Another 2018 12v battery bites the dust.

Fast Eddie B

Fast Eddie B

Well-Known Member
I’ve posted in other threads that my strategy was going to be to replace the original battery in my 2018 Clarity after 3 years. That would have been next month.

But yesterday I went to start it and got a series of hazard warnings cycling through the display: charge cable still connected, low tire pressure, traction control error plus a few others, and the car wouldn’t start. I had an appointment to make, and went on a motorcycle instead.

When I got home, I checked the battery voltage and it was 7.2 volts connected to the car and 9.7 disconnected. I put it on a fast 10A “Boost” charge and within 20 minutes it was over 12v and enough to start the car. I needed to run around on a bunch of errands and it ran just fine after all the systems recalibrated and it started fine each time. As a data point, the car had not been driven in several days, was plugged into 120v the whole time and temps have been a bit cooler here in E TN, dropping into the 40’s overnight.

I went by a local O’Reilly’s and was a bit surprised at the $179 price of a replacement, but knew prices were up on everything and went ahead. They verified my old battery was bad…

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Anyway, I had considered stopping by my local Costco but didn’t feel like shopping around for the very best price. Looking it up online, it seems my time would have been well spent!

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Same 3 year warranty and CCA. Live and learn, I guess. O’Reilly’s policy is:

Low Price Guarantee
O'Reilly Auto Parts strives to provide the lowest possible price to our customers; however, we are currently unable to price match online competitors. Our retail locations do have a low price guarantee and will match the price of most local competitors.

I may swing by and see if they’re willing to make any allowance at all.
 
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I probably need to hook up my good battery tester and check mine since it is just as old or older since my car was built in Oct 2017. I got a charging system problem light / check engine light a couple weeks ago which eventually cleared.


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Groves Cooke said:
My 12 volt battery was replaced for free by Honda about 2 months before the 36 month warranty on the car expired.
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OUCH! In my mind I was just generically “Out of warranty” since I’m way, way beyond 36,000 miles. Had not even considered the Honda battery warranty, and probably assumed it would be pro-rated anyway.

I’m usually way more price conscious than this. Like I said, live and learn - though at 72 you’d think I’d have learned more by now!
 
Mad_River said:
I probably need to hook up my good battery tester and check mine since it is just as old or older since my car was built in Oct 2017. I got a charging system problem light / check engine light a couple weeks ago which eventually cleared.
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I’d suggest just replacing it at the first opportunity. From mine and other’s experiences, you’re likely on borrowed time!
 
Fast Eddie B said:
I went by a local O’Reilly’s and was a bit surprised at the $179 price of a replacement, but knew prices were up on everything and went ahead.
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I saw the Interstate 51R at the local Costco for $89 last week. When the time comes to replace the original battery, I’ll go with the Honda replacement, which I believe is priced around $135. The 100 month warranty just beats the socks off every other warranty.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
I’d suggest just replacing it at the first opportunity. From mine and other’s experiences, you’re likely on borrowed time!
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Tester shows 12.5V resting, and good under load, so I will keep my jump pack in the trunk until it fails, then see if I can take advantage of the battery warranty if it is 100 months.

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Mad_River said:
I probably need to hook up my good battery tester and check mine since it is just as old or older since my car was built in Oct 2017. I got a charging system problem light / check engine light a couple weeks ago which eventually cleared.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
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The charging system problem is a bug but there is a software update that fixes this issue. Dealer will need to do it, but most times, they want to see the problem in action. Can't remember if there was a way to reproduce it, but would take a couple of stop/start to clear. Once that happens, I would drive straight to the dealer and show them the error while brining a copy of the TSB which shows how to apply the update.

Is it on warranty still or under Honda Care?
 
This afternoon I went by O’Reilly’s and made my case.

Let me just say they took care of me. I had mentioned to the manager I was posting online and he asked I not post the details, so I won’t. But it’s why I often shop O’Reilly’s over the others.

Still kicking myself over not remembering the battery had a month of warranty left, but let that be 2021’s biggest tragedy for me!
 
I have a 2018 Touring 16k. Already on my 2nd battery. Car still under warranty till December 2021. Honda service replaced both times, once in NY and just recently in Florida. I now carry a booster pack all the time. And if I go away for over a week I disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. After about a week or so the battery always dies if not disconnected. Also now have a trickle charger but if I say take a week long cruise the terminal gets disconnected.
 
Ralph413ralp said:
Already on my 2nd battery. Car still under warranty till December 2021. Honda service replaced both times, once in NY and just recently in Florida.
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Sounds like you’re on your 3rd battery, 2nd replacement.

Ralph413ralp said:
And if I go away for over a week I disconnect the negative terminal on the battery. After about a week or so the battery always dies if not disconnected.
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FWIW: I’ve left the car to sit for 3-4 weeks on two occasions without the battery losing its charge. There’s something draining your battery that should be. Parking a car for a week should not drain the battery. Not even in a car designed by Honda engineers. Something is wrong.

Since a Honda dealer provided both replacements, can we assume they were the Honda batteries with the 100 month warranty?
 
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Ralph413ralp said:
if I say take a week long cruise the terminal gets disconnected
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Do you have any accessories that would increase the parasitic drain above that of the baseline vehicle? A week to discharge does sound somewhat abnormal to me.

Landshark said:
Since a Honda dealer provided both replacements, can we assume they were the Honda batteries with the 100 month warranty?
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Please correct me if I am wrong... My understanding is that the original battery is only covered by the 3Y/36K (even though it is the same exact battery that you can buy with the 100 month warranty. I beleive if Honda replaces the original (once, or even twice - under warranty) that you would not get the 100 month warranty... They would only continue to honor the original 3Y/36K even with these replacements... It would only be if you purchase a battery with your own nickel after warranty that the 100 month would apply. This all seems to defy logic, but I beleive that is the way they do it.
 
I am on day three of an eight day out of town trip. Haven't had any problems with the 12V battery previous times I was out of town for a similar length of time, but have heard several anecdotes about Clarity owners coming home to a dead battery after just a week or two. I would prefer to reduce whatever potential loss of 12V battery charge may occur, even if the car starts when I get back that doesn't mean the battery wasn't possibly affected by a larger than normal discharge during the time that the car sat, which could shorten battery life. However I don't like to leave a battery maintainer running for extended periods, so I came up with another way to reduce whatever potential loss of 12V battery charge may occur. What I decided to do this time is I let the HV battery get down to around 60% SOC before I left for my trip, and I set a schedule to charge the HV battery for thirty minutes each night. Using level 1 that should bring SOC up to around 90% by the time I get back. And the 12V battery will get thirty minutes of charging each night which should be more than enough to maintain it at full charge.
 
Question to all those who had a bad 12V battery. The OEM batt has a status 'eye' What does the status 'eye' indicate when the batt was dead? Was it showed red outer circle and a green/blue dot in the middle?
 
Those eyes are a hygrometer that measures the specific gravity of only one cell. 12v car batteries have 6 cells. When a battery suddenly fails, it is usually because one of the 6 cells suffers a catastrophic failure, such as a plate in one cell shorting out, rendering entire battery useless because it is now permanently down to 10v or less, even though the remaining 5 cells (one of which has the eye) is fully charged and fine, and looks healthy thru the eye.

This means there is less than a 16.66% chance that the eye will indicate failure when the battery completely croaks and fails to provide 12+ volts.

The eyes are only useful for seeing a somewhat discharged state of an otherwise healthy battery. But they are not an indication of overall battery health.

Thise photo eyes are of very little value. Never rely on them. It’s why most manufacturers of batteries don’t even provide them.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
This afternoon I went by O’Reilly’s and made my case.

Let me just say they took care of me. I had mentioned to the manager I was posting online and he asked I not post the details, so I won’t. But it’s why I often shop O’Reilly’s over the others.

Still kicking myself over not remembering the battery had a month of warranty left, but let that be 2021’s biggest tragedy for me!
Click to expand...

I’ve found them to be one of the best stores. I’m willing to pay a little more to shop local, get some good advice, and have excellent customer service. And when the price is wrong, they do try to work with you if the product is identical.
 
su_A_ve said:
The charging system problem is a bug but there is a software update that fixes this issue. Dealer will need to do it, but most times, they want to see the problem in action. Can't remember if there was a way to reproduce it, but would take a couple of stop/start to clear. Once that happens, I would drive straight to the dealer and show them the error while brining a copy of the TSB which shows how to apply the update.

Is it on warranty still or under Honda Care?
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Had "a dead battery " after charging overnight situation twice within 3 weeks.
Dealership service did not find anything.
Do you happen to have a TSB # for the software update of the charging system?
 
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