12 Volt Battery need to be replaced

The Honda replacement battery carries a 7 year warranty, pro-rated after 3 years. $250 sounds a bit steep. HondaPartsNow.com sells the battery for $100. And a mileage interval recommendation for a battery is nothing short of nonsense. Also, consider getting a lithium jump pack.

 

Not long ago, someone had a detailed post about how he changed the 12V battery (with some photos and lesson's learned).
I am having trouble finding it however... Anyone else remember that post?

 

Nope but in general, if you can pop the hood you have 50% of the knowledge required to change a battery. YMMV

 

November will by our Clarity’s third birthday. I plan on replacing the original battery then. Will likely have over 60,000 miles by then, though as others have said, mileage is a lousy standard for battery replacement. It’s just cheap insurance against an inconvenient failure down the road. I usually get mine at Walmart, mainly because there are so many around in the case of a warranty issue. Another advantage to retiring the original battery early is that it can be used as a spare/backup/jump starter or just a handy 12v power source as long as its charged on a regular basis.

 

I couldn't find it in the archives for this forum, but I found this set of videos. These videos don't reveal any special tricks (other than using a battery tender to avoid interrupting power to the car's electronics).

 

One of the compact lithium jumper units also could be used to maintain power during a battery replacement.

 

You probably weren't referring to my post, but I did replace the 12v battery, and commented on my experience, about the difficulties I had with the task, in my Post #21,in <https://www.insideevsforum.com/community/index.php?threads/i-guess-i-haven’t-been-driving-it-enough-car-won’t-start.9249/page-2>
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Regarding the cost of the battery, my Honda dealer charged me about $140 for the part, and it does come with a 7 year warranty, with proration, as @Landshark described. Having done it, I wouldn't recommend it for the average older person, with no one available to help pull the wires out of the way. I would happily pay to have it done next time.

 

Yes, this was what I was thinking of... I remembered your discussion about trying to keep the power on during the swap (something I likely wouldn't bother with).

 

I recently had the dealer replace my 12 volt battery. The battery was $139.80 and the labor was $20.00. If I were you I would find a new Honda dealer!

 

Yes, I agree it's not worth worrying about the power disconnect. After going through the initial warnings confusion that follows the removal and restoration of power a few times recently, I found I could just let the car go through its parade of warnings, and let it settle in, with the message for me to drive carefully - then drive a mile or two, and then run the Tire Recalibration, and drive a bit more.

 

I got the same price for the same battery, but I didn't ask for a quote for the replacement.

I'm stunned that your dealer charged you Twenty bucks to replace the battery. Having actually done it myself, I would happily pay that, or perhaps twice that before doing it myself again.

 

FWIW,
Around here, the major auto parts stores (AutoZone, Advance Auto) will install a battery for free if you purchase it there. I thought Walmart did it for free too, but I'm not as sure of that. In most cases, it really is a trivial process (@vicw - I don't mean to minimize your hands-on experience) !!

 

I agree, it is usually a trivial process. What makes the replacement on the Clarity more difficult is the stiffness of the assembly attached to the Positive terminal. It is a handful pulling it out of the way to accommodate the removal and replacement of the battery - which makes the job more difficult, unless you have a second pair of hands to hold it out of the way.

 

I also don't want to get stranded, but it seems to me in some ways our 12v batteries should be more forgiving than normal. I just mean that we don't require our 12v battery to crank anything. And to second the small lithium ion jumper kits (i.e. found online like amazon etc.) -- this should be enough power to turn on the car's 12v system, which can enable the traction battery.

 

I don't buy this... It is not really possible to identify a 'bad' 12V battery without measuring the internal resistance.
It is very unlikely that the vehicle can do this and thus, the first indication of a failure will be the inability to start... Not a warning light.

 

Have your Honda dealer read the manual so as to better understand the vehicle.

 

My battery was dead one morning in early March. I never got any warnings from the car, it just would not start that morning.