[hellonewwwman]

I'm hoping my battery is just dead, because the car wouldnt even start and the dash looked like this.

 

[Honda2014]

Have you replaced the battery yet? I’d start there first.

 

[hoinoy88]

My Odyssey and Cayman both exhibited similar warning lights before dying due to dead battery. If you have a battery maintainer, plug it in for a few hours and recheck. I had regenerated charge on "dead" batteries with CTEK maintainer that has the regenerative function.

 

[hellonewwwman]

Have you replaced the battery yet? I’d start there first.

Not yet, just happened this morning. Tow is on the way and they will test the battery. I am hoping its just battery as I have had the car for 3 years 10 months now.

 

[jackpine]

That's what you see when the starting battery is dead in the Accord. If this is the first time that's happened, you may be able to recharge it and continue to use it. Battery life though, is normally somewhere between 3-5 years in my experience.

- Jack

 

[WiiMaster]

Classic battery symptom.

 

[SaveTheManuals]

Seems like half the posts on the 10th Gen forum are from people freaking out because their car won't start and a parade of terrifying warnings is flashing on the dash.

How hard would it have been for Honda to program a "Low Voltage" warning in lieu of all these unrelated system warnings? A lot of needless anxiety could have been saved.

 

[hellonewwwman]

Update: yeah it was just the battery....holy hell why do they have to flash that everything in the car is broken....would it be so hard to just say "low battery" or flash the battery light only. It gave me a heart attack.

 

[Ronch]

@hellonewwwman - Out of curiosity, did you ever check the water level in your old battery in those 3 years+10 months (assuming it wasn't a sealed battery)?

Honda OEM battery in my '16 Accord needed topping off with distilled water every ~6 months (+/-), especially the cell closest to the engine block. And it lasted 5 years+8 months...

 

[hellonewwwman]

@hellonewwwman - Out of curiosity, did you ever check the water level in your old battery in those 3 years+10 months (assuming it wasn't a sealed battery)?

Honda OEM battery in my '16 Accord needed topping off with distilled water every ~6 months (+/-), especially the cell closest to the engine block. And it lasted 5 years+8 months...

Never. I didn't even know that was a thing....

 

[WiiMaster]

It's not like Honda is intentionally throwing all those codes to scare you.

When the battery is dead, all the vehicle systems have low voltage, and they all sense this and throw a variety of low voltage codes.

Even a low voltage code in one system can cause many different lights to light up as one light can cause a domino effect that causes other systems to shut down and light up their respective lights.

The reason they have this instead of one low voltage warning is because there can be situations other than a battery issue that can cause low voltage to a system, and they need to keep that distinction.

 

[Ronch]

Never. I didn't even know that was a thing....

Well, if the water level dropped below the top of the plate in any of the 6 battery cells ➡ R.I.P.

Check the new battery. If it has six individual removable (screw) caps over the cells, or two rectangular (push on) covers, each one over three cells, you should keep an eye on the level in each cell every ~6 months.

Be careful, the battery has acid in it and you don't want it to drip onto clothes, skin, paint, or splatter into eyes, etc. I always wear eye protection and disposable gloves.

Only use distilled water with an eye dropper to fill each cell to the mark. They won't take much. You can get a whole gallon of distilled water at local drug stores, etc, for ~$2. And/or have a mechanic check battery during routine maintenance.

If the battery is sealed ("maintenance-free) it won't have removable caps, but probably has a "magic eye" on top which is green when you look straight down into it. If it's red, the battery is failing...

 

[SaveTheManuals]

It's not like Honda is intentionally throwing all those codes to scare you.

When the battery is dead, all the vehicle systems have low voltage, and they all sense this and throw a variety of low voltage codes.

Even a low voltage code in one system can cause many different lights to light up as one light can cause a domino effect that causes other systems to shut down and light up their respective lights.

The reason they have this instead of one low voltage warning is because there can be situations other than a battery issue that can cause low voltage to a system, and they need to keep that distinction.

I'd say it's exactly as if Honda is intentionally throwing all those codes to "scare" you. How else is the average driver supposed to react when their car won't start and their dash shows multiple system failure warnings?

If Honda can program a separate warning screen for each system that detects low voltage, then they could also have added an overlay warning screen that says "Warning: Low Voltage. Check Battery."

 

[Honda2014]

Not yet, just happened this morning. Tow is on the way and they will test the battery. I am hoping its just battery as I have had the car for 3 years 10 months now.

That’s pretty long to me for a Honda. I’ve only had one out of the several Hondas I had that had a battery lasted longer than that.

 

[WiiMaster]

That’s pretty long to me for a Honda. I’ve only had one out of the several Hondas I had that had a battery lasted longer than that.

Especially a newer Honda with more electronics. My 2010 Accord came close to 4 years on a battery, though I never got to find out how far it would go. It didn't show any signs of quitting, however. It was still nice and strong, even during and after the winter storm we had in Feb 2021.

My Odyssey on the other hand is currently at about 3 years and 2 months, and although it looked like it died a couple months ago, it's back from the dead and still going strong now. I'm basically running an experiment on that one to see how far it goes. The last battery in it lasted about 3 years and 5 months.

 

[Honda2014]

Especially a newer Honda with more electronics. My 2010 Accord came close to 4 years on a battery, though I never got to find out how far it would go. It didn't show any signs of quitting, however. It was still nice and strong, even during and after the winter storm we had in Feb 2021.

My Odyssey on the other hand is currently at about 3 years and 2 months, and although it looked like it died a couple months ago, it's back from the dead and still going strong now. I'm basically running an experiment on that one to see how far it goes. The last battery in it lasted about 3 years and 5 months.

Interesting. Although my own sample data is rather limited, it seems to me that stock batteries with the Honda V6 engine tend to last longer than the stock batteries in their 4 cyl counterpart. Case in point, the battery in both my 06 and 14 Accord lasted less than 4 years (the 9G only 2 years). My battery in my AV6 was going strong when I traded it, as was my TL with the 3.5 that actually crossed the 5 year mark. I only changed it because it seemed too long and it did struggle quite a bit in the winter when it was cold and left alone for more than a week.

 

[WiiMaster]

Interesting. Although my own sample data is rather limited, it seems to me that stock batteries with the Honda V6 engine tend to last longer than the stock batteries in their 4 cyl counterpart. Case in point, the battery in both my 06 and 14 Accord lasted less than 4 years (the 9G only 2 years). My battery in my AV6 was going strong when I traded it, as was my TL with the 3.5 that actually crossed the 5 year mark. I only changed it because it seemed too long and it did struggle quite a bit in the winter when it was cold and left alone for more than a week.

I would probably be changing the battery in my Odyssey right now, but it's not a vehicle that I rely on now that I have the 2012 AV6, and I want to see how far it'll go.

I always attributed the Odyssey's battery life to being a product of having more electrical demand and me not driving it too often. I drive it maybe once or twice every week or two.

 

[JayDee4711]

As others said: It is just poor programming practice to scare the bejeezus out of the driver with a litany of warnings that sound super scary, but don't even include the root cause. You get the same Christmas tree after disconnecting the battery. And all it really means is that you need to drive a quarter mile until everything has gone though enough wheel rotations to complete its self checks.

How hard could it have been to detect a global low-voltage condition or a battery disconnection and put out a warning along the lines of: "Battery voltage temporarily low. Drive with caution until driver assistance systems are recalibrated. See dealer if condition persists." Or, if the car can't start (which should also be easy to detect): "Voltage too low. Check or replace starter battery."

But software development isn't necessarily done with common sense and/or the user in mind. Reminds me of our ERP system (AKA corporate database), which puts out a "Fatal exception at %0815", followed by some more gibberish, when it really means you made a typo in your username or password. Certainly not a completely unforeseeable, exceptional condition...

 

[WiiMaster]

Sure, they can add an extra dashboard warning for low battery voltage. But that would be in addition to the existing Christmas tree dash. They wouldn't replace all the individual system low voltage warnings with it because like I said before, systems can have low voltage for reasons besides a dead battery and so they need to preserve the system warnings for those situations.