Honda CR-V Dead Battery Issues

baldy95307

I've been having multiple occasions of a dead battery usually in the morning. The vehicle has had the most recent software update covered by a service bulletin that addressed battery charging rates. The vehicle has been to one dealer twice and another dealer three times but each one finds no problems with the battery, no problems with the alternator, and no evidence of a parasytic short. No doors are being left open and no interior light is being left on. Yesterday the battery sounded sluggish when I started up the engine so I put it on a charger for 4 hours and drove the vehicle around for at least another two hours. This morning --- another dead battery.

Any ideas?

Mr_Shiftright

I would have the battery load tested. Sometimes dealers just give your car the "sunshine treatment" (leave it parked outside until you come pick it up), especially if you are combining the complaint with other services. A good charging system can't charge a bad battery very well, and a bad battery can't hold a charge for very long. Parasitic drains are measured in milliamps, so you'd have to know what the dealer finds acceptable. 50 ma? Not bad. 400 ma? Not good.

Based on their report---it makes no sense. you can't have a good battery, charging system working to spec and no parasitic drain and still have the battery go dead.

The only way that could happen is if something in the truck turned itself on long after you parked it. Not likely.

basque

I am having the same problem. 2014 CR-V EX-L with Nav with 3,800 miles, purchased new 15 months ago. Garaged most of the time. Three times has not started since purchased, including today in a car wash!!! Tests at dealership came up fine. Computer upgraded today to adjust for my driving habits (local only, not driven every day). One driver, lights on when driven, locked when parked. Any hope the upgrade will ensure it starts every time? Friend has identical model with no problems but drives it more.

gutkowski

My 2014 CR-V EX-L would not start today either I have 5200 miles on it and live in Connecticut it was -1 this morning AAA cam and jumped it and said they have seen many Honda's that are brand new doing the same because of the tiny battery with only 410 cold cranking amps. Mine is going in for a battery replacement this Saturday to a 500+ CCA battery as a Honda Tech update.

suepc60

My 2012 CRV would not start three times in the last month. Twice community Honda said nothing was wrong everything tested good. Finally today after my insistence that they not tell me nothing was wrong again, they found that a post was leaking and replaced the battery. I was told that the battery that comes with the car is only guaranteed for 36,000 miles where is the one sold by the dealer is guaranteed for 100,000. Honda must've miscalculated when it would fail as it failed and 31,000 miles. Shame on them. I was a loyal owner. Not anymore

kyfdx

suepc60 said:

My 2012 CRV would not start three times in the last month. Twice community Honda said nothing was wrong everything tested good. Finally today after my insistence that they not tell me nothing was wrong again, they found that a post was leaking and replaced the battery. I was told that the battery that comes with the car is only guaranteed for 36,000 miles where is the one sold by the dealer is guaranteed for 100,000. Honda must've miscalculated when it would fail as it failed and 31,000 miles. Shame on them. I was a loyal owner. Not anymore

I'm sure it's frustrating, but if you make your car choices based on one bad battery or one bad interaction with the service department.. next time, you might end up with a really crappy car, but with a great battery.

isellhondas

My exact feelings! Take your ball and go home over a battery?

java1der

I may have finally fixed my 2014 Honda CRV battery issue (fingers crossed). I got tired of my local dealerships not helping with this issue and went to an independent mechanic. He replaced the AC relay switch (less that $20). While he wasn't 100% sure this was the issue, I figured for the price, I'd try it. Well, it's been a few weeks and I've not have one dead battery event. BTW - I've got a battery buddy that has been my savior during this very frustrating time.

carboy21

kyfdx said:

suepc60 said:

My 2012 CRV would not start three times in the last month. Twice community Honda said nothing was wrong everything tested good. Finally today after my insistence that they not tell me nothing was wrong again, they found that a post was leaking and replaced the battery. I was told that the battery that comes with the car is only guaranteed for 36,000 miles where is the one sold by the dealer is guaranteed for 100,000. Honda must've miscalculated when it would fail as it failed and 31,000 miles. Shame on them. I was a loyal owner. Not anymore

I'm sure it's frustrating, but if you make your car choices based on one bad battery or one bad interaction with the service department.. next time, you might end up with a really crappy car, but with a great battery.

I live in PA where temps go down to -10F every winter . After I buy a new car I check the battery CCA and if it is less then 500 , I promptly replace it with 850 CCA sealed battery instead of the crappy low quality unsealed batteries many car makers give as OEM.

http://shop.odysseybattery.com/p/34r-pc1500t

I have this battery in my 2 SUVs and a Minivan. They are the best batteries money can buy.

stever

Looks like they are now being made by EnerSys (apparently Optima made Odyssey batteries at one time). Odyssey reportedly made DieHards for Sears back in 2012 and may still do so (or EnerSys did - hard to tell)..

That could all change - Johnson Controls is in talks to buy EnerSys, supposedly to gain EnerSys's tech in solar batteries. (jsonline.com)

Looks like Exide has survived their recent (second) bankruptcy reorganization and is still competing with Johnson. Crazy business to try to keep a scorecard on. Reading seems to have big players in the battery field.

carboy21

stever said:

Looks like they are now being made by EnerSys (apparently Optima made Odyssey batteries at one time). Odyssey reportedly made DieHards for Sears back in 2012 and may still do so (or EnerSys did - hard to tell)..

That could all change - Johnson Controls is in talks to buy EnerSys, supposedly to gain EnerSys's tech in solar batteries. (jsonline.com)

Looks like Exide has survived their recent (second) bankruptcy reorganization and is still competing with Johnson. Crazy business to try to keep a scorecard on. Reading seems to have big players in the battery field.

Battery industry has become consolidated like the beer industry. Anhauser Bush-InBev swallowing all the other major beer makers like Coors and now trying to swallow Sab-Miller. Johnson Controls will swallow all the major battery makers and rest of the small producers will be making batteries like craft beer

duckie60

I have a 2009 CRV & have changed the battery every winter. Have taken it back to Honda and they gave me the "driving habit" answer, which is garbage. I had just resigned to the new battery per year until this year. The girl that checked the battery charge also did a battery drain check and she found that I have a 3 amp drain when my car and all accessories are turned off. I am now looking for someone to trace this down. I'll keep you posted. 

carboy21

Batteries should last minimum 3-4 years. Some current leaking in your CR-V.

Mr_Shiftright

3 amps is equivalent to something like leaving your instrument lights on, or dome light on. It's not a huge draw but it'll wear down a battery fast enough.

duckie60

I had to get a new battery every year. There are no signs of anything turned on. The only thing that is strange to me is that the anti-theft light blinks every 2 seconds, on other vehicles I see it blinking much slower. That must be a drain over a years time.

krabbymom

Both my parents and I bought 2, 2013 Honda CR-V and my father has had the battery go dead 3 times and today was my turn! Drove two places this morning, car on and off fine then drove final leg to work, parked the car and worked all day. Came out to go home and door locks wouldn't work (my first clue there was a problem). Nothing worked, no lights, no click even when key was turned. Once I got a good jump it ran fine all the way home. Car is on 2.5 yrs old and has less than 36,000 miles, My parents car probably has less than 20,000. Whats going on with Honda??

duckie60

I feel for you. I just resigned to putting a new battery into the car every winter. It saves me the headache of carrying a jumper and freezing in the cold to jump it when the temp is below 20. I still think it has to do with everything that runs when you have the car turned off. Take a look at the anti-theft light, it blinks like it's keeping time to disco music, I don't see that in other cars. I also hear something in the dash making noise even when the car is off. Too much electronic stuff running all the time.

carboy21

duckie60 said:

I feel for you. I just resigned to putting a new battery into the car every winter. It saves me the headache of carrying a jumper and freezing in the cold to jump it when the temp is below 20. I still think it has to do with everything that runs when you have the car turned off. Take a look at the anti-theft light, it blinks like it's keeping time to disco music, I don't see that in other cars. I also hear something in the dash making noise even when the car is off. Too much electronic stuff running all the time.

It is normal for the anti-theft lights to blink , it does in both my cars every 2 secs. It does not drain my battery. Something else is the problem in CRV.

fixitbymyself

I have a similar problem with battery dying after a day or two of recharging in my 2004 CRV. Had it looked at, replaced battery, same thing, heard same story from dealer as mentioned by others earlier. I did a lot of reading in forums and came across posts with people solving this issue by replacing the A/C compressor clutch relay. Apparently, when it starts to fail it get stuck closed and engages the compressor which drains the battery. In the CR-V, this is located in the engine control unit box. I am trying this theory out, so I will let everyone know how it goes in a couple of days or so.

fibber2

Hey guys. New to the CR-V side, but not to Edmunds. On the subject of batteries.... We just picked up an off lease 2013 for our daughter. Early turn-in at 2.5 years. And of course we immediately had battery issues. I could start the car, but if you spent any time at all on accessory prior to trying, it wouldn't crank. Insufficient reserve capacity.

The dealer replaced the type 51R 400 CCA original with a new 500 CCA version. It cranks much faster now.

Other considerations:

There was a TSB for 2012 & early 2013(?) for a charging logic programming change. Apparently the alternator output was being throttled back before the battery was properly charged.

Many others have gone to a different group size battery (Honda Odyssey's battery suitable for a V6 and more power options). The tray and hood space appear to be sufficient to accommodate this.

carboy21

fibber2 said:

Hey guys. New to the CR-V side, but not to Edmunds. On the subject of batteries.... We just picked up an off lease 2013 for our daughter. Early turn-in at 2.5 years. And of course we immediately had battery issues. I could start the car, but if you spent any time at all on accessory prior to trying, it wouldn't crank. Insufficient reserve capacity.

The dealer replaced the type 51R 400 CCA original with a new 500 CCA version. It cranks much faster now.

Other considerations:

There was a TSB for 2012 & early 2013(?) for a charging logic programming change. Apparently the alternator output was being throttled back before the battery was properly charged.

Many others have gone to a different group size battery (Honda Odyssey's battery suitable for a V6 and more power options). The tray and hood space appear to be sufficient to accommodate this.

Rather then group size, replace with a higher CCA rating. 700 CCA or higher in winter prone states and 500 CCA or up in warm states.

fibber2

The problem with going much above 500 CCA is the physical size of that Group 51R battery case. It's cramped in there.... To get more amps you need to change chemistry and plate surface area. Doing so in that small case compromises long term reliability. You need a certain silt area at the bottom for decomposed materials, space between plates to keep warpage or dendrite growth from inducing shorts, etc. Even VLRA types like AGMs (glass mats) are challenged when the case is this small.

And it's not just CCA's. Reserve capacity (ability to handle starting after low leakage drains the battery) is also cut by the small physical size. If you need substantially higher reserve, go bigger.

carboy21

fibber2 said:

The problem with going much above 500 CCA is the physical size of that Group 51R battery case. It's cramped in there.... To get more amps you need to change chemistry and plate surface area. Doing so in that small case compromises long term reliability. You need a certain silt area at the bottom for decomposed materials, space between plates to keep warpage or dendrite growth from inducing shorts, etc. Even VLRA types like AGMs (glass mats) are challenged when the case is this small.

And it's not just CCA's. Reserve capacity (ability to handle starting after low leakage drains the battery) is also cut by the small physical size. If you need substantially higher reserve, go bigger.

Try that Group 51 battery.

fibber2

Help me understand what I'm missing here....
From the OdysseyBattery.com web site.

Year: 2013
Make: Honda
Model: CR-V
Engine: 2.4 Liters - CID L4
Model #: PC925LMJT
BCI #: 51R

CCA Cold Start Performance per S.A.E J537 test method = 330
Reserve capacity (minutes) = 48

Amazon price = $188

I think I'll keep the 500 CCA battery Honda gifted me!

carboy21

But the Honda batteries are turning out to be duds even if they are 500 CCA

fibber2

You might be right, but remember that people that have problems come to these boards to vent. We haven't heard from the other 300,000 people that bought a CR-V each of the last half dozen years.

Tiny batteries, like disappear spare tires, are a part of cost cutting and weight saving. The cars have big trays, but they only give you a battery suited to make it thru the warranty period. Same with crappy OEM tires. We have the same gripe on the Subaru board, and many have simply gone to a larger group size. A common problem.

I'm good with your pitch to spend more and go with an AGM battery. But if you are going to spend nearly 2 bills for a battery, go for one with more than 330 CCA. And you'll likely only get there if you are also willing to consider upsizing.

duckie60

What about the constant 3 amp drain on the battery even when the car is off and the keys are out ?

carboy21

Forester I have came with a crappy lead acid battery which you have to top of with distilled water and it leaked and corroded the battery tray.. Is this 1970s ??

I replaced it with Odyssey AGM battery. Manufacturers are cost cutting on cheap batteries , tires and no spares tires.What else are they skimping on ?

fibber2

"What else are they skimping on?"

Don't ask.... You probably don't want to know!

fibber2

duckie60 said:

What about the constant 3 amp drain on the battery even when the car is off and the keys are out ?

A constant 3 amp drain? That really doesn't sound right at all. Any idea how she came to that figure? Immediately after shutdown, or did she wait 20 minutes for the system to enter it's quiescent state?

It's not uncommon for a bunch of stuff to be powered down over a period of time. Headlight timers, power windows, radio, etc., may all have an activity period after you turn the engine off. But by 20 minutes or so, most stuff other than the ECU & Security should be off, and the remaining draw can be 100ma or more. At certain times OBDII tests, like the Evaporative Emissions tank pressure leakdown test will run, and that probably draws an amp or two. But 3 amps continuous? You need to find that.

duckie60

We did not leave the tester on that long. Maybe 5 minutes. 

fibber2

So it could be real, or you've been given bogus info by someone that either doesn't know what they are doing, or is intentionally deceitful to pick your pocket. Hopefully it's about training and not theft.

dragonfly12

I have a 2014 Honda CR-V and the battery has gone dead on four occasions. December 3, 2015 Honda replaced the battery. The battery had gone dead twice in 2015 and twice in 2016. The car has been completely checked out and they find nothing. Something has to be draining the battery and no one can seem to figure it out. Is it the manufacturer of the battery or is there some other issue going on with the mechanics of the car. This is getting frustrating not to be able to have a car battery you can depend on. There must be someone smart enough to figure this out and it isn't me.

Mr_Shiftright

I'm sure there is someone smart enough but apparently he doesn't live at your dealership, or wasn't on duty when you car was there. Well, to be fair about it, I'm being a big smug---- this could be an intermittent parasitic drain which would be impossible to trace when it wasn't happening. I'm sure it's frustrating for you.

With a volt-ohm meter attached and using the amp scale, a drain of no more than 50 milliamps is acceptable.

turnright

My 2012 CRV, battery has been replaced once since buying new. It has only 29000 miles on it.
Every time I take it to the dealer for service, and it has been fairly often. I complain about the lights seriously dimming every time the AC kicks in. Only when the battery was failing in other cars, did I see this happening. I wonder if this has something to do with battery failure.
Comments please

mulesmt

Same problem with my 2013 CR-V.. even with a brand new Interstate battery. Dealership said they can't find anything wrong but it still needs a jump start when it is time to leave work and cold. I don't have any extras or after market stereo. Once I left my headlights on for 3-4 minutes and it wouldn't start at the bank drive-up.
Honda recommends locking your car even if it's in the garage. I call this BS.

hondapos

Bought my 13' Honda CRV brand new in May of 2013. Really no problems with this gutless wonder until summer of 2016 where the vehicle would randomly not start and needs to be jumped. (9 times so far) Took it to Lynnwood Honda outside of Seattle and of course they have never even heard of the problem and determined a dome light is being left on since the battery and charging system checked out ok. I have searched the internet over and have found plenty of people with the same problem but with no real causes or solutions. I have purchased 7 Hondas over 31 years and I will never buy another.

kyfdx

hondapos said:

Bought my 13' Honda CRV brand new in May of 2013. Really no problems with this gutless wonder until summer of 2016 where the vehicle would randomly not start and needs to be jumped. (9 times so far) Took it to Lynnwood Honda outside of Seattle and of course they have never even heard of the problem and determined a dome light is being left on since the battery and charging system checked out ok. I have searched the internet over and have found plenty of people with the same problem but with no real causes or solutions. I have purchased 7 Hondas over 31 years and I will never buy another.

Have you replaced the battery?

PF_Flyer

There has to be some kind of parasitic drain or short to ground. Since you say it happens randomly, I'd wager that there is some sort of pattern to it that's not obvious just yet. For example, perhaps it happens after the car sits for more than a day or two without being driven, like if you stay at home for a weekend without doing any driving. If you do any driving, the battery charging that takes place is enough to counter the drain until the next time, but if the car sits, the battery drains JUST enough to give you the starting problems. You might try a test. If you've driven a couple of days in a row and things are working fine, plan to let it sit for 24 hours and see if it starts. If it does, try a longer interval. Thinking about my own driving, there are times when my car might sit for 24 -48 hours without being started. If I had a drain that would cause the same problem, it would seem random.

Mr_Shiftright

I'm sure there's a solution. But first you need to find someone savvy enough to find it.

A parasitic draw test AND/OR a voltage drop test should do it.

uvachief

Your battery should last a solid 3 years or more. If your battery is dying out of the blue or you replace it and your new battery is dead within a day or two, you have the dreaded parasitic drain problem which is 99% of the time caused by a faulty A/C relay in your fuse box. The relay blows and gets stuck in the on position. When you turn the vehicle off, the relay is still trying to engage the air conditioning compressor and drains your battery. If you are in a quiet environment, you can listen after you turn the car off (make sure your climate control system is engaged though). If you hear a clicking or ticking noise repeating after your turn it off, most likely your A/C relay is bad and trying to engage the compressor. Swap out that A/C relay, charge your dead battery and see if that doesn't cure the problem. This happens to us usually every 2-3 years during a warm snap in the winter. We run the A/C for a few days during that heat wave and the fuse blows for reasons unknown to me. Next thing we know, the battery died overnight. If that doesn't do it and you are still having overnight drain problems, have your mechanic check your entire electrical system to see what is trying to access power when the vehicle has been turned off.

nh_driver

Just took my 2014 CRV into dealership because of the battery going dead on multiple occasions. They told me the battery needed to be replaced so i agreed to buy a new battery. On the way out the guy casually mentions the software update because of defective charging software (they performed this free of charge!). Could this have contributed to what i consider to be short battery life? The way it was handled has left a bad taste in my mouth. I called Honda Customer Service line and was told that they are 'collecting information' on this problem but there is no recall, so no relief for people whose batteries have suffered untimely demise. Overall I have been happy with my CR-V but this is extremely irritating.

jasonv73

Ya 2014 Honda crv battery died tonight just after factory warranty is done...I work at a automotive shop..if we leave on the car keys in the ignition position for any small  amount of time including brand new Hondas.. We have to jump start the vehicles...this goes for all Hondas..no other car brand has this problem... Honda just buys really pathetic batteries.....Honda your batteries are absolutely terrible 

isellhondas

" Honda your batteries are absolutely terrible" Really? have you stopped to consider that all car batteries are manufactured by (I think) three companies now and that that "terrible" battery may have been installed in many other makes and models of cars?

We are now on our 4th CRV and have had zero troubles with any of them. I will say that when one of our batteries hits the five year mark, it's gone! Maybe they would have lasted another year but why mess with it? I like to replace batteries on MY terms and not in some dark rainy parking lot.

isellhondas

hondapos said:

Bought my 13' Honda CRV brand new in May of 2013. Really no problems with this gutless wonder until summer of 2016 where the vehicle would randomly not start and needs to be jumped. (9 times so far) Took it to Lynnwood Honda outside of Seattle and of course they have never even heard of the problem and determined a dome light is being left on since the battery and charging system checked out ok. I have searched the internet over and have found plenty of people with the same problem but with no real causes or solutions. I have purchased 7 Hondas over 31 years and I will never buy another.

So, you won't buy another Honda after buying seven of them because of one lousy battery?

Oh, I hope you can find the perfect car out there!

I would THINK that after three years and NINE jump starts you would buck up and buy a battery!

Car batteries usually are good for around five years. this means some will last three years and others can (and do) last seven or eight years. It sounds like you're on the short side of the five years!

duckie60

I have a 2009 CRV and have had the battery replaced every year in the winter due to this problem. The good news is that I did not have to replace it this winter, I found that if I turn everything off before turning the key off and, (this is important) lock the doors by pushing the button on the door and not the key fob. It started every day without having to jump it. Good Luck to all !

winemeyer45

I have a 2014 Honda CR-V and started experiencing battery problems this Fall. I was told by AAA that the battery need to be replaced. I took it to my local mechanic and he ran a diagnostic on the electric system. He told me the battery was fine but the Blue Tooth was not turning off and was draining the battery. He said he had not seen this happen in a 2014 with 50K miles. He said he had seen it many times in the 2008 and 2009 CR-Vs but not this new model. He had to pull the fuse to stop this, but now I have no radio. He suggested I go to Honda, but said he expected they would tell me it is out of warranty.
Has anyone had a similar experience and did they have any success with Honda?

berri

Do the new CRV's still have the small, wimpy battery in them?

guywithacrv

Just wanted to add to this thread... I have a 2015 CRV and I'm hovering right around the 36000 mile mark. My car is also having a seemingly random dead battery problem. For me, it seems to happen after having driven the car for a couple of quick store trips in succession. We're not talking 2 min drives....I mean about 10 mins to the first store, sits for a half hour, then 10 mins either home or to another store. Then when I get home and it sits for an hour or so, sometimes it will just click and not start.

I'm basically at the three year mark (coming up in Feb), so it sounds like I just may be at the bottom range of these seemingly crappy batteries, so I'm going to try a new battery soon and report back if my problems stop.

guywithacrv

Update to my story: after explaining to the service writers in detail the steps to reproduce the battery issue, they were able to get a failed battery test to happen on their testing machine. Since we're less than 36000, they replaced the battery under the warranty. I assume it's probably the same, crappy battery as the first time, but at least that bought me another 3 years or so.

So basically, make sure you document what exactly you do before the battery dies so that they can reproduce in the shop!

isellhondas

berri said:

Do the new CRV's still have the small, wimpy battery in them?

These "small wimpy batteries are the batteries of yesterday scaled down in size. They are just as powerful or more in most cases and last just as long. We are on our 4th CRV and have had zero premature battery problems.