Does the car often sit unused for a week or more at a time? My car batteries seem to age much faster when they don’t get used.
“Short (less than 10-20 miles) trips don’t charge the battery enough to keep it sustained.”
I profoundly disagree with that statement
My trip to work is right in that range, about 15 miles, part street, part freeway, and my batteries do just fine. They last about 4-5 years, and that relatively short life is probably due to the relative heat in Los Angeles, not my driving pattern
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db, you are absolutely correct.My daily commute is only 10 miles, after all.
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Mileage is only one aspect. I’ll propose, like most things, it depends on a number of factors. Imagine the person living in Refrigerator Falls. They are going to start the car and likely have every battery draining feature running immediately; fans on full blast, seat heaters, window defrosters, headlamps and so on. Idling, what is the alternator putting out for headroom under those conditions to restore the energy used to start the car? Even when running down the road, there may not be much headroom available under those conditions as compared to a more mild climate commute. Now consider different commutes. What if one person goes 10 miles but mainly city streets with lots of stop lights/idling versus the person with very few idle times and highway speeds all the way where the alternator is putting out max amps…so it depends
I almost always cringe when I hear someone say their battery was dead, somebody jumped it and then they just drove it around as usual, expecting the alternator to fully restore the battery. If this happens to any of my batteries, they get trickle charged until fully restored ASAP…
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Isn’t that where Bullwinkle was from? 
I thought it was Frostbite Falls, MN.
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Oh yeah, that’s it, thanks.
@TwinTurbo is spot on. I disabled the easy entry option on my power seat, and I don’t use the fob to unlock 'cause it turns on every blooming light inside and out. The last thing you need if a battery is borderline is to suck those last drops of energy out of it for convenience sake.
Another cause can be running errands - shut off, start up, drive 1 mile, repeat.
So, my mechanic finally got a low reading and put in a new battery Two questions - I think he should have told me to replace it at 50% bec him trying to squeeze more life out of the battery got me stuck on the side of the road. Second, with the new battery (no idea what brand) everything is fine except that when I switch from “auto” to manually turn on the lights, the headlights do go on but the interior lights all dim. Is that normal?
Here is what I have heard from my Honda guy. He says the I-4 2.4 engine found on the Accord and CRV can go through batteries quick if they are not given enough driving time on the highway. They have had to replace batteries on these cars because they do not charge when sitting idle or if driven for primarily short distances. Some mechanics make a big mistake and replace the alternator, which is costly and does not solve the problem.
I would first have the battery tested for strength and corrosion, if that does not seem to solve the problem then I would have a parasitic draw test conducted to see where voltage is leaking. I have 3 different honda’s where the door switch ($10) part has failed. A parasitic draw test would catch that issues.
Honda’s have always dimmed, etc when switching voltage loads. I think they are on a mission to make the most economical system that uses the least amount of power for better mpg, etc.
It’s normal for the other lights to dim a little when the headlights come on, esp on bright. You can do an impromptu alternator test using light brightness btw. If the headlights are noticeably dimmer when the engine isn’t running vs when the engine is running, that means the alternator is working.