Yes, many threads on it, some don't agree with it.

 

The 2020 crv has a larger battery stock i believe, cant find link though

 

larger cap bat wit hte stock altinator will only top that cap bat. bigger does not mean better,

 

I don't think that's how it works Fishy. The alternator is not matched to the battery capacity. It wouldn't know the difference between a lawnmower battery and one from a large diesel truck. All it's looking at is voltage. If voltage dips a little low it will ramp up and start trying to charge up the battery until it can maintain around 14V or so. In this respect, since a larger battery should be able to hold it's charge better, I would think that a larger battery would actually be a little easier on the alternator. In fact, you're the first person I've ever heard who's said that bigger isn't better when it comes to battery size.

I believe that BoostedV is correct. I'm pretty sure that the new CR-V's that come with the start/stop feature do come with larger batteries. I'm not sure if it would be an easy drop-in or not, I've been wondering about this possibility myself.

 

Nope... you don't need a bigger battery. Just get a NAPA The Legend Professional 51R. It's pricey, but I wish I did it sooner!

 

Yup. The 51R is a lawnmower battery. It comes standard in many riding mowers, and the CR-V. In this case, bigger does mean better. I just finished upgrading my '07 to a Group 24F. The write-up is here: Gen 3 Group 24F Battery Upgrade .

Of course, my '07 is going to be a little different from your 2018. You can find all you need to know for your late model V in this main thread here:

Larger Group 24 Battery Install .

It will not void your warranty, and it will not harm your alternator, which cannot tell what size the battery is, and will behave normally. I went with an AGM battery. My two previous 512R's lasted less than 1.5 years each. I'm also installing a NOCO Genius 5 smart battery tender. Since I retired, I don't drive as often, so I will keep this plugged in to 110v, and it will keep the battery healthy all the time. All I have to do is unplug it when I go out, or else get a really, really long extension cord.

Actually, I think the install is easier for the Gen 5 than for my Gen 3. Read through the above thread's 14 or so pages and you'll find info for Gen 4 and 5 installs that should give you all you need to know. It does require a little work, but it's not brain surgery. I even used Odyssey parts to make it all officially Honda issue. Good luck, and let us know what you decide to do.

 

Of course you can put any battery in your vehicle that you like, your vehicle, your choice.

But a Group 24 (or similar) is not going to buy you much in your gen3 CRV. A) you do not need the extra CCA, so that is a waste. B) a 24 only gives you about 25% more reserve charge capacity. C) gen3s have pretty low normal parasitic.. so the only thing you really have to deal with in a gen3 is the normal slow self-drain characteristics of the battery itself and the fact that every battery made is a ticking clock that ticks down persistently until it fails some years after the electrolyte is activated.

A gen5 benefits more from installing a larger battery, simply for the extra reserve capacity, which can extend the period of time before a sitting CRV depletes it's battery due to normal power down parasitics. But even then, the difference is small... 40-45 days idle vs 30-35 with a stock 51R installed.

Early battery failure is much more about allowing a battery to sit at a persistently low charge state, which accelerates plate sulfation + lack of any periodic checks and maintenance on these batteries.. which are not actually maintenance free. This is true.. regardless of the size battery you choose to install. Which is why periodic maintenance checks and use of a smart charger is such a benefit for motor vehicle battery life expectancy.

 

then by all means run a 2ndary to the back cabin or move it all to the back of the cabin and top it with as many as one likes. I hear ya. /

 

I have a 17 CRV that is 3+ years old. I have had zero problems with the battery in 36K miles. I don't do anything out of the ordinary and have never had an issue. I would really like to know why some batteries are failing and not others. I do on occasion monitor the voltage on my scan gauge, and it is usually at 14.3 volts on start and I have seen it down to 12. something after a long drive. Are there some bad batteries? or something wrong with the charge system?

 

I have a 17 CRV that is 3+ years old. I have had zero problems with the battery in 36K miles. I don't do anything out of the ordinary and have never had an issue. I would really like to know why some batteries are failing and not others. I do on occasion monitor the voltage on my scan gauge, and it is usually at 14.3 volts on start and I have seen it down to 12. something after a long drive. Are there some bad batteries? or something wrong with the charge system?

Maybe this explains it:

 

recycled goods.

 

The 2020 model year comes with a larger battery, likely on account of the start/stop function but doubt it would fit in an earlier model. Heat is the big battery killer though. In Ontario I normally get at least 5 years, even from my dinky motorcycle battery or my

vehicle batteries, however I use a battery maintainer on the bike over the winter and when I don’t plan on driving any vehicle for over a week.(Have 3 maintainers..picked up the third one during Covid)

 

That sucker is significantly larger than the 51R in my 2017 EXL.
Do you know what Battery Group it is?

 

Unsure what group but 450 cold cranking amps and A 57Ah battery with a notification for start stop systems. I do believe that keeping any battery over 80% charge is essential for long life.

 

Unsure what group but 450 cold cranking amps and A 57Ah battery with a notification for start stop systems. I do believe that keeping any battery over 80% charge is essential for long life.

View attachment 139064 View attachment 139065

Thanks for sharing.

I see it is labeled as a Group 4A. First time I have seen a Group 4 battery in a Honda. Group 4s are classified as heavy duty commercial and special tractor batteries, and are available in both 12vdc and 6vdc. The "A" classification is probably to note it is specified for Automobile use.

My guess is that this battery has more robust plates, to account for higher loading of start/stop cycles in 2020 CRVs. The CCA is low compared to larger batteries, but pretty close to the same as a 51R. It does however have a 57amp/hour reserve capacity, making it's reserve capacity ~ the same as the Group 24 Batteries Honda puts into all it's V6 vehicles ..so clearly this battery is designed for numerous starts over time due to the auto start stop feature. A 51R by comparison has a reserve capacity of 40-45 amp/hours.

It looks physically very much like what Honda now puts in new generation Accords, and now Civics (both of which have a 1.5T engine)... which is labeled as an H5 Class battery. H5 is similar to Group 24 in CCA and reserve capacity.

Does anyone know for sure if this battery is also in the non-hybrid 2020 CRVs? I ask because this battery may be present for the hybrid platforms in general... rather than specifically for auto start/stop. Or perhaps the new 2020 1.5T CRVs come with an H5 as they do in Accords and Civics.

It will be interesting to see if this battery group class = fewer complaints about early dead batteries. Time will tell. I bet this battery is on the expensive side of battery pricing to replace though.

 

I'm a fan of the larger battery, and fully agree a 25-30% improvement is desired on these vehicles. The larger battery is also stressed far less with each partially under charged start, which results in a much longer life.

The cost is minimal to do the upgrade, and is easily worth an extra two weeks of having the car start if it hasn't been used.

Its also interesting that the newer style battery is constructed more like a deep cycle battery, thicker plates and lower CCAs for more durability and extra reserve capacity. This may have been something brought up before, but shot down.

There is a combination of things that results in CRVs having battery problems. Some can be partially rectified like the battery size. I have no clue if there's a hack for the charging system programming, but it doesn't sound like there is.

Some CRVs had glitches that can be rectified with updated programming, others had defective parts.

Anecdotal evidence from people that have larger batteries indicates far fewer problems after it was installed.

A highly stressed small battery isn't going to last as long as a less stressed larger one.

 

Its also interesting that the newer style battery is constructed more like a deep cycle battery, thicker plates and lower CCAs for more durability and extra reserve capacity. This may have been something brought up before, but shot down.

It does have a different design profile than the classic vehicle starter battery, but it better not be an actual deep cycle battery design.. because generally those perform very poorly as starter batteries for motor vehicles.

The one advantage to more robust plates is they can take the surge cycles better, AND are more mechanically sound so they should suffer less from mechanical shocks that are common simply from driving a motor vehicle on a variety of road surfaces.

It is probably a sound path for vehicles with auto start/stop and with so many manufacturers moving in that direction.. it will likely drive a shift in battery designs by the big producers.

Thing is.. lead acid flooded cell batteries are inherently unreliable compared to the rest of a modern motor vehicle. And changing the design as the needs of vehicle manufacturers change will just introduce new weak points of failure (yet to be characterized in the field). The 51R is a poster child example of this in action..... designed and produced to reduce weight and space needed in the era of compact and subcompact motor vehicles with small engines that are easy to crank... yet carries the liability of thinner plate design and less actual amp/hrs of reserve charge capacity.

 

one good reason I do not want a start/stop car, or uh you can turn it OFF and then see if continued drain. for me going ot will figure my drain out.

 

Just the other week I replaced the original battery that was in our 2014 CRV with a new Interstate 51R battery. That original battery lasted 6+ years even after being discharged down to nothing 3 different times because "someone" left the key on for over 24 hours.

 

I have a 17 Lx, same problems, Honda battery test good, so bought a charger/maintainer. I see people refer to "upsizing" like you said, but the Gen 5, does not look like much room, so reference to others may be USELESS.

Oh, and I turned all my door/trunk lights off; kids. (just in case.)

Some other thing I came across on my search as well. Did not know, until after I checked (idle) with multimeter on battery and was still battery voltage, but 14v+ after i drove.

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=auto_pres

 

I had a 2012 CR-V that kept having to be jumped. This was a software load problem as the ECM thought the battery was charged when it was not. therefore a full discharge many times

 

Thanks for posting this link. Others have mentioned this two stage charging, and have even figured a way to trick it into charging at the higher rate (by turning on the headlights during the day).

 

Yep.. I always drive with my headlights on. It helps insure that the battery gets properly topped up and stays that way by avoiding the low charge mode which actually depletes some charge from the battery.

 

Interesting! I l looked up the 4A designation and it shows a small motorcycle battery. According to the Advance Auto Parts site, the correct battery for the 2020 1.5Lt is the Group Size H5. Most of the online sites do not yet show a listing for this vehicle, and the ones that do show the A4, which is not a BCI number as far as I can find, and also not the correct battery for the car. I'm sure the A4 designation has some significance, but all else I've found shows the Group SIze H5. THe H5 appears to be a bit smaller than the Group 35 but very close. Same on specs.
Here's a link: Advance Auto Parts - Down for Maintenance .

That's the only listing they showed for the car. Still, a considerably larger battery than the 51R.

 

Interesting! I l looked up the 4A designation and it shows a small motorcycle battery. According to the Advance Auto Parts site, the correct battery for the 2020 1.5Lt is the Group Size H5. Most of the online sites do not yet show a listing for this vehicle, and the ones that do show the A4, which is not a BCI number as far as I can find, and also not the correct battery for the car. I'm sure the A4 designation has some significance, but all else I've found shows the Group SIze H5. THe H5 appears to be a bit smaller than the Group 35 but very close. Same on specs.
Here's a link: Advance Auto Parts - Down for Maintenance .

That's the only listing they showed for the car. Still, a considerably larger battery than the 51R.

There is a group class in BCI = 4 Different alpha suffixes then sub classify the battery for a particular application. For example... Group 4 batteries appear in the BCI tables for both 6v and 12v variants.. and are differentiated by a different alpha character to the suffix. The "A" suffix is probably new and as such may not show up in many BCI tables posted on the internet yet... but that will change as the battery class proliferates in consumer vehicles and tables get updated.

The key characteristic of Group 4 = classified for heavy duty use, historically for tractors. So.. I imagine the battery companies simply leveraged that core design and modified it from there for consumer motor vehicle use.

Group 4 should perform better long term in an auto start/stop vehicle by virtue of it's heavy duty design, compared to the big H5s Honda quietly slipped into newer Hondas sporting the 1.5T in the last couple years. I like the H5 battery class a lot.. and have been very pleased having one as the stock battery in my wifes 2018 Accord with a 1.5T.

I do think the Group 4s represent a better battery group for repetitive stop/start cycles of newer vehicles. The thing I do not know though is how a Group 4 battery will perform in terms of life expectancy if the owner always disables the auto start/stop feature each time they drive. Time will tell.

 

You seem to be hung up on the idea that a battery needs to be at one end of the scale or the other.

Batteries are designed someplace on the scale as the need requires.

If you go to the extreme ends of the scale the performance drops off for the opposite use. This is what Honda experienced.

There is a balance in there somewhere.

DC batteries make poor starting batteries due to the low CCAs for their size, sizing the battery correctly for the CCAs required helps to solve this. The problem is the size and cost increases if you plan to use it for starting purposes. This isn't something the automotive industry wants to do.

From my personal experience, a large deepcycle battery used for starting purposes lasts much longer than a small starting battery that is frequently discharged, or is rarely or never fully charged.

 

Ok but what will fit in the Gen 5, does not look like much room with master cylinder there on 2.4. That is the question!

 

I cannot comment on a gen5 with the 2.4L in it. Show us some photos, or wait for an owner with a 2.4 who has upsized their battery.

But for gen5s with the 1.5T there is clearly room for a Group 24, or a group H5... and you may or may not need a new tray for these (need to actually measure and check). And of course this new 4A we have been discussing fits.... as it is the standard in the 2020s.

 

No, the original battery is sufficient. To install a bigger battery, you need to get a bigger base plate to house the bigger battery. I am not sure it is worth the cost.

 

Actually, it isn't, for many here, including me. The group 24 size battery tray, box, hold down clamp, etc., used for the 24F swap runs about $30 or so for the kit. My new 24F AGM battery has 75% more reserve than the tiny 51R lawnmower battery.

I haven't seen anyone yet post having done the 24F swap for a Gen 5, but it has worked for all previous generations. Should be good for all Gen 5's with 51R's in them. The newest models with this larger battery will likely render the swap moot.

 

I had my battery die while flushing brake fluid. It would not take a charge. I removed it popped the caps off topped up the low cells. Bench charged it and didn’t have any problems with it 6 months later. Keep in mind mine has 80k miles on it and has been used fairly regularly since launch date. I have had bad luck with new aftermarket batteries before once your on a winning streak it keeps on coming.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yeah I think a lot of battery failures in CRVs are much more about the electrolyte drying out, vs actual battery integrity failures.

Consumers have been lulled into thinking these "capless" flooded cell batteries are maintenance free. But they do have caps, and you can check and top up the electrolyte, and should... once or twice a year.

 

Hi, i replaced mine with the 35 size last week. I took out the plastic cover and tray that makes the small battery fit. I used the same top clamp and terminals from the old small battery. It’s perfect!

 

Terrific!! The news that I was hoping to hear.
Thanks.
Do you have any pictures?

 

my 2017 ex has had no battery issues, neither has my fathers exl

 

My 2012 Honda CRV bought brand new has had 6 new batteries now. Just last week! Honda won’t acknowledge a recall. I’ve heard MSNY CRV owners complain of poor battery performance and repeated replacement!

 

2017 CRV EX-L Turbo with Nav. I am on my 3rd battery but I don't think that it has anything to do with the size or capacity of the battery, just poor quality Honda OEM batteries. Really disconcerting for a company with Honda's reputation for quality. The 3rd one is doing fine so far. Most of my driving is in the Austin/ Houston, Tx area with occasional trips to North Louisiana. In Austin I have seen the temperature drop down to the 20 degree range for 3 days in a row; Louisiana is not uncommon for winter ice/snow storms & the Austin/ Houston areas both have several days in the 90's with Austin having summer days of 100 degrees or more fairly often.

I don't see how a larger capacity battery would hurt as long as it physically will fit the space--don't forget about the height measurement. Ask your Honda dealer at the next service. You are likely to have to replace the battery tray for a physically larger battery even if you don't want to.

A larger capacity battery would generally be needed for more cranking power in really cold climates, if your car is not in good tune or the alternator or battery cable has an issue, if you have additional accessories that use a lot of battery power or you have a habit of listening to the radio for a long time with the engine off. Almost forgot, also if you make a lot of frequent short trips so that the alternator does not have time to get a charge for your battery. Other than that the OEM battery should be adequate.

 

I have a 2016 EX and I replace it with larger battery. 640CCA from autozone. So far so good. In cold weather, no problem. Easy start.

 

My 2016 CR-V’s original batter was a “Group 51R” and the best one I could find had 500 Cold Cranking Amps (CCA); usually the higher the better. Various auto parts stores claim a Group 35 also fits; it’s available with about 640 CCA, but is essentially 2” wider. A CR-V blog site has owners claiming the original battery should be heavier duty given all the “stuff” a battery runs after a car is shut off. Some believe by using the lighter duty battery, Honda cuts the weight by 8-10 lbs. I rather have the extra battery capacity. After removing the original battery and placing it on the floor it looked unusually small; a cross between a lawn mower battery and a car battery.