lb AGM with 18 amp hours capacity and what I estimate is about 170CCA, when it had not been started in 2 weeks. Starting a more recently run engine requires less peak amperage for lesser duration and starting a warm engine is much easier on the whole battery starter and the circuit between the two..
A bigger battery is a good thing, in everything but for MPG, as it is heavier, and automakers do everything they can within reason to cut weight. The easiest way to shed weight, is with a smaller battery along with other benefits upto the point the owner takes delivery.
A larger battery will be less discharged by parasitic loads all other factors being equal.
A less discharged battery, loses its capacity/performance/CCA slower than a battery that is more regularly discharged deeper.
The lower the battery voltage falls during engine starting, the more amperage the starter uses, and the more voltage drop occurs on the circuit feeding the starter. A starter getting higher voltage will not only start quicker and reduce stress on starter via less time cranking, but there will be less heating of the internals and they will wear slower as well.
These tiny special size batteries, can be as expensive as their much larger counterparts with much higher CCA and capacity.
If you can stuff a larger battery in the engine compartment, and are not a hypermiler, you will be replacing batteries less often.
If the size battery you can stuff in the engine vcompartment, is offered as a marine battery as well( group 24 for example) these have slughtly thicker less porous fragile plates and should last longer and still have more than enough CCA for the application, despite marine batteries in general having less CCA than starting batteries of equal size.
But all lead acid battteries lifespans are determined by their average temperature, and their average state of charge. Ideal is kept cool and 100% fully charged always.
'Ideal' is unrealistic.
Defects aside, The 'best' lead battery kept chronically undercharged will not outlast the worst kept fully charged.
A larger battery will likely last significantly longer, due to a larger thermal mass requiring longer to heat up to underhood temperatures, as well as being depleted to a lesser extent of % by the same parasitic loads applied for the same timespans.
The larger battery will maintain higher voltages during starting loads, taking some stress off the starter and its circuit.
The larger battery can be depleted to a lower level % wise, and stand a much higher chance of still starting the engine.
A larger battery, if well depleted, will require the alternator work harder for longer meaning running hotter and a corresponding reduction in lifespan. Not an issue if driving at a good clip with lots of underhood airflow, but much harder on alternator when parked and idling, not just because of lack of underhood airflow, but because the alternator fan is spinning much slower.
An unhealthy battery requires lesser amperage than a healthy battery to be brought upto higher voltages when well discharged
. A new depleted battery can therefore put significantly more stress on an alternator, than an older sulfated battery.
At higher states of charge, the healthy battery requires lesser amperages to be held at charging voltages, than the unhealthy battery.
For example a 99% charged group 24 battery might only require 0.8 amps to be held at 14.2c
A 99% charged unhealthy group 24 battery might only require 1.5 to 2.5 amps to be held at 14.2v
I have no Data on how much a battery with a shorted cell requires to be held at 14.2v. Would love some.
The Weak battery taking out an alternator claim often repeated, might only be valid, on a battery with a shorted cell, but the additional amperage the alternator needs to hold a healthy nearly fully charged battery, and an unhealthy battery nearly fully charged, is such a tiny difference as to be inconsequential.
It is highly likely, that it is not the failing weak old battery that takes out an alternator, but a weak failing alternator that took out the battery, and cause and effect might be reverse of what is assumed. Replace the battery then have issues with it and then it is realized the alternator is not working as it should, and likely has not been for a while.
Saying a weak battery (without a shorted cell) takes out the alternator is, in my opinion, an old wives tale, which will never die, and I know these words will be wasted on most, as they have heard it over and over so many times for so long it is etched in stone, without any supporting facts.
Without having collected data on just how much extra amperage a battery with a shorted cell requires to be held at charging voltages, I will not definitively state that this can not contribute to the premature demise of an alternator.
As somebody who works the living SNOT out of my alternators charging well depleted healthy batteries over thic copper circuits and manual voltage regulation for fast as safely possible charging, I've serious doubts even 20 additional amps of electrical load on an alternator is going to push it over the edge. The extra ~2 amps of a nearly fully charged sulfated battery requires over a new healthy one at nearly fully charged status, is certainly not the straw which broke the camels back.
20 extra amps is what I estimate a car sized battery with a shorted cell requires, but I have not collected data on this. Yet.
A failing alternator and failing battery might happen within a short period of time of each other, but I think in 95% of cases it is the weak alternator taking out the weak sulfated battery, rather than the weak battery taking out the alternator.
Consider it highly likely the cause and effect are reversed from the initial assumption.
If two additional amps required of an alternator were enough to overheat it and destroy it, then stop trying to charge your cell phone while driving. Well, one might be OK, but two, and Smoke will start pouring out from under the hood, and no one should ever drive at night as the 15 amps the headlights require will cause a complete meltdown of the stator windings.
I've measured a 2.4f increase in alternator casing temperature adding 20 amps of load, in around town driving, from 136f to 138.4.
Danger zone for alternators is in the 220F+ range.
Always happy for more data, but not for old wives tales devoid of it, repeated endlessly as if absolute fact.
Thus why I said to maybe... Get a new battery tray if you wanted to or even could possibly fit a group 24f...
Though I could certainly see where a slightly larger tray may not fit...
My group 24f fits the battery tray barely... I have about 1/2 to 3/4 inch tolerance between both sides long ways. So it is a bit of a tight fit. .
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