[JoeBro788]

To make a long story short: I live in an apartment complex where we have a parking service. As soon as we pull into the garage we hand over the keys and are on our way. All of the cars are left with their keys in the cars until the owner needs it again in the future (that may be overnight, a few days, or a few hours).

Obviously the parking garage is severely monitored and has a large staff, however, I was told by my dealership that leaving the Key Fob in your car can drain your car's battery. My service rep told me that whenever the key is within 5 feet from the cars central computer, it's in "Discussion Mode" letting the car know that it can perform all its "smart" functions. Being in constant discussion wares at your battery (Just as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wares at your cell phone much quicker).

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone heard about this or has more info. I've already had to replace my battery and I bought my 2013 Accord Coupe brand new in July. Any info or help is appreciated.

 

[RjRacing]

That's weird, my sister bought her Cadillac CTS new in 2009 and leaves her keyless FOB in the car 24/7 and still has the original battery. Something doesn't sound right, the MCIU should not be communicating constantly...it should have a set amount of time until it reaches "sleep" mode like all other units.

 

[Exia]

To make a long story short: I live in an apartment complex where we have a parking service. As soon as we pull into the garage we hand over the keys and are on our way. All of the cars are left with their keys in the cars until the owner needs it again in the future (that may be overnight, a few days, or a few hours).

Obviously the parking garage is severely monitored and has a large staff, however, I was told by my dealership that leaving the Key Fob in your car can drain your car's battery. My service rep told me that whenever the key is within 5 feet from the cars central computer, it's in "Discussion Mode" letting the car know that it can perform all its "smart" functions. Being in constant discussion wares at your battery (Just as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wares at your cell phone much quicker).

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone heard about this or has more info. I've already had to replace my battery and I bought my 2013 Accord Coupe brand new in July. Any info or help is appreciated.

It seems plausible, just hand over the valet key portion instead of leaving the keyfob with the car.

 

[Ghostriderz85]

It seems plausible, just hand over the valet key portion instead of leaving the keyfob with the car.

The valet key portion is the keyfob, you take the actual key with you, otherwise how are they gonna start the car?

 

[Gator_CR2]

My mother-in-law has a keyless system and keeps her key fob in her Highlander when its in the garage. It's only a couple years old but she hasn't had any issues yet.

 

[MartyV6]

To make a long story short: I live in an apartment complex where we have a parking service. As soon as we pull into the garage we hand over the keys and are on our way. All of the cars are left with their keys in the cars until the owner needs it again in the future (that may be overnight, a few days, or a few hours).

Obviously the parking garage is severely monitored and has a large staff, however, I was told by my dealership that leaving the Key Fob in your car can drain your car's battery. My service rep told me that whenever the key is within 5 feet from the cars central computer, it's in "Discussion Mode" letting the car know that it can perform all its "smart" functions. Being in constant discussion wares at your battery (Just as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth wares at your cell phone much quicker).

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone heard about this or has more info. I've already had to replace my battery and I bought my 2013 Accord Coupe brand new in July. Any info or help is appreciated.

It might be communicating but how much power can that use? When you have a tiny cellphone battery, it uses like a couple % of ITS (small) power in a day for wifi and bluetooth. Imagine how small that cellphone battery is versus your giant car battery.

By the way, the word is "wears"

 

[CobraPA]

Anyways, I was wondering if anyone heard about this or has more info. I've already had to replace my battery and I bought my 2013 Accord Coupe brand new in July. Any info or help is appreciated.

This made me curious... you had to replace your keyfob battery or your car battery? What happened?

 

[JoeBro788]

I had to get my car battery replaced. The parking employees had to jump my car a few times to get it started so I took it in right away and the service rep asked me all these questions and we both agreed that the only issues was keeping my key fob inside my car overnight.

Granted, there were weeks at a time where I would leave it in my car due to travel for work.

 

[WDMaccord]

If there is really that much "discussion" going on, I would think the tiny fob battery would be the one to die out. This situation doesn't seem far fetched though, if that is the way Honda has programmed it (without some kind of "sleep" function).

 

[Uncle Luc]

Accord owners have complained about the stock battery, it is known to be cheap. Seeing how you're leaving the car for days at times you might have one of those dud units

 

[CobraPA]

Hmm, weeks at a time? If it sits 3 weeks off and on and isn't driven much, you're probably just running it down. As the previous poster said, there have been some comments that the current Accords have smaller main batteries. Did you take it to a Honda service rep? They probably installed the same capacity battery (which probably isn't great for you if you leave it sitting long periods...)

 

[johnwill]

Accord owners have complained about the stock battery, it is known to be cheap. Seeing how you're leaving the car for days at times you might have one of those dud units

Really?

 

[mountaineer290]

I have a 2016 Acura MDX. The stock battery ran down. I had AAA come and charge it, drove it for 30 min. and it died again next day.

Replaced it with an Interstate 733cc and a week later it died. Had the MDX trucked 1 1/2 hrs. to the dealer and they worked with if for 2 1/2 weeks and it never discharged the battery.

They thought I left a door ajar, ignition on, interior light on, etc. None of those scenarios fit because we live in bear country and lock our vehicles every time we exit for fear of a bear deciding it wants to check out the interior. Also would ahve noticed a light on as we are in the woods with total darkness.

Got it back from the dealer and several weeks later had the oil changed at a local independent repair shop. I told the owner the story and he said I was keeping the proximity key too close. The interior lights stay off and the puddle lights are not lit but even so store these keys well away from your Honda product or it will keep some electronic system awake and your battery run down.

 

[HondaBob]

I have a 2016 Acura MDX. The stock battery ran down. I had AAA come and charge it, drove it for 30 min. and it died again next day.

Replaced it with an Interstate 733cc and a week later it died. Had the MDX trucked 1 1/2 hrs. to the dealer and they worked with if for 2 1/2 weeks and it never discharged the battery.

They thought I left a door ajar, ignition on, interior light on, etc. None of those scenarios fit because we live in bear country and lock our vehicles every time we exit for fear of a bear deciding it wants to check out the interior. Also would ahve noticed a light on as we are in the woods with total darkness.

Got it back from the dealer and several weeks later had the oil changed at a local independent repair shop. I told the owner the story and he said I was keeping the proximity key too close. The interior lights stay off and the puddle lights are not lit but even so store these keys well away from your Honda product or it will keep some electronic system awake and your battery run down.

Never had this happen, and I keep my fob in the car in the garage all the time. Also, you do realize that bears can get into locked cars, right? There is video out there of at least one bear, in Yellowstone I believe, just grabbing the door at the top and bending it away from the frame. Trying to get food that was left in the car of course. Probably not much you can do other than lock it if you leave it out, I suppose.

 

[MikeNC]

Even if the fob was in discussion mode or whatever with the car, how many weeks or months is that trivial little draw going to take to make an impact on the cars battery? I bet the dang clock takes more power on a constant basis than the transmitter for the near field transceiver in the key fob. Those things operate on a tiny level of power.

The clock, alarm (heck, even its flashing dash LED status light alone), and computer systems, that also draw power constantly, must have several orders of magnitude greater drain on the battery than the key fob causes.

Remember folks, your battery will drain in a couple or few weeks, key fob in the car or not. There are plenty of other things drawing power constantly.

 

[第9世代]

Build or buy a Faraday cage wallet. You would want to place your fob in the wallet before leaving your car. When you return and the car starts, then the fob theory might be plausible. But I'm inclined to agree with the folks that say the draw on the electricity is minimal. (I tested my fob by placing it in my Faraday cage wallet. When I press the buttons on the fob through the wallet, nothing happens. All the signals are blocked.)

 

[desertrat]

It would be very easy to test the current draw with and without the fob. Disconnect a battery terminal and connect a multimeter, in the current mode, in series with the battery. If there is a current draw you could calculate how long the car's battery should last.

 

[Bull2152]

3.5 years later....

It might be communicating but how much power can that use? When you have a tiny cellphone battery, it uses like a couple % of ITS (small) power in a day for wifi and bluetooth. Imagine how small that cellphone battery is versus your giant car battery.

By the way, the word is "wears"

Your comment is totally inaccurate, cell phone batteries and car batteries are completely different in every possible way. In your comment you are saying cell batteries and car batteries are one and the same and they are far from it. In one you have a lithium ion and in most cars you have lead acid battery’s, lead is heavy which why your car battery is heavy. Lithium ion is way to damn expensive and honestly the making of large lithium ion batteries is more damaging to the earth then just driving a regular gas car but that’s a different topic.. lithium ion is way to expensive to design for car batteries, and it’s not very durable, you have to keep lithium-ion batteries cool, and that won’t work under the hood of a running engine at 220 degrees. It’s just cheaper to have lead acid batteries. They last up to 6 years for 150$, and people are happy to pay for that kind of price to life ratio. People aren’t gonna pay 5000$ or more to have cars converted to Li-ion. This is why a good cell phone battery cost about 75$ for that little battery for your phone, and car batters depending on make and model can cost anywhere from 75-199$. They also make gel pack batteries called agm batteries, which are the new better style of car batteries they are longer lasting. Just thought you should know the difference between car batteries and cell phone batteries. Happy driving and hope this was some what informative. But I’ve been wrong many times and won’t be surprised if I got some things wrong in my comment.