Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge

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Thu 10 Feb 2011 19:40
Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge - themanfromuncles

Hi all. I am having a problem with my Honda FRV 1.7SE. If I park up and turn off the engine I cannot use radio/lights/fan or anything 'battery powered' as the battery seems to lose charge very quickly (I'm talking a matter of seconds) and the car won't start. If I use jump leads the engine fires up straight away. I have also noticed the headlights occasionally but regularly will dim slightly now and again.

Is this a battery issue? I have put a meter on the battery and it does appear to be charging ok. Perhaps this is a known issue that someone can help me with?

Thanks

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Thu 10 Feb 2011 20:00
Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge - elekie&a/c doctor

Certainly seems like a battery issue.How old is car?Good idea to get the charging and battery system tested properly.hth

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Thu 10 Feb 2011 23:10
Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge - Peter.N.

I would second that, but the light dimming may be an indication that you also have an alternator fault, connect a meter across the battery with the engine running, it should read 14 volts or a little more, you need to watch it for a while as I suspect when the lights dim it will drop to about 12v.

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Fri 11 Feb 2011 12:33
Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge - Falkirk Bairn

Disconnect battery terminals, clean them up, retighten.

Earth Strap to bodywork - remove, clean, scrape and tighten.

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Tue 1 Mar 2011 10:58
Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge - themanfromuncles

Thanks for all your advice. The car is 5 years old. I ran a meter across terminals and it was showing at 14v. I didn't notice a drop but then I didn't hold the meter on for very long. I suspected an alternator issue too but I will get it properly checked and look at terminals and Earth Strap. Thank you all.

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Wed 2 Mar 2011 08:27
Honda FR-V - Battery charging/losing charge - gbroberti

We also have an FRV, the headlights dimming occasionally is most likely to be the air conditioning pump & fans turning on, this happens every 30 seconds or so and is normal.

If you have the ignition and a/c on and the engine isn't running the radiator fans still run, this will flatten the battery very quickly.

Also Honda's tend to have small batteries, a genuine replacement from Honda is only around £60 so after five years it may be worth replacing it.

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