Sealed Batt Needs Water Added?
 

Yep, you read it right...

On the '06 TSX this hot evening, we made a stop while I waited in the car for my Wife to run into the store. Instead of leaving the engine running, I used the recirc and fan from the stored A/C charge and shut down the engine.

5 minutes or so later -- flat battery. The indicator eye was cloudy which designates "Charge Required". We got a jump and headed home.

Here's the best part: we made the short drive home and the eye is now red -- "Distilled Water Required". There are little X's where it looks like you add water, but there's a big sticker covering most of the top that says "sealed battery" except for small holes in the sticker for the X's :confused:

So apparently it isn't? I'm confused. It's the stock Panasonic "Maintenance Free Battery" with about 3-4 years / 48,000 miles on it.

So now it requires maintenance or replacement. Is it worth peeling the sticker away to see if it's possible, and add distilled water? Since it's my Wife's ride, I'd hate to screw it up and have her stuck somewhere -- or burn up the alternator.

RH77

Ok, so back in the late 70's there was this "idiot light" epidemic, where cars would lose oil pressure, but the light wouldn't come on until the pressure was below 2 PSI... meaning that when the light came on, it was already too late, in most cases.

That little "eye" in your battery... consider it a 70's idiot light. Just replace the battery, and save yourself problems down the road.

Alternatively, yes, I'm sure you can add water to the battery. I've done it before, it's a pain, but you can do it. It's not necessarily the best thing to do, but it might "get you home" until you can get another battery, if money's tight or you're out of town or something.

Every "maintenance free" battery I've seen can be opened to add water.

You can do it, but I think Christ is probably right - the battery is toast. Giving it a drink probably won't do an awful lot.

By next fall, and the first cold morning, you'll definitely need a new one.

If you would have caught the battery a little sooner giving it a drink would definately help, if you can get cheap EDTA or build a desulphator, give it a drink and you can definately bring it back if the voltage stays at 12v or higher.

Every battery in my yellow electric car was dry, a little edta and lots of charge cycles later they are working 3 yrs later, albeit not as well.

Bummer. I figured it was time for replacement. Less than 4 years kinda stinks for a failure rate. I guess it's par anymore.

The one in Teggy is up to 7 years and almost 80K miles with EOC and other general abuse. If I can only find one like that again...

R

EDIT: RMay -- It didn't really give any warning. It sounded slow to start after sitting for a couple days, but that's the ol' "Butt Dyno" talking. I miss full gauge packages with a voltmeter or even the option to cycle through an electronic menu. At least it has a timer (because I use that every trip -- right) The SGII's on the other car. I just checked the darn thing a few weeks ago and the eye was fine, but it got really hot pretty quickly today. Season High today: 95F / Current = 83F; Dew Point 74F, RH 74%.

I might put a voltmeter across it and see where it stands. I'm not sure where to find EDTA over-the-counter...

Buy a L&G battery that's at least 300 Cranking amps, as long as you're not in a cold climate.

They're cheap to replace, and half the weight of a standard battery. (Unless your standard battery is a Group 51 or 51-R (Most Hondas))

I've found it of all places at the health food store, but trust me you want to buy it elsewhere. JC Whitney might have it add the 10-20% off with free shipping and it might be doable.

There is also the china battery depot stuff, it works fine and is relatively cheap off ebay, I can't say how LONG your battery will work after using it though. My fathers Miles ZX40 has a set of them treated, they work OK but don't have as much capacity as they should though they at least WORK now.

And of coarse if you don't want to spend much you could just add epsom salts mixed with hot distilled water to fill the batteries, you could then also have a nice relaxing epsom salt bath afterword. Epsom salts mixed in water added to a battery do tend to bring them back if they are in OK shape. (after a nice long overcharge on a dumb battery charger anyway) Only trouble is your battery will self discharge quicker if you leave the car set for extended periods.

If nothing else you will have a spare battery after all this which isn't a bad idea anyway with the way batteries are made now, my fathers walland battery in the buick lasted through 2 summers and one winter before dying hard.

Ah well.

Fixed... meant 200 amps, was a typo.

Napa L&G battery - $25.45 195CA and I think 40 min reserve capacity.

Those only make 1 or 2 seasons don't they? I made it over 12 years on an old set of fleet farm batteries in my 82 diesel suburban. But the batteries were $100 each.

I used one in 3 of my vehicles over 3 years, even through the winters.

Hmm, do they sell cheapo motorcycle batteries in this type? The last couple of cheap ones I've gotten have lasted under a year :(

I dunno, go to a Napa and see what they have.. the worst that will happen is you'll be out a $25 battery in a year.

I've never used Napa's L&G batteries, I've always gotten them from a local tractor shop, and I don't know the actual brand.. they're always labeled "White" (White tractor company.)

There's NOTHING cheapo about motorcycle parts. :mad:

I beg to differ they are cheaply built, not saying anything about sale price though.

Christ -

This looks close to the one you're talking about :

NAPAONLINE®
http://partimages.genpt.com/partimages/897871.jpg
But I can't find a price. For $25, this would make a nice hobby battery. I can't tell, but I don't think it's "deep cycle" like the marine batterys. How easy would it be to kill? Same as a car, easier or harder?

CarloSW2

That looks about right like the one next door here. Like I said, I don't use Napa's batteries for that... anymore, I just fall in line and get them at Wally-World, like everyone else.

When I get my racing tractor built, I'll probably go buy one from NAPA, then I'll use it until it dies.

It's not a deep cycle battery, by any means, but I'm sure it can do it's job as far as lawn mowers and utility devices go.

Looking at the specs, that one's actually even more amps than the one next door.

The one next door is 195CA, about 40min reserve.

Well, the big failure turned out to be a non-event.

I looked-up where Teggy's batt came from. I located the repair order:

July 2001; 40K miles from NTB. That's nearly 8 years and 100K miles and it's still cranking!

So, I went to the new NTB up the road and started the process (Exide brand batts, it appears).

The tech put it on the tester and cranked it up. I continued reading the paper and looked into the "bay window" occasionally. He then turned to another tech and he looked to say, "This doesn't need a battery..." Sure enough, a few moments later, they brought the test strip into the waiting area with the good news...

Volts: ~11; Cranking Amps: 300-some (rated for something like 420 CCA). I asked about the red appearance in the indicator, maintenance, etc. They said if it happened again to replace it -- otherwise it's OK. Fair enough -- saved the cash for later -- I was impressed they didn't push a new batt.

That's it for now I hope -- likely until the first cold snap. :o

RH77