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Battery power issue, but not a parasitic drain

14K views 20 replies 13 participants last post by  Mr ROBOTO 
#1 ·
We’ve been having a battery issue with a 2003 Accord EX Coupe. When the cars sits for a couple of days or more, the battery has discharged to the point where it cannot start. It's losing about .2V - .3V per day when it sits; after a 96 hour test battery voltage had dropped to 11.15V. It does not appear to lose any power when the battery is disconnected for 2-3 days. Tests at Advance Auto show that both the alternator (original) and starter (new) are functional. Alternator seems to charge the battery normally. Battery terminals are relatively clean and not corroded. Water level in the maintenance free battery is right to the top of the cells.

At first I had suspected a parasitic battery drain. However, tests with the meter hooked up in series show an initial 500mA - 750mA draw when the multimeter probes first make the connection, which then settles down to about a constant 35mA - 40mA draw, which as I understand it is normal for this vehicle. Opening the door turns on the interior lights and the reading jumps to a little over 2A. After closing the door and waiting for the lights to turn off, the level drops back to ~35mA - 40mA.

The manufacture date on the battery (Autocraft Gold) makes it 2 years old, and has been in use for about 21 months in the vehicle. Full charge seems to be a little low, about 12.4V, which may be due to it's age.

Any ideas, suggestions, or information would be appreciated. Thanks!
 
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#3 ·
As stated above. You want to do a 100% cleaning & inspect any of the cables for any corrosion. Sometimes the corrosion can be in the center of the cable. Did you get the cold cranking amps. of the battery checked ? May indicate a battery on the way out.
 
#4 ·
You need to test the battery, for days, with the negative cable removed. This really tells if the battery is good. This rules out your parasitic drain theory. There is the security blinky light on the dash also that stays constantly hot even the car is completely off with the door closed. So if the battery tests good then by means plug in a battery minder when the car isn't in use for days, this is what I do. Battery level will drop no matter what if you don't use the car for days, especially during the winter, and I see that you are in central Illinois. If I am staying in for 2 days during the winter, then I keep the battery plugged in to the battery minder.
 
#8 · (Edited by Moderator)
mtts60: The cables have been off and look fine (no corrosion that I recall), but I will check them again in the next day or three.

t-rd: This was done -- three days with the negative battery cable off, car started right up. My son did not get the actual voltage at the time, but that fact that it started immediately after three days whereas lately just sitting for two would drain it says that there no significant issue with the battery holding a charge when there's no load. As for the battery minder -- this is my son's car, who parks in the street, so using a plug-in battery minder is not an option unless he pulls the battery. There's been no problem with it over the last two winters, so if the car/battery can't sit for a couple of days in mild weather without losing power and failing to start, I need to address the root cause of that problem.

KW2004Accord: CCA as tested by the guy at Advance Auto was 477, battery is rated as 625. A little low, but I think we had just jumped the battery at that point, let it run for a few minutes, then drove to the auto store, if that has any relevance to the CCA measurement.

qman: Battery sucking alien pod people from Mars? No? Oh, right, then you probably mean a defective/dying battery. :)

Thanks everyone for all the advice so far. Assuming there's no corrosion in the battery cables, I'm going to try getting a replacement battery, which hopefully will be prorated since we bought it less than two years ago. I think we've ruled out just about everything else, except for some sort of significant but intermittent load on the battery that doesn't show up in the few minutes that I have the meter on. We've considered a time-lapse video of the meter to see if there's a non-linear voltage drop or large draw on the battery when we're not looking.



No, it's the factory radio, although there is an aftermarket iPhone adapter installed. However, the current draw is normal, so that doesn't appear to be pulling any power when off.
 
#9 ·
Anything under 50ma is probably good. I would be worried about a resting voltage of 12.4v it should be 12.7v. So either the battery is not getting fully charged or the battery is bad.
 
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#10 ·
I had a red cable on a Ford truck that had a huge blob of corrosion underneath the red insulation right at the terminal. You wouldn't notice it if you didn't look for it. The red insulation was swollen to about another 20-30% larger than normal. It was all filled with green ****. I took and cut off that couple inches and put a new terminal on it and that solved my problem.
 
#11 ·
I just went through something interesting and really, you just need to change out the battery.

The Interstate Megatron MTP plus II battery I've had for 4 years and 4 months literally took a dump within a week and a half. I had originally thought that the starter was bad so I changed out the starter 2 Fridays ago. Turned out that the original starter was a little clogged and it was taking the electrical system extra effort to turn the armature in the starter. My battery was showing good voltage after driving but would drop down below 12V overnight, resulting in a slow crank in the morning. I also verified the 35mA draw it is NOT parasitic, that is normal. The main problem was the battery voltage dipping down to 7V during cranking. It was not putting enough cranking amps. The new battery I got today only dropped to 10.5V during cranking. I also topped off the old battery with distilled water but that did not make much of a difference at all. I did get a higher full charge of 13.2V instead of 12.8V after topping off.

Often the simplest thing is the solution. Instead of insisting that the battery might be good, just get a new one and if it runs continously good then the original battery is bad. This is my 3rd battery since April of 2007.
 
#12 ·
If it's truly a parasite, try hooking up the meter in series, then pulling fuses one by one, till you find the one that drops the amps.
 
#13 ·
CCA as tested by the guy at Advance Auto was 477, battery is rated as 625. A little low, but I think we had just jumped the battery at that point, let it run for a few minutes, then drove to the auto store, if that has any relevance to the CCA measurement.

A reduction in the CCA from 625 to 477 (25%) following a recent full charge indicates that the battery is experiencing a very high internal resistance. It won't always show as a low voltage either but really affects the CCA as you have found. The high internal resistance drains the battery just as well as a high parasitic draw could. Normal parasitic drain investigations won't find it though.

The CCA test is becoming more indicative of the battery life than a simple voltage or carbon load test.
 
#14 ·
What part of central IL,? I'm near springfield
 
#15 ·
^^^ that's what I did, and found a normal constant 35mA draw as the OP. I have no aftermarket anything installed or running. That's the little security dash light being active and hot when the vehicle is at rest.

^^ I know for sure the last battery took a dump. I have ordered a Solar battery tester that allows me to do conductance testing on CCA. This is the one tool I've been missing for years. The multimeter isn't cutting it.
 
#16 ·
Update: Just after this conversation, the problem stopped as suddenly as it had appeared. However, when it started getting much colder at night, the problem started back up again, this time not even holding a charge for the whole night. I took the battery into Advance for testing. Straight out of the car it was at 12.01V, 264 CCA according to their testing device.

They put it on the charger until it said it was done (about 60 minutes), but their tester showed it as good but still needing a charge. They did that again, same result. So they decided to put it on a slow charger overnight. Same result, with the voltage at 12.37V and 445 CCA @ 69 deg. after a full charge. But since their tester didn't say it was actually bad and give them a warranty code, they still would not replace it.

Then, as a test, he tested a brand new identical battery -- 12.7V and 674 CCA on the tester. He looked confused for a moment, went in the back of the store for a few minutes, then came back out and said he was going to warranty out the old battery and give me a replacement.

The new battery had no issues at all holding a charge for at least 48 hours at a time in very cold (10 above to 5 below) nights. That is, until my son put the car in a ditch a couple of nights ago (very slick icy conditions) and broke the transmission. *sigh*
 
#17 ·
I'm close to springfield. What city do you live in?
 
#18 ·
#21 ·
I think this dead battery, no start will eventually turn out to be a faulty shift cable / mechanism issue, the car may physically go into park but an internal sensor or switch is not completely "seeing" park condition, possibly keeping some modules / computers / relays etc in the power "on" condition. Without a doubt, Honda knows about this issue; but will never admit to it, too costly for them to eat the cost and swallow their "pride" Honda "Suits" are almost banned from using the term defect or issue. I know, I worked with them...not in dealership sales or service, but trust me, I saw it first hand. Corporate Honda folks are a bunch of arrogant, selfish, money hungry pigs. Honda thinks american consumers are a bunch of stupid, trained sheep and they've got them brand loyal coral forever. The dealerships (unfortunately) have to take the face to face wrath from the consumers. Buy a Hyundai or KIA and see what real quality, pride in workmanship feels like even after 150,000 miles; and best of all TRUE care for consumers, even PROACTIVE customer satisfaction programs and warranty extensions on stuff that folks aren't even having problems with. Everything will eventually have problem, they're built, produced, etc. by people. No one or thing is perfect, but it always irks me how issues are handled corporately and how loyal customers are treated. BTW, I work in accounting, engineering, marketing, and make synthetic fur balls for ceramic cats in my spare time, I don't have a stake in Hyundai or KIA either, but have owned them all... no wonder Honda and Toyota have more industrial espionage spys trying to get into the South Korean company's corporate structures, the SK Auto Groups are eating their lunch. Speaking of which pass the Wasabi, please.
 
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