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Assault on battery

I would appreciate your advice regarding my car battery. My car is a Honda Civic Type R with satnav etc, etc bought as a demonstrator from a Honda dealer. The car was first registered in March 2008 and I took possession in Jan this year. The car has been regularly used for work i.e. reasonably long journeys. Due to illness the car was not used for 10 days (the last trip I did was well over 100miles) and when I had to go to the doctors yesterday, the car would not start, it was totally dead. Honda sent the AA and their man found the battery only discharged 4-8 volts. He checked for any possible drain on the battery and none was found and he suspected a faulty battery. I reported this to dealer and had to take the car in today for them to look at the battery. Of course, they said the battery was fine, but I don't see how it can loose it's charge in just 10 days - are they fobbing me off? I'm obviously concerned that when I leave the car at the airport for a couple of weeks, for example, there will be further problems on my return.

Asked on 18 July 2009 by

Answered by Honest John
Hondas and Toyotas are quite well known for this. The first thing to do is switch everything off before you switch the ignition off, by which I mean radio, heater fan and interior light delay completely off. These components often have circuits that stay live and if there is a fault will drain the battery very quickly. Another possible culprit is the boot light switch, so if you still have a problem, try removing the bulb from the light. Still going flat, get a www.batterybrain.co.uk that stops the
leakdown at source.
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