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I've been suspicious of something going wrong with my 2 month old HCH for the past week. I have an appointment tomorrow morning to have it troubleshooted, but heck, how will I get there now that it won't even start?! :(

I've noticed a pretty significant drop in mpg for the past 2 tanks. I had gone from 53mpg avg to roughly 34mpg. I have only 4500 miles on the car. As I approached the car this morning I tried to unlock it with the remote several times. Oh man, dead remote. What a pain! I got in the car manually and stuck the key in. Nothing. Not even a blip of noise suggesting it would even attempt to turn over. It just sat there, dead. The lights were off and nothing was plugged in. How could it have gone dead like this? I last drove it Friday night and it is now Sunday morning.

Since I'm stranded here at home my husband will come over to jump start it later this afternoon. I would appreciate any advice or insight into why my car has committed battery suicide. Thanks!

Did your dome light stay on? Was the door slightly ajar leaving it on (I think newer cars will automatically turn it off, so this is a far out guess). Is it possible the 12V battery leads aren't making proper contact? Maybe they weren't tight or are slightly loose? If the 12V battery seems low then they hybrid battery tries to charge it and might drain itself in the process I think.

Thanks for the reply! No lights of any kind were on and all doors were closed. I'm having my husband look at the contacts when he gets home. That was the only thing we could think of. He's got all the tools and whatnot with him, so he gets to play with it.

Here's hoping its just a contact issue. Maybe the bolts have wiggled loose.

EDIT: Does anyone know if there will be a difference in performance if the battery is drained completely?

If the hybrid battery is trying to charge the 12v there will be a loss in fuel economy. Not sure if it is that much. But have you started using your A/C more lately vs when you were getting better mileage? A/C makes a BIG difference in fuel economy especially in hybrids and cars will small engines.

34 mpg,,, something is wrong on that alone...

psy

If the hybrid battery is trying to charge the 12v there will be a loss in fuel economy. Not sure if it is that much. But have you started using your A/C more lately vs when you were getting better mileage? A/C makes a BIG difference in fuel economy especially in hybrids and cars will small engines.

Hmmm I wonder if that is maybe what was going on. I will look at that too, as much as I can tell on my own anyway. The A/C I hardly ever use, since the area I live in is fairly cool right now. If anything, I've used it less. :confused:

I wouldn't be surprised if this turned out to be a defective 12V battery.

If its a new car I'm sure your dealer will come and get it to the shop. That should be covered under the warranty policy? Probably defective 12V battery. Good luck, H

If its a new car I'm sure your dealer will come and get it to the shop. That should be covered under the warranty policy? Probably defective 12V battery. Good luck, H

I agree, hopefully the dealer will step up to the plate and make this as painless as possible.

One of the kids left the door slightly adjar a couple months ago. I didn't see the dome light on or the door just cracked open. In the morning, the car wouldn't start, so I don't think there is a timer on the dome light circuit. I managed to jump start it and it's been okay.

The poor FE you are experiencing may be due to the energy trying to charge that 12V battery?

Let us know how it works out, we all are interested in the outcome.

Thanks,

Bob

Ah-ha! Success. The car started right up when we jumped it and charged up to 2 bars... for now. We will see if it even attempts to hold it tomorrow. I guess it is a good thing that we are due at the dealership to address the FE problems at 9am tomorrow.

I will keep you all posted. Sounds like the battery for sure must be replaced, because I don't want to deal with this at random. I won't always be perfectly parked next to my husband's car with jumper cables in hand!

This sometimes happens. Make sure it gets a full charge. That should take care of it. If not, then have them replace your 12v battery.

Thanks for all of the info and ideas everyone.

Honda found no problems with it whatsoever. I still want to know why it died with nothing left turned on. They showed me the battery test strip that states it passed with flying colors. They assured me that my portable Sirius satellite unit would not drain on the battery when the key is taken out, but I think they may be wrong. I've started unplugging it now, so we will see.

My FE is still not where I want it to be, at around 45mpg. I'm going to post up some questions on how to tackle a hill with a long hill climb in my commute in one of the other forums. Thanks again guys.

I also vote for a bad 12V battery. My theory is an internal short in battery, possibly intermittent. Causing the alt to work harder to keep it charged.

My son's '05 Hyunai Elantra was running about 4-5 mpg below it's usual FE level. I did the usual stuff - air filter, new plugs, check for computer fault codes (none). Still lousy FE.

Battery died and needed a jump. I checked the alternator, it was charging OK. So I bought a battery. MPG problem solved. Display now shows 29 mpg in city driving vs. about 23-24 before battery replacement. Two year old battery shouldn't fail, but it's a Hyundai.

The shop absolutely insisted my battery was fine. They showed me the print out of the battery test. Could a bum battery actually pass the test, somehow? The technician said that they ran the test the first time before charging the battery and it passed fine, as well as a second test in the morning that it also passed. HmmMmm.

EDIT: I would also like to add that Dublin Honda took great care of my car and treated me exceptionally well. They were concerned my battery may die in the morning, so they put me in a Subaru (woohoooooo!) rental overnight. Full car wash without even asking for it too, which my old shop did not do unless you specifically requested, and then would often 'forget'.

An intermittent short circuit, where metal plates within the battery that are supposed to remain fixed in place move under vibration etc. If the faulty parts weren't in the wrong position when tested then the battery would test fine. Just an idea anyway, but I do know that internal mechanical issues can cause battery failure.

When the wrong plates make contact there's a short circuit within the battery, causing a reduction in the voltage the battery will produce and also causing the generator / alternator to work harder than normal in an effort to keep the battery charged. Thus the drop in mpg; the charging system is delivering current to the battery but instead of charging the battery it's short circuiting and probably just giving off heat instead. Wasted output.

Hi Mistyz23:

___I would be leery of course but that new battery/alternator scan tool devices the Honda dealers are all using nowadays is very robust. I tend to think something was left on and killed the 12V. You can only play it by ear from this point forward but if nothing appears within the next 2 or 3 weeks, I would say this issue is behind you? Beats chasing ghosts imho.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Sounds kind of like a loose battery cable that got tightened up to me. A technician might do that automatically when he was setting up a test.

Good to hear things are back to normal.

I am a little late on this... but I should add a remark relating to future occurrences of this problem.
Honda has recorded and a series of cases where the 12V batteries where literally drained over night. Of course, the common symptom of this seems to be the owner not being able to start the car the next morning - especially when no lights were left on.

Fortunately, it's been discovered that a certain climate control relay (I'm not totally sure which, yet...) is responsible for this problem and replacing it seems to be the solution. What seems to make the problem difficult to diagnose is that the relay has a tendency to stick intermittently.

So next time someone has a similar issue just ask the SD to look for the keywords AC, relay, battery.

Cheers;

MSantos

Oh! Thanks for the tip! I will keep that in the back of my mind.

My FE 1 way to school has soared from 50-51ish (my best since owning the HCH) to 76 as a personal best! This dramatic increase happened after the servicing of the battery.

Whatever it was, it seems to be fixed and has left me with the FE I've been working so hard to get but never was able to. Now, when I return home up the hill I'm left with a much lower number but... 58mpg tank average is sure as heck better than the 39-43 range I was seeing.

Glad to hear your FE has improved that much !! That is an awesome improvement.


Amazing isn't it?

For a while now, I have developed a serious respect for the health of the 12V system in our HCH-II's. I have had the opportunity to see first hand... and sadly, numerous times I may add, the kinds of FE and general operational issues that a poorly performing 12 battery can cause in these cars.
So much so, that I've made a couple of "investments" in my cars just to ensure that the 12V batteries are kept at the best voltage levels possible. While this approach is rather difficult to sell to your average HCH owner, it only takes a few explicit examples and a tiny bit of technical insight to make the point.

Cheers;

MSantos

Well put! I would love to be able to hook all my vehicles up to battery tenders, but I live in an apartment complex with a parking garage, so that's out the door. Some day, when I am a proud home owner.... where the avg price home is currently reported at $880,333.00 for a single family home, I won't hold my breath! :eek:

Does your car stay outdoors during the daytime? If so then the solution I picked may also work for you.

My cars sleep in the garage overnight, but during business hours I leave mine parked in the 3rd floor of the parkade. I don't get full sunlight, but what I do get makes a world of difference ever since I installed a solar panel set on my cars.

So, if your conditions are roughly identical to mine, the solar panel solution may actually help too?

Here's a link to my setup:

http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/technical/t-mounting-a-small-solar-panel-on-the-hch-ii-5036.html

Cheers;

MSantos

Oh! Very good idea. Do you mind saying how much your setup cost from start to finish? That could work for me since I'm at school daily for 5 hours a day parked in the scorching hot Modesto heat.

Well, I did it myself but the highest cost in this mod was the solar panel itself.

I bought a box of six at the time. If I recall correctly they were being sold for roughly $12 each.

Oh what a great deal. I'll be looking into this. :D Thanks for sharing!