For Your Information - resolved a parasitic drain of the battery
For about 6 months, the car battery in our 2016 CRV EX would not have enough power to turn over the engine. The night before it would be at 12 volts and in the morning it would be at 8 volts. The battery was replaced but the problem continued. I noticed that when I approached the CRV with a FOB, sometimes but not always, the car would auto-unlock without me pressing the FOB unlock button. If this happened in the evening, the battery would be low in the morning and could not turn over the engine. The dealer ran a diagnostic test ($180 US) and found the driver's side door handle was causing an electrical short, which would repeatedly send a signal to the circuit board that controlled the Smart system.
The handle was replaced ($600 US) and the parasitic drain of the battery stopped. It's been 5 months and the dead battery issue has not returned. The service advisor said that they have started to see this happen in older CRV and Civic.
I to have a 2016 CRV Touring AWD with less than 50K miles, I had this issue a last year, I was told it was the battery I purchased (not a Honda part) after bringing the car in for a diagnostic to see what was going on. They could not find anything wrong, so I purchased a Honda battery, paid for the battery, they were good enough not to charge for the diagnostic because they sold me a battery and the diagnostic only takes a few minutes if there are no issues.
Six months later I have a dead Honda battery and discovered this forum, I charged the battery and walked around the car and the passenger door unlocked, then locked, then unlocked, you get the picture. The key fob was not being touched and I seldom use the passenger door, so this was not really something I had looked into or noticed. I went back to the dealership, told them what the issue is, they assured me that they had never heard of this (sure they didn't). Because I had done a lot of research and read a lot about this problem I specifically told them the sensor in the door handle was shorting out and it needed to be replaced.
The helpful person checked into this and said that they did not have parts in stock and told me how much the parts would be with the labor and if I wanted the parts they would order them and it would arrive the following week. I scheduled my appointment and brought the car in to get the part replaced, the car was not fixed and they replace a perfectly good actuator - not the door handle and not the sensor. The work was done, I needed my car back and paid them ($437.00), then was asked by them to have a diagnostic run on the car (again) so that they could determine what the problem is (another $125.00). At this point I am very unhappy and just want the car fixed, after three batteries in under six months, and a replaced actuator that never needed replacing I'm into this too far not to get it fixed.
I dropped off the car had the diagnostic run and they told me they could not find anything wrong other than possibly the handle and the sensor in the handle (what I asked to replace), they told me the replacement handle would be $506.00 and they needed to add two hours of labor for this work, so roughly $900.00 to fix the correct part, on top of three batteries (roughly $600.00), five trips to dealership and auto parts stores, and a repair with new parts that never needed to be replaced.
Is it my imagination or are the people we have to deal with at the dealerships just deaf, or do not listen or take notes when you are paying very good money for a repair. Seems like Honda should be stepping up to address this problem. I'm into this for close to $1,200.00 and it did not get fixed, and at this time I am not spending another $506.00 for a replacement part even though I can easily replace it.
Anyway, I am bringing the car home, removing the inner panel and disconnecting (unplugging) the sensor so the battery won't be drained anymore, do I care that I have to now push a button to unlock the door - nope, I do not use that door too often, and wife does not care since I open the door for her anyway.
Thank you all for posting your notes, glad I'm not the only one out there with this issue, B.P.
