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Battery dead as a doorknob!!

4734 Views 18 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  CRZ-Driver
Ok decided to do some testing before I posted.
Tuesday morning decided to drive the CZR to work, but to my surprise keyless entry would not work, I looked in no red or green flashing light. So I opened with key and tried to start and not a noise was stirring. Popped open the hood, looked at the battery and the indicator was indicating need to charge? WTF?
I remember reading two post on here about this, so I was like ok before I put my jumper thingamajiger on it, pay attention to what lights might have been left on. The regular headlight switch was OFF. When I did jump the car with doors closed waited to make sure all the lights went off, which they did, including the Map lights. Last resort I figured maybe he LED lights I installed was hosed up. So I took them all out and replaced with factory bulbs. Drove the car around for about 30 minutes, parked back up. The batt indicator still said needed to charge. Well this morning same dam thing I guess as I didn't charge the battery properly. So my question is, is the battery just fkd now? I really didn't want to go back to the dealer this weekend 90 miles away, but dang.

:beer: x 12
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maybe an issue with the alternator not charging the battery. hard to tell without looking at it.
Hard to call. But, you can go to any Honda Service Department at any dealer for warranty work.. Go in with your factory stuff.
Yea, I plan to take it in eventually

Just got back from a lil drive after posting. Interesting, got pulled over by CHP even tho my windows were ALL the way down for my TINT already! He said he already knew from looking at my back tints and frnt windows down that they were tinted. lol Sucks living in a lil ass town. No ticket. So that means no driving until I get my FL license plates.
Now the battery indicator shows it charged and all stock bulbs are installed. Guess i'll report back tomorrow morning on success or fail.
Yea, I plan to take it in eventually

Just got back from a lil drive after posting. Interesting, got pulled over by CHP even tho my windows were ALL the way down for my TINT already! He said he already knew from looking at my back tints and frnt windows down that they were tinted. lol Sucks living in a lil ass town. No ticket. So that means no driving until I get my FL license plates.
Now the battery indicator shows it charged and all stock bulbs are installed. Guess i'll report back tomorrow morning on success or fail.
Glad to hear it is fully charged. Might want to just watch it for a while - See if the issue replicates with the stock bulbs. If not, replace the LED's a pair at a time and see.

Sorry to hear about the pull over. Good to hear no ticket, Sorry to hear no driving until you get your plates..
Yea I plan on testing to isolate 1 bulb a day at a time. Hopefully i'll find out what the heck is going on.
I know even though I live (work) in Cali i'm supposed to abide by Cali road laws or so they say. Being military and a resident of Florida I'm registering in FL and waiting for my plates/registration to arrive. So when I do get pulled over again i'll show Military ID and Florida registration they will leave me b hopefully or...... I've had friends from Florida who did get the ticket for front tint, and every time they went to court they fought it by saying I ONLY WORK in California because of my JOB but WILL KEEP my RESIDENCY in FL as with my Car Registration so when I go back to FL my car will be within the laws of Florida. They always got it dropped. These were sailors that worked for me, and me having to go to court with them as their supervisor.
These were sailors that worked for me, and me having to go to court with them as their supervisor.
Yea, I can remember quite a few of those trips. Gotta take take care of our kids..

:rolleyes:

Please keep us informed on your findings.
Well just went outside to check on the battery, car started up easy, but when I looked at the battery white outsides and red dot inside.. NEEDS charging!!! to darn late for this. I'll deal with this tomorrow morning. I've already missed to much Black Ops troubleshooting this. :p :beer:
Yea... you need to address things like that as soon as possible. Not doing so can be considered neglect and as such some dealers (if they are jerks) can determine this to void the warrenty (horror stories) . Priorities bro, just lookin out fer ya
I don't get why dealers do that.. They get paid by honda for doing warranty work. It seems like they'd want to take in as much work as possible! Try to hide issues from Honda Corp to take in even questionable work (like working on suspension that's been lowered or something).

(Otoh, I do work for a gm car dealer, and the mechanics have a very poor union attitude.. like, they are completely totally being FORCED to do their job, and would definitely be out hunting or fishing if they had the choice.. and if they can say NO to a job, i'm 100% sure they will.. That's not the attitude of the manager, but the guys who look at the cars and do the work are definitely that way)
I don't get why dealers do that.. They get paid by honda for doing warranty work. It seems like they'd want to take in as much work as possible! Try to hide issues from Honda Corp to take in even questionable work (like working on suspension that's been lowered or something).

think about it this way.....if the dealer has to do work on your car under warranty,
the service dept. and the parts dept. lose money. Yes, they do get paid for warranty work,
but they would make ALOT more if you were paying. The dealership will try to find a
way to NOT cover the car if they can. Its more money in their pockets if its coming
out of yours....
Well, this morning I tried starting up the car and it did, also just got home started it up and it did. What I did last night after posting was reinstall all the LED's except one on the passenger door. That one I just used the stock bulb. I'm really not going to keep on going with the troubleshooting, but just see if the battery dies tomorrow morning. I'm just going to swap a LED from the driver door to that door and put a stock bulb in the driver side.
Till the a.m.
:beer:
(i don't drive the CRZ more than up n down street till i get my FL plates.)
Well, this morning I tried starting up the car and it did, also just got home started it up and it did. What I did last night after posting was reinstall all the LED's except one on the passenger door. That one I just used the stock bulb. I'm really not going to keep on going with the troubleshooting, but just see if the battery dies tomorrow morning.
Update?
maybe an issue with the alternator not charging the battery. hard to tell without looking at it.
I'm pretty sure there is no alternator on this car. That's all done with the IMA. Same for the starter unless the IMA is dead or too cold to work.

:eek:fftopic: (kind of) So...no income tax AND you can tint your windows however you like? ;)
Sorry for your troubles.

When I went to the dealer to test drive what would become my car, it was completely dead. Sales guy went off, got a battery charger. That didn't work. Sales guy went off, got a tech guy. They fiddled around for awhile without success, finally took the battery out of another CR-Z. That one needed the charger too, but we got the car started. Time elapsed: 45 minutes.

We went for a ride, I fell in love with the car, then went in to make the deal.

When we came out an hour or so later, the car was completely dead. Sales guy was fed up! He got the charger, started the car, drove it over to the service bay, demanded a brand new battery, and stayed there until he saw it installed. That seems to have solved the problem.

Seems to me there were some bad batteries in CR-Z's in the SoCal area in the last couple of months.
Sorry for your troubles.

When I went to the dealer to test drive what would become my car, it was completely dead. Sales guy went off, got a battery charger. That didn't work. Sales guy went off, got a tech guy. They fiddled around for awhile without success, finally took the battery out of another CR-Z. That one needed the charger too, but we got the car started. Time elapsed: 45 minutes.

We went for a ride, I fell in love with the car, then went in to make the deal.

When we came out an hour or so later, the car was completely dead. Sales guy was fed up! He got the charger, started the car, drove it over to the service bay, demanded a brand new battery, and stayed there until he saw it installed. That seems to have solved the problem.

Seems to me there were some bad batteries in CR-Z's in the SoCal area in the last couple of months.
Is this a sign that these battery's may not hold up for years to come? I heard its going to cost around 3-4k to replace one if its outside of warranty.
Is this a sign that these battery's may not hold up for years to come? I heard its going to cost around 3-4k to replace one if its outside of warranty.
After 8 years if you keep it that long.
Is this a sign that these battery's may not hold up for years to come? I heard its going to cost around 3-4k to replace one if its outside of warranty.
No, the battery they're talking about is the conventional 12v battery and has little to do with the hybrid battery pack. Also, since the Honda battery packs are either 84 cell (CR-Z and Insight) or 120 cells (Civic) the replacement costs are not that high.
I have had TWo dear battery isssues on my 2014 CRZ and don't have a clear idea as to what happened either time. I am going to get an Interstate ASAP as a backup.
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