Battery Bad After 25 Months

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Brought my 2019 Odyssey into the stealership for a recall. They claimed that they couldn’t even start the car and that the battery was dead. I found this odd because I never had this problem previously with the van. They wanted about $400 to replace the battery :sweat_smile: . So I just lied and said I couldn’t afford it.

After picking the van, I used it for the rest of the day, started it about four additional times with no issue. I came to the pre-emptive conclusion that the stealership was just being the stealership, or maybe the accidentally left the light on or something like that.

However, today I couldn’t start it. I went and got a new battery. I got this van last year, and didn’t see any maintenance history about replacing the battery, so thought the old battery was from 2018 or 2019 and the original battery, long past due.

However, I was shocked to see that the battery was heat stamped with “0824” on the side of the battery case. It had “manufactured for Honda” written on a sticker on it, so I concluded it was a Honda battery. I got this van with about 55k on it, and I have put about 25k miles on it so far. I don’t believe the previous owner drove it much.

My question, it seems extremely odd to me that the old battery would have gone bad after 25 months, so I’m a bit concerned that the battery going bad is a symptom of some other problem. I tested the old battery with a cheap tester from O’Riley. It said it was bad and to replace. I charged the old battery up to 100 % using a charger. Re-tested with the tester and it reflected 100 % charged and 85 % for the state of health. I thought I should be able to start it, and put the old battery back in, but it wouldn’t start. So I took the old battery back out and put in the new one, haven’t had any issues yet.

The old battery is Honda part number 31500-TZ3-A21.

Thoughts, did I just get unlucky with the battery lasting only 25 months? There was no corrosion on the terminals of the old battery. If a parasitic draw killed the old battery, would fully charging it like I had allow me to start the car?

2

A new battery can go bad if it sat on the shelf too long.

Tester

3

You drove the vehicle after starting the engine, they started the engine 5 times just to move the vehicle 20 feet each time. You were unaware the battery had degraded to the point of failure before they told you it will no longer start the engine.

I have replaced hundreds of batteries for free during the 24 month warranty period; Heat exposure. How hot is your engine compartment? Excessive idling?