My stepdaughter bought a brand new CR-V last March. In the 15 months she's owned it, she managed to rack up 40,000 miles. Last Saturday, she calls us and says her car is dead and won't respond to the key fob. I said open the door with the key and make sure the battery is still there. It was. She called AAA and they came and jumped it. She drove to whatever errands she had to do and went home and parked it.
Next morning, she was bringing it to me to see if I can figure out what was wrong. Battery was stone dead again. I reminded her I had given her one of those tiny jumper packs for Christmas and she replied oh, is that what that is? She opened it up and thankfully, it started the car. An hour later, the car is at my house.
First thing I did was check the battery with my Midtronics battery tester. Battery tested good. Then I lifted the negative cable and put my meter across the negative post to cable end on 400 Milliamps. I had like .02 ma. I left it that way for an hour and found nothing wrong. I charged the battery and sent her back home saying it's probably going to happen again and may need to go to Honda. Surely, it happened again. She made an appointment and brought it to Honda yesterday. They diagnosed it as a failed body control module. Makes sense as her neighbor told her the lights were on the night before. Dealer tells her 900 dollars. She flipped out. The service manager reminded her the car was out of it's 36,000 mile warranty. He also asked her What do you expect? A car that never breaks down? She fought with him some more and they agreed to eat 80% of the repair.
I still feel like she's being robbed. When the car had 16,000 miles on it she brought it in for some routine scheduled maintenance and they drained the transmission and held it hostage for a huge flush bill. I swear... Makes me want to NEVER buy anything new.
I looked up the body module and found it for 211 dollars. Too bad there's no way to program this stuff yourself.
Honda CR-V Battery Drain
- Thread starter NYEngineer
- Start date
If this is the CR-V with the electric parking brake, I hope they also updated the software for that module. There was a TSB for battery drain issues related to the EPB.
I have no idea if this car has an electric parking brake. Thanks for that. I'll see.
Yeah, man. Who knew? I wasn't with her when she bought it. My wife's Kia Sorento had a 100,000 mile warranty. I guess you gotta watch your back these days.
Did she take it to a Dealer in NYC? The dealers here are pretty sleazy. I'd never let them touch my car.
When our family had a 1999 Cadillac Deville, we took it to a local dealer to diagnose a battery drain. The dealer kept it for a week, took most of the interior apart, and claimed the body control module was the problem. They charged $900 to replace it along with other things.
It didn't solve the problem. The real problem was an aftermarket CD changer in the trunk that wasn't turning off. We unplugged it and never had a problem in the next 10 years we had the car.
Our OEM 2017 CRV battery lasted 2.5 years. This was the quickest death of any oem battery I've ever dealt with.
Before you get to deep, think about battery replacement. The dealer MAY offer some discount, even if off warranty. I wanted a better battery anyway.
Since I replaced, no more problems.
Check your multimeter fuse because you've probably blown it. For one, the 400mA range isn't high enough to handle the inrush current from reconnecting the battery, and might not even be enough for the electronics until it goes into a lower power mode (timer based circuit). Second, there's no way it draws as low as .02mA in its lowest power mode, so that looks like multimeter error. It's not outside the realm of possibility it could draw as low as 20mA (aka 0.02A), but move the decimal point any more than that and it's not possible to be 2mA, or 0.2mA, let alone 0.02mA.
I'd be suspect of the shop's diagnosis, often shady shops will tell you it's some computer module to charge a premium, then sneakily repair some lesser cost item. Be sure to ask for the old body computer back and personally, I'd have put a small mark on it somewhere so you can identify that it came from your vehicle.
The problem is not buying something new, it's that dealership in particular, but there are as many bad shops as good ones out there whether it be from incompetence, deliberate deception, or just suggesting things get done before really needed.
Personally, I'd have checked local junkyards for the module from similar year vehicle with same trim or at least engine, then it may have the right programming already... something to ask about in a Honda owner's forum.
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User5555... Bayshore, NY Theyre pretty sleazy too.
oil boyd, She lives in an apartment. Keys are nowhere near the car when she isnt in it.
Mr_Joe, I did change the battery when I found nothing else wrong. It has a Duralast Gold with 100 more CCA than the stocker. Feel kinda foolish for spending the money.
Dave9, thats a great idea looking for a module in a similar car. I meant not wanting a new car because I like fixing my stuff myself. On the RARE occasion I need to farm something out on my 09 Suburban, the couple of shops I do business with are able to program new electronics for me. Two years ago I had to do the anti lock brake module in my truck. I swapped it out and my friend programmed it. Total cost was probably 240 bucks. Dealer quoted me over 800.
Actually you probably we're not foolish for getting a new battery. A full drain and discharge on a starter battery is rather tough on them and especially given it likely was a group 51r battery. Plus adding to that it likely was being drained for a long time prior to being discharged... That battery was in very poor shape in all likelihood.
The part of replacing that battery that really stung was since it was Sunday, I didn't want to bother my brother. He's an Exide dealer. I paid 175 for the battery. The next day I was telling him about it and he says what model battery? I say 51r. He says oh, those are the same ones for the home generators. I have a bunch of them. 80 bucks.
JHZR2
Staff member
Originally Posted by NYEngineer
Then I lifted the negative cable and put my meter across the negative post to cable end on 400 Milliamps. I had like .02 ma. I left it that way for an hour and found nothing wrong.
JZHR2, I started on the highter setting and saw it go to sleep. I then tried the lower setting and it did blow the fuse.
I think I mentioned earlier that one of her neighbors said her lights were on the night before. They went on while the car was parked. Shouldnt have happened.
The battery was a Duralast Gold at Autozone. Three year free replacement warranty. Platinum was almost 200 dollars, the basic battery was 150. I HATE paying retail but what can you do on Sunday? My brother works hard every day. I dont want to take him from his family on his rare day off.
Originally Posted by Mr_Joe
Our OEM 2017 CRV battery lasted 2.5 years. This was the quickest death of any oem battery I've ever dealt with.
Before you get to deep, think about battery replacement. The dealer MAY offer some discount, even if off warranty. I wanted a better battery anyway.
Since I replaced, no more problems.
The CRV battery going dead is a common thread on Honda forums.
The battery is small, and the charging system has two stages, one where it supplies 14.2 v and another at about 12.5. The higher charging rate kicks in if it detects a higher load, like turning on several accessories.
What happens is the battery is frequently left under charged.
This to get that last .002 mpg for advertising and EPA.
It sacrifices the already too small battery for an ever so slight mpg improvement.
Turning on the air conditioning triggers the higher voltage, so people just leave it on.
When failing these batteries can check out good at the dealer because of how they test them, so people come back several times before it finally tests bad. Then they sell you another cheap small stock battery that will fail again.
Another problem, which I had on two recent Honda purchases, a civic and a CRV. Is they sit on the lot and the battery goes dead, they quickly charge it before the sale, but the damage has already been done and its useful life has been shortened.
In my case, the batteries in both cars were dead, but the dealer put in new larger Die Hard 35s instead of the smaller stock batteries.
Originally Posted by ondarvr
The CRV battery going dead is a common thread on Honda forums.
The battery is small, and the charging system has two stages, one where it supplies 14.2 v and another at about 12.5. The higher charging rate kicks in if it detects a higher load, like turning on several accessories.
What happens is the battery is frequently left under charged.
This to get that last .002 mpg for advertising and EPA.
It sacrifices the already too small battery for an ever so slight mpg improvement.
Turning on the air conditioning triggers the higher voltage, so people just leave it on.
When failing these batteries can check out good at the dealer because of how they test them, so people come back several times before it finally tests bad. Then they sell you another cheap small stock battery that will fail again.
Another problem, which I had on two recent Honda purchases, a civic and a CRV. Is they sit on the lot and the battery goes dead, they quickly charge it before the sale, but the damage has already been done and its useful life has been shortened.
In my case, the batteries in both cars were dead, but the dealer put in new larger Die Hard 35s instead of the smaller stock batteries.
