[williamsji]

Incidentally, I just saw an article about the cost of replacing the battery pack in EVs exceeds the original cost of the vehicle. My thought is "that's why it is a re-volting' experience".... 😄

The article is bogus. The average cost of a new EV pack is ~ 2K-3K for a hybrid and 8K-9K for an EV. Thing is, EV packs for actual EVs will continue to decline in price over time as they become a commodity item in the market.

It is true that EV packs are expensive, but they are also warranted by the vehicle manufacturer for essentially the useful life of most owners retention of a vehicle. So really it is a used vehicle in the 10 year old range where EV packs will need replacement on owners wallet.

 

[williamsji]

No, still on that third battery. The dealer had told me that Honda had put minimal capacity batteries in them, and that I should buy a higher capacity unit (my thought was no, they should use one to replace the one they know to be marginal...). I appreciate the insight to yours, and I think I'll proceed to replace this one - but not at the dealership. Again, my thought about a system problem includes the aspect that it is always an 'all or nothing' failure. No fade-out but stone dead such that the horn won't even work.

Setting aside the two battery replacements you had in the first year, you are about due to replace that 3rd battery, or maybe overdue. Everything you have described in your posts here speaks to the following:

Infrequent driving, and/or short trip driving. The service provider that advised you are not driving enough to keep the battery at full charge was not lying or making excuses. Modern vehicles have a lot of electronics in them and as such they have a higher normal parasitic drain than older vehicles like your old Subaru. This puts a heavier demand on starter batteries as they age, so they age out faster.

A battery that is now over 3 years old. The useful life of batteries in modern motor vehicles is roughly 3 years, unless you monitor, maintain, and nurture your battery.

Suggestions/advice:

1) Your battery needs to be properly load tested by a service provider you trust (or you can do so yourself at home with a small modern hand held unit that will also test your charging system and alternator).

2) You need to have your vehicle checked for any abnormal parasitic drains that may be present. Normal parasitic drain for your CRV is between 35-50 ma. Anything beyond that is abnormal. You can have a service provider do a check for you or you can do it at home with a simple voltmeter. If you want to do it yourself, I can provide a youtube link about the best method to do so.

3) as an short trip infrequent driver if you care about how long your battery lives, then a once a week overnight saturation charge using one of the modern smart battery chargers/maintainers (like NOCO) will do wonders for keeping your battery healthy and extend it's life.

4) your concern about a few non-repeating random alerts about some system while driving is just that... random and non-repeating... which given the dozens of different systems and hundreds of sensors in your CRV... this can and will happen from time to time. What matters is A) do they clear on an engine restart or do they persist? B) Are there actual error codes stored in our vehicles OBDII system? Start thinking about modern vehicles as some combination of an actual vehicle and a desktop PC. Sometimes they simply need a reboot (stop engine, restart engine).

5) there are some random reports of various issues with gen5 CRVs, but nothing systemic and broad across the units in the field other than some failing BCMs (which clearly is not your issue).

6) Honda dual mode charging systems are notoriously stingy about fully topping up a battery during driving. They actually will bleed some charge from time to time to save demand on the engine and gain a bit of mpg. The system is fine for normal daily driving of 30+ minutes, but becomes a burden for the short trip infrequent driver. Queue: use a smart charger once a week to fully saturate and condition the charge state of your battery. Note: some owners upsize their battery when they replace it, but this only forestalls the inevitable, periodic use of a smart charger is a better choice of investment.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to take time to read through the FAQs I have posted in this subforum (stickied at the top here).

 

[williamsji]

@pwaldrop Hi,
The Alternator do not get the Computer 5Volt signal (I think). Because some times the Battery get charged at 14.8 Volts (which is correct) and some times the Battery will be only charged at 12.8 Volts (that is too low).

Your statement here indicates you do not understand the normal dual mode charging system operation in your CRV.

https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=auto_pres The dual mode works by sensing the ELD ground side current on the battery, and then either pulling a signal line to ground or leaving it in the high state.

I encourage you to read through the guides and FAQs I have stickied in this subforum about batteries in Hondas.

That stated, in your case, it sounds like you may have an actual wiring or connector issue that should be properly repaired by a qualified professional.

 

[williamsji]

350 miles won't charge a battery???? that sounds incorrect. Only if there is a problem somewhere preventing it.

There is a bit of nuance, lost in translation, I think.

There is "bulk charging" which the Honda (really any vehicle) will do. But there is also slow saturation charging and conditioning, which really no motor vehicle will do for a battery. This is why I recommend every owner invest in a smart charger and do a good overnight saturation charge on their battery at least once every two weeks. Reason: it not only fully saturates the capacity of the battery, it also performs modest conditioning of the battery which extends battery life.

A Honda (frankly most modern vehicles) will NEVER fully saturation charge a starter battery. They are tuned for bulk charging, not slow saturation charging. So.. in that essence.. the statement is correct. 350 miles will definitely charge the battery, but NOT fully. If you put it on a smart charger immediately afterwards and log the charging profile you will see that the smart charger will quickly skip the bulk charge phase and proceed to do a slow full saturation charge of the battery (which generally takes between 5 and 10 hours).

That said, on long road trips I have noticed what appears to be some form of slow saturation charging of the battery in my CRV. I keep a voltmeter plugged into my 12v accessory socket and on long road trips I do see a different charging profile in play than I do in short trip city driving. Still I bet the battery is never more than 95% charged at the end of a 300 mile day trip.

 

[williamsji]

It sounds like the diode pack in the alternator is draining the battery after it is off the alternator itself will put off the proper amount of voltage going into the battery when the car is running but when off it will allow it to drain off I have seen this many times

A possibility. If so there will be high ripple voltage from the output of the alternator.

Easy to check too, either by any auto parts store testing it or a low cost consumer battery tester which generally can test the starter, the charging system (including ripple voltage), and the battery integrity itself.