Author Topic: Battery failure  (Read 81957 times)

Lord Voltermore

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #15 on: April 14, 2026, 09:48:37 AM »
the english language just has too many words for the "same" thing)

I agree ,acknowledge, admit, concede, concur, grant ,recognise  that English has too many words for the same, selfsame, matching ,identical ,indistinguishable, interchangeable, corresponding, equivalent word.  ;D      A thesaurus is not a dinosaur.   :D.
« Last Edit: April 14, 2026, 09:55:47 AM by Lord Voltermore »
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Kremmen

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #16 on: April 14, 2026, 10:21:28 AM »
There, Their, They're..... never mind
Let's be careful out there !

Fredbassett

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #17 on: April 17, 2026, 05:20:47 PM »
Sorry for the delay in updating. I bought a new Bosch S4018 battery from Tayna for £55.43 and fitted it myself. (I think Quikfit wanted £135 to include fitting). The car is working fine now, so the original Panasonic factory battery after 4 years was dead. Considering the 12v battery doesn’t spin a starter motor I would have thought they ought to last 10 years!

MikeRO

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #18 on: April 17, 2026, 06:47:07 PM »
Sorry for the delay in updating. I bought a new Bosch S4018 battery from Tayna for £55.43 and fitted it myself. (I think Quikfit wanted £135 to include fitting). The car is working fine now, so the original Panasonic factory battery after 4 years was dead. Considering the 12v battery doesn’t spin a starter motor I would have thought they ought to last 10 years!

I also recently had to replace the 12v battery and bought the same Bosch, no troubles since!

stani

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #19 on: May 01, 2026, 08:32:20 AM »
So yesterday the same thing happened to me. I tried the update, it didn't take long, just a few minutes, the update wasn't available, just the manual, so I let it download, halfway through the download (via wi-fi), the main display went out and the driver's display showed various warnings about problems. I tried turning the car off and on again - nothing, everything was locked incl. the gear lever.

It's my first hybrid, I didn't know what it was, I thought the car had somehow locked up in the software. I called Honda Assistance, they don't advise anything, they send a tow truck, the tow truck doesn't advise either (even though they could), they just load the car up and take it to the Honda service center.

The mechanic told me that it was a dead 12V battery. Apparently there is a fuse in the car that says that if the 12V battery is discharged below a certain level, the car simply won't go any further. He told me that all I had to do was use a jump starter (which I have in my car, of course), and then drive the car to a place where the 12V battery can be recharged. A tow truck could have easily done it, and charged the battery only enough to put the car in "N" and load it. Because if they started the car, they would have lost money on the transport.
I was also told by the tow truck that they come out to "dead" hybrids quite often.

The mechanic told me that every time I enter the infotainment system (update, set up, tune the radio, etc.) the car must be started (or in EV mode - so that the engine can start right away), otherwise the 12V battery will discharge. And since it's really small, it will discharge pretty quickly.

It's quite disappointing to me that the 12V battery can discharge so quickly and cause such problems.
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Kremmen

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #20 on: May 01, 2026, 08:37:53 AM »
I'll post again that if a car lead/acid battery becomes completely flattened then the alternator or whatever can't fully recover it. It only performs a stage 2 charge

Had the same in a Metro where the lights were left on and even after a 200 mile trip the battery still discharged overnight

The mechanic explained about the stage 1 and 2 charges

I wonder if a CTEK can perform the factory stage 1 charge that keeps batteries alive on forecourts until bought and fitted ?
Let's be careful out there !

Lord Voltermore

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #21 on: May 01, 2026, 10:43:53 AM »
advanced smart chargers can do a desulfation cycle  that can restore  badly discharged batteries .   I think it uses very rapid charging  pulses to blast away any  sulphur crystals that have formed on the lead plates. 

Some more basic, cheaper, smart chargers may not include this function.
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5thcivic

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #22 on: May 01, 2026, 05:31:41 PM »
My Lidl charger specifications has a charging graph showing the test ramp from 7.5V to 10.5V with 0.8A as a pulse waveform described as "Recharge / desulphation".

My Maypole charger has an initial process "Battery condition diagnosis & recovery with pulse charging" but with no mention of desulphation, but that is a much older charger so maybe not described at that time. My understanding is the pulse charging is the important step.

The Lidl will not work below about 3V and the Maypole below about 7V. My second Civic had a recall on the  microprocessor in the fuse box which had faulty software which could drain the battery. The one time this happend the Maypole could not revive it. I still kept my old analogue transformer charger, and 15 minutes on this put enough charge in for the microprocessor charger then to take over. The free recall then fixed the issue.




coldstart

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #23 on: May 02, 2026, 07:49:52 AM »
The IKEA-style manual of my CTEK 5 Start-Stop charger says it does only work on batteries which have at least 2 volts left.
I don't see this as a large limitation as it is clearly intended for car owners with activated batteries and not for manufacturers that have to prime brand new batteries.


Jazzik

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #24 on: May 02, 2026, 12:47:03 PM »
I am reading this topic (and several others) about (alleged) problems with 12-volt batteries.

What kind of battery chargers are suitable, simple ones or advanced smart chargers...? And what about (long- or high?) jump starters... Problems, problems.  :(

But... we don't drive a Toyota Yaris or anything like that, do we? ;D

We have been driving our Jazz for 4 years and 8 months now, about 37,000 km (23,000 miles). So that is 660 km (410 miles) per month. Not really a lot of kilometers, then, and it also regularly sits idle in the garage for some time. The longest period of inactivity was 10 (ten!) weeks.
In the cupboard in the garage, a battery charger from Lidl has been gathering dust in its original packaging for about 10 years now—new, never used. But the offer was so attractive, I just had to buy it! :P
A jump starter, or whatever it’s called: I never even thought about buying one...
And guess what: this morning the Jazz started, just like always, without any problems after 6 days of inactivity. :-*

And now comes my first question: who among you has ever been unable to start the Jazz due to a dead 12-volt battery?
And question number two: was the battery perhaps discharged due to your own fault then?
If nothing goes right, go left!

sebastiand

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #25 on: May 02, 2026, 01:02:54 PM »

 The longest period of inactivity was 10 (ten!) weeks.


10 weeks is pretty good to me (above expectation). I wanted to know if this happens you know after 4 weeks of no usage, something like that.

In my Outlander (2014 diesel) i left it in a garage for 84 days (was not using the car at this time) and it started without any issue, of course it has a bigger battery and Mitsubishi is very strict with killing all the power when the car is off.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2026, 01:04:49 PM by sebastiand »

Kremmen

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #26 on: May 02, 2026, 02:00:53 PM »
If you perform mainly longer journeys then your 12v will be fully charged when you park and a lengthy period will be OK

If you just perform short journeys of less than 5 to 10 miles then the 12v may not be fully charged and may run flat if left

So some here will have no problems whilst others may have issues, horses for courses

Look at your usage and decide if it needs a boost every now and again

In mine I used to do a regular 60 mile return trip with a few days gap every month (ish) and after 2 weeks of being parked I'd put the CTEK on and is usually took around 5 hours to fully charge
Let's be careful out there !

Jazzik

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #27 on: May 02, 2026, 02:29:16 PM »
But my questions are:
Who among you has ever been unable to start the Jazz due to a dead 12-volt battery?
And question number two: was the battery perhaps discharged due to your own fault then?
If nothing goes right, go left!

Jazzik

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #28 on: May 03, 2026, 02:58:49 PM »
More than 24 hours later... No one at all? :o
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Lord Voltermore

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Re: Battery failure
« Reply #29 on: May 04, 2026, 09:45:53 AM »
I  can give a negative answer.  In nearly 5 years of owning a small portable jump starter in case this happens  I have never needed to use it.   
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