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 . 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?
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?
A lot of people don’t trust the stealership and it costs salesmen if the manufacturer misnames things or shows three women buying a car without a man present. People complained about that commercial. Customers are suspicious when “all weather guard” is used instead of rear window defroster with higher capacity battery and alternator and the salesman is caught flat-footed without an immediate response. Customer says “I’m not paying for car wax.” What we think is stealing could just be incompetence. It takes away from the good things there and the free coffee.
Brand new batteries go bad. That’s why they come with a warranty.
We recently had to replace the battery in my wife’s Honda Pilot. It failed out of the blue after church one Sunday. Battery was less than 2 years old. Took it to Walmart, along with the receipt, and they gave us a new battery on the spot, no charge.
This is why I buy all of my car batteries from Walmart.
Just make sure that the vehicles charging system will fully charge the AGM battery…
In the Tacoma (and others) 3rd and maybe 2nd gen world, the ECU controls the alternator output and will normally on charge to about 13.7 volts, whereas an AGM battery likes to run about 14.2-14.4 volts to be fully charged…
So the ECU will either need to be recoded to up the voltage (like an OTT tune is cable of) to fully charge the AGM battery or the user will have to fully charge the AGM battery about once a month or so, or the AGM will never be fully charged once installed and ran…
Again, different vehicles may/will vary, need to check your alternator’s output voltage to confirm what you have…
Ii had an acura battery go bad in three years. My last walmart battery was dead in one year. They dont exchange on spot anymore. I only buy delco batteries now.
reputations need to be carefully guarded. I was at the gm dealer some years ago fir a recall. The kid there tried to tell mevi had a couple bad oil leaks. 20 years ago the treatment of a woman customer was one for the books. I hope they have changed. I want my wife to feel ok about going to the local dealership but so far only thevlarger ones. Seem to have gotten the message.
We’ve dealt with three dealerships near us. The Ford dealer is out of business but the Chevy and Honda dealerships are still around. Both provided good service. The Honda dealership was sold recently. We will probably find out how good the new owner is for service when we get the timing belt replaced around 105,000 miles. We’re at 76,000 now, so there’s about 3 years until we get that work done.
AGM batteries have a long service life if mounted in the trunk. I have replaced AGM batteries that lasted two years under the hood.
How does a battery leak oil?
My service manager told the service writers that all oil leaks are bad, there are no “good” oil leaks. Service meetings are brief.
Well, responding to the negative term used for dealerships. While i have a positive opinion, the kid tried to tell me i should have the seals replaced. Bogus. That was about 8 years ago and prior to that i was not happy with their treatment of a female friend. Hopefully they have changed and joined the new world and picked their knuckles off the ground. Reputations easily lost and hard to rebuild. You need to read all of the posts to see that a battery was only part of it. I hope your dealership is fair and treat women customers with respect.
I did read each reply, people got distracted by the negativite remark. Those negative remarks were being discouraged but you chose to reignite the fire.
The short answer is yes. Parasitic draw will discharge the battery overtime, not immediately after charging. How quickly the battery discharges depends on how many amps the parasitic draw is. If you think you might have a parasitic draw, test it, there are instructional videos available online.
Lead-acid batteries loose their charge just sitting on the shelf. When I buy and install a battery, I fully charge it before I install it. I and another person on this site use solar panel chargers on our vehicles that see less use. If your van is garaged, no parasitic draw, and is infrequently use, condor a plug in battery maintainer. My jump pack has sealed lead-acid batteries, rarely used, but gets charged the first of every month. GF has a disability scooter, with sealed, lead-acid batteries, if not used for several weeks, manufacturer recommends leaving on charger for 48 hours, To further digress from cars, my lawn mower may sit several weeks without use. I put the battery on a charger while I am usining my weed whacker. Then the battery is nearly at full charge when I start my mower.
As far as dealerships, the dealership where I had purchased all my cars from for 20 years is under new ownership. I used the dealership for all service/maintenance since their prices were competitive, they occasionally threw in some freebies. I not sure about the new owners. Every service requires an appointment, must call in, I don’t even get to talk to a service writer, just an appointment setter. Truck is out of warranty, it will be going to an independent shop. Car is nearing the end of warranty.
Depending on where you live can have a large effect on battery life. In western NY he got an average of 7 years out of a battery ln south Florida it is 2-3 years.
. So I just lied and said I couldn’t afford it.
