Dead Honda e

[ZeroEmissionRequiem]

Dealership called me; Honda asked them to ask me if my car notified me of an OTA update before the 12V battery died. It did.

I got the impression they're indeed suspecting a connection between the two now.

[EEEE]

Perhaps they are reading the forum lol. If they are - the honda e sucks (and it pains me to say so). Really puts me off the idea of maybe buying the new prelude...

[HondaNoMore]

Re Dead Battery Club. I asked dealer service department if they would be refering both AA visits to Honda. They said no. How is Honda supposed to find out and investigate?

When they they had never had a problem with E battery, I said there is over 10 pages on forum. I counted about 15 owners with at least one dead event. Given not everyone who suffers is looking at the forum then 15 is the lowest. Given the very small number of E's sold in UK proportionally that's a problem.

I imagine at the press of a button Honda assist could let Honda know how many call outs they have had.

Either they haven't thought of doing that or maybe they have. ...

Either way after years of Honda's,I have agree with EEEE about buying another

[madbiker]

Am I correct in assuming that if you do short journeys and continually charge up from say 80% to full every night, you not only risk harming the HV battery by not cycling in its optimum operating area, but it is possible the 12V is not getting a full charge anyway always at the top of the HV charging cycle?

When I got the car in those first enthusiastic weeks I used to top up to max straight away, then got wise, set the max at home charge to 90%, 100% when away, and now run down to 20 or 30% before plugging in. I do few miles, 2 and 1/2 years in and 1300 miles, and use a smart charger on the 12V every couple of weeks because of it. Touch wood no battery problems yet, we'll see what happens after the 3 years are up!

Newbie here, picking up my E next Thursday so I downloaded the owners handbook to have a good read before I get the car, and it says in there to charge to 100% each day to protect the battery. Sorry if this has already be discussed.

[EEEE]

That reminds me, I must charge to 100% and then use my Diagnostic tool to read off the individual HV cell voltages. That would answer once and for all if the 100% indicated SOC is actually 100% top cell voltage or if its a 'managed/conservative' Honda voltage. EG, it says 100% , but its only really charging to 90% to keep the battery pack happy longevity wise.

I always charge to 100% after midnight and drive the next day. Rarely does it stay at 100% for a day or longer.

Too cold at the minute to be messing around though.

[Dorothee]

Is there a way to check the health of the battery?

[EEEE]

You can buy a battery tester, but the battery health is only half the battle.

I bought a battery discharge tester which is the best test you can do, but this takes upto 20 hours to perform , and leaves you with a completely flat battery that needs immediate recharge.

It's probably easier to just put 90quid aside for a new one from Halfords rather than start investigating battery testing methods.

Other types of testers are available (the type honda garages use) but these never actually discharge the battery fully, so the tests are not fully reflective. People on here have had poorly 12v batteries, and the tester says it's fine.

Most battery testers are interested in can it kick out enough amps to crank over an engine for 10 seconds, and did the voltage drop too much. The usage of the battery in the E is different, so the CCA (cold cranking amps) is not of much use. What you really want to know is, can the battery store the energy it's rated for, enough to ride out a few days of the systems running in the background, and still keep the voltage high enough to wake up afterwards.

It's still a guessing game, how much do you need for the car to wake up? How much buffer do you need for temperature variations or lack of use or normal discharge through the various systems? It's impossible to quantify. The only certainty is when you don't have enough, you'll wish you had a new battery because you won't be able to get into your car easily and get to work.

My usage is 2x 30minute journeys each day 5 days a week, and generally shorter local trips at the weekend. My first flat was when the car was parked up for 2 weeks, which I could partially excuse (except the location and timing and individuals involved were worst case coincidence). The second flat was more recent. Parked up fine in the evening, dead in the morning. Spare car to the rescue. 3rd time partially expected outside Halfords. I believe the car was fully the end on, but it died because the 12v wasn't charging.

I'm relatively experienced car owner and tinkerer, so if I can't stop it happening, then it's just down to luck/chance.

[Dorothee]

I’m sorry, I meant the HV battery. Would’t want to buy one with a defective battery.
The 12V has me worried now too though . Maybe a future update will fix that.

[5thcivic]

it says in there to charge to 100% each day to protect the battery.

It's possible Honda do not use the maximum power of the battery and the management system stresses the cells in rotational order and never to absolute maximum, thus the manual charge to 100% dashboard advice which is not actually 100% of the total battery cells. So dashborad 100% might be say true ~90% to save the battery long term.

The Li Ion technologists will say that 100% and 0% are the areas that lead to maximum degradation long term, and longest life is to use and charge cells between 20% and 80%.

[Dorothee]

28.8 / 35.5 = 80%. Might be divided 10/90 but who knows.