[CL9] Battery Drain

[Mattis]

Just wondering if anyone else has encountered a battery drain issue with their CL9 when it's left sitting.

The battery is charging fine (reads 13V+ across the terminals when idling) but if left for a couple of days in the garage without starting it is very slow to crank over and has failed in having enough juice to start the car at least once.

The PO has had the battery replaced a short time back, but left the car at the airport in long term parking with the terminals disconnected for near on a month just after it was replaced. The battery looks brand new as such.

The status indicator on the battery does show black at times (i.e. indicating it needs to be charged).

I've put it on charge a couple of times now both with a trickle/float charger and a normal battery charger but the issue re-occurs a few days later. There is bubbles from all of the plates evenly (i.e. doesnt look like a dead cell).

I'm suspecting that the battery is failing due to having been left at the airport out in the cold for a month shortly after purchase. As such I will be taking a trip to battery world (or similar) to get a full diagnosis on the batteries health (should also still be under warranty) but just wanted to check that there isn't anything else that could be draining the battery. The car is totally stock (no aftermarket amp/headunit etc). I can't see any interior lights remaining on, the only one I haven't checked is the boot - might open the split fold rears and check that tonight.

Might leave the battery terminals disconnected from the car for a couple of days and see if it still drains (this would confirm whether or not current draw on the car is causing it to drain or not).

[kristrifo]

what battery brand do you have? and how old is it?

i recommend going a higher brand quality such as a supercharge gold...or possibly even a bigger battery

i got a bigger battery (mainly due to having a sound system) and one thing that i really noticed is that kick over sounded a lot smoother and quicker

[Mattis]

It's a Century, can't remember the model type or CCA though unfortunately (will check when I'm home). It looks basically brand new (I know looks can be deceiving though). I'll see if I can track down a manufacture date on it (they usually stamp this).

[Fredoops]

Your cars 9 years old.

Check your grounds

[Mattis]

Battery is a Century NS60LS, 430CCA. Missed the build date but pretty sure its relatively new. How does this compare to other peoples?

Your cars 9 years old.

Check your grounds

Yeh I'll give them a squiz, I would have though that if the grounds were dodgy then I'd see low voltage across the battery when the car is running. I'll disconnect them and sand where there attach to the body/engine just to be on the safe side though.

[Mattis]

The mystery deepens....

Went and got the receipt for the current battery that is in the car now from the PO. It was replaced with a new in only May this year (so it's only 3 months old). Apparently the battery has been replaced twice before this (the PO has owned the car since new in 03). He said last time it wouldnt start because it was so drained he took it to the dealer (Honda North) and they did a full diagnosis on it and couldnt find a fault with the charging system or parisitic drain, he was referred to an auto electrician who also found no fault. So he replaced the battery and now its dying some 3 months later.

Took the car for a 2 hour drive on the weekend with a voltmeter hooked up direct to the battery (fused) so I could see what it was doing from in the car. The car held 14.4V when above idle and when ignition was off the battery was holding 12.7V fine.

Running an ampmeter between the negative cable and the battery terminal is only showing 20 miliamps of draw when key is out of the car.

It's just sluggish to start after being left overnight - leave it for two days and it will almost be totally flat. However starting the car just after its being driven for a bit it cranks over fine (which is saying to me it doesn't have an earth issue)

I also removed the audio fuse (labelled as number 5 on the internal fuse panel) but noticed that the audio system still continued to work - this seems very weird to me (is this normal for these cars), perhaps someone has messed with the wiring going to the stereo?

[Mattis]

I'm beginning to suspect a faulty starter motor or loose/corroded cabling to the starter motor as being the cause of this issue. Ive read a few webpages now about issues with the starter needing to be replaced on these motors - has anyone had similar issues with their starter motor?

The issue has been happening even when leaving the cars battery on charge overnight, so I know the battery has plenty of juice in it. The issue does seem to be heaps better after the car has been driven, which I suspect might be heat related perhaps somehow helping relieve the issue with the starter (windings expanding with heat?)

I'm going to try giving the starter motor a knock with a spanner or similar object to see if that helps (a few people have reported this as helping). If so then I'll replace or recondition the starter motor and report back.

Frustrating issue this one as everything else about the car is great.

[sodaz]

Only a few options with this:
1. Starter motor - most likely
2. Battery
3. Alternator
4. Spark Plugs
5. Cable/Ground issues - rare

[Mattis]

Ok so replaced the serpentine belt and tensioner bearing on the weekend and took the battery in to get it tested while the car was out of action - it's holding 395CCA (ran two test loads through it). The battery is rated at 430CCA and the stock one is 390CCA so pretty sure the battery is fine.

Went to start the car last night and no go, got like half a crank out of it and that's it. Tried the jump pack on it just to be sure, same issue, gets a small crank but that's it - like one single jolt.

So Im pretty sure it's the starter motor now, going to get to it tonight and hunt down a replacement unit today.

Anybody replaced the starter motor in these - looks like I can take the front half of the intake manfold off instead of having to unbolt the whole manifold from the head. I assume I'll need at least a replacement gasket for the inlet manifold seperation, anything else?

[supersaiyan]

same thing happened to my friend's one just yesterday too haha, we thought it was the battery, went to buy a new battery still same problem till he replaced the starter motor! imo get it done asap because my friend let his one die down because he thought it was the battery which is easy to replace but it was the starter motor so he had to call up those mobile mechanics to check it out and replace it because it wouldn't move from his front yard! you would want the ability to move it to your choice of repairer! but yeah all the best

[Mattis]

same thing happened to my friend's one just yesterday too haha, we thought it was the battery, went to buy a new battery still same problem till he replaced the starter motor! imo get it done asap because my friend let his one die down because he thought it was the battery which is easy to replace but it was the starter motor so he had to call up those mobile mechanics to check it out and replace it because it wouldn't move from his front yard! you would want the ability to move it to your choice of repairer! but yeah all the best

The car is currently stuck in my garage so not too bad, could have been stuck in a carpark etc meaning it needed to get towed. I'm going to do the replacement myself, just called around and found a new replacement starter motor for $278 - picking that up this afternoon and then when I'm home from work will start work on getting the old one out and replacing it with the new. Hopefully I can get the inlet manifold separated without breaking the gasket and I'll just re-use that, otherwise I'll ring Honda tomorrow and see if they have a replacement gasket avail.

[Mattis]

Ok, picked up the starter motor yesterday afternoon (OEX brand, 3 year warranty - brand new not reconditioned) and got to work at removing the suspected dud one last night. Took a couple of hours to get the old one out mainly because I was taking my time about it but specifically the lower bracket for the intake manifold is an absolute bastard to get at with the radiator still in. Had to end up jacking the car up, removing underbody protection and getting at the bracket from underneath (can only get a quarter of a turn on a spanner on it FFS - the Honda engineer that designed that needs to be shot). Getting that one bolt alone probably chewed up to an hour of my time I reckon. There are also some cable management ties that are really badly positioned under the inlet manifold which you just can't get to without extreme difficulty. Ended up removing the throttle body from the intake manifold as the bottom water line (yes there is a coolant line running to it) is almost impossible to get pliers onto to get the clamps off - let alone trying to get it back on.

The starter bolts were also really bloody tight, managed to just get a breaker bar in to get them off though. Pulled the starter apart and the brushes are stuffed, stacks of black metal filings in it. Could possible get away with just replacing those (i.e. recoing it) but I'd rather not have to repeat the job again so I'm just going to put the new unit back in.