Author Topic: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader  (Read 5759 times)

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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #25 on: January 05, 2023, 01:39:46 pm »
I took battery out of my car and now charging it (see photo). I got up to “50%” on the indicator yesterday and I was able to start the car to get to work 8am, then left work around 7pm no problem. Then started it again this morning around 8am again no problem. Now I’m at work and just plugged in the charger and it is showing “25%” initially but as I type this message I noticed it jumped up to “50%” already so maybe it was just detecting the state of the battery (see 2nd photo).

I have it set to 6A but since I’m in no rush I will lower it to 2A charging and will leave it in whole day to see if it gets to “Completed” and at what point. I started it 8:30am. I’ll check date when I bought the battery if I can find it in my records somewhere. By the way, has anyone noticed the price of car batteries has gone up 50% or more? When I bought this one it was probably around $60-80 and now the cheapest is close to $120, with some closer to $200? Toronto, Canada… is this yet more pandemic/inflationary pricing going on?

[ADDENDUM 1: According to my records I bought this battery at Walmart in Dec 2012  :palm: for $87.97 along with the charger for $49.97]!!!!

[ADDENDUM 2: Just checked a few minutes ago, it’s a bit past 9am and it’s at “75%”!!!  :-+ ]
« Last Edit: January 05, 2023, 02:14:03 pm by edy »
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Offline tom66

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #26 on: January 05, 2023, 01:42:55 pm »
One thing worth checking is the open circuit voltage.

A good lead acid when charged at room temperature will show an OCV of around 12.5 - 12.7V.  Test this about half an hour after taking it off the charger, but without having applied any load.

If it shows an OCV below 12.2V it's probably dead. 

You can also get most good garages to do a battery test for very little or even free if they can sell you a new battery.   I don't exactly know how these work but I presume it involves loading the battery somewhat and measuring the impedance.  If the 'CCA' figure is less than half the original rating, the battery is probably life expired.

Some batteries seem to last a ridiculously long time.  The battery in my old 206 diesel was factory original, and it never had a particularly easy life, but was still starting the car almost 13 years later, even at -5C.  And that's a diesel with glow plugs and a hard starting job.
 

Offline DavidAlfa

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #27 on: January 05, 2023, 01:55:11 pm »
If it was Murphy's law, it would have exploded, injuring several people in a day where ambulances were down, putting a whole building block in fire while the firefighters were 500miles away, having a local water supply shortage and dried nearby lakes.

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Online PlainName

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #28 on: January 05, 2023, 02:28:22 pm »
I had battery issues with both our motors. In my case the fuel level sender decided it was going to be a pig and drained the battery overnight. Found the cause by using a thermal image on the fuse box, then checking each item associated with that. Running the battery flat seemed to annoy it and next winter it was on the blink. IME, once they fail or show a reluctance to operate transparently it's only a (short) matter of time until they catch you out at the worst moment.

I fixed that kind of issue with a 'Portable Car Jump Starter' from Amazon. Deeply suspicious that these things can do what they claim, but it really does. Got me going again when I've left battery replacement too long, and it will start a car where trying to jump start from a second battery fails. Worthwhile getting one to shove in the boot ('trunk' for y'all) with the spare wheel, just in case. Impresses other drivers whose cars are unstartable when it gets them going too :)
 

Offline sokoloff

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #29 on: January 05, 2023, 03:55:54 pm »
By the way, has anyone noticed the price of car batteries has gone up 50% or more? When I bought this one it was probably around $60-80 and now the cheapest is close to $120, with some closer to $200? Toronto, Canada… is this yet more pandemic/inflationary pricing going on?

[ADDENDUM 1: According to my records I bought this battery at Walmart in Dec 2012  :palm: for $87.97!!!!
$88 in 2012 is $114 today.

Even modest annual inflation accumulated over a decade ends up being quite noticeable.
 
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #30 on: January 05, 2023, 06:10:19 pm »
$88 in 2012 is $114 today.

Even modest annual inflation accumulated over a decade ends up being quite noticeable.

Wow! I can’t believe it. I guess I’ve been living in a cave. It’s not even 10 years, that’s crazy. I have to check if my income has kept up but somehow I don’t think so.  :scared:

So a bit of history. The car is 2011 (bought it spring 2011) so you may be wondering why I bought a battery in Dec 2012 which is not even 2 years after I bought the new car. Surely the original battery was good? Yes it was. However around that time my son needed a CPAP machine and some other medical devices so I bought a battery and kept it trickle-charged so in case of a power-failure we would have something to run his equipment (I also have an DC/AC inverter).

Turns out that a few years later, not sure when, my car’s original battery finally died. When I bought the extra battery for my son’s CPAP I made sure it would fit my car because eventually I knew I could have a spare. So when my original car battery died I put in this “backup” which was the emergency use one for the CPAP in case of power-failure. Meanwhile I didn’t buy another battery because by then my son grew old enough that he could manage and the CPAP machine wasn’t critical anymore. That also is why I got a regular car battery and not one of those deep discharge marine batteries with thicker lead plates that can be discharged and depleted further (which would last longer and not get damaged and may make more sense for power-failure inverter use cases).

So while technically the battery is about 10 years old now, it’s really only been in the car (and under weather and other stresses) for much less than that but I can’t tell how long. 4-5 years? 7 years? I have no idea.

As can be seen by the attached photo the battery managed to complete the charge before 10am this morning. When I checked it while it was charging and seconds after I pulled the charge clips off the terminals it was up around 12.89V but dropping. Once it got to the “complete” and left it like that for a few hours (it’s now 1pm) I just measured it and it’s a steady 12.66V right now. I assume the charger stopped supplying current and so the battery has settled. I’ll leave the battery disconnected completely from the charger and check the voltage again at the end of the workday before I put it back into the vehicle for the drive home, probably closer to 6-7pm.

[ADDENDUM 1: Strangely enough I just measured it now, closer to 2pm and it’s at 13.08V.  :-// I’ll measure it every hour, I don’t know why it went up more since I disconnected it from the charger. Did it have some “momentum” going for ions still exchanging internally or was my meter messed up or not contacting the terminals properly before ??]

[ADDENDUM 2: Ok, so my meter is a cheap piece of garbage. When I have it on 20V range it tells me 13.06V, when I put it to 200V range it reads 19V and when I put it on 500V range it alternates between 12 and 13V reading. I don’t trust the 200V range setting at all. Seems the 20 and 500 ranges are closer to being accurate but anyways if I just keep reading on the 20V range (the next lower one is only 2V) at least I figure the comparison of values to see if it is falling will be ok even if absolute value is completely off. Until I get home I won’t have a better meter].

[ADDENDUM 3: Since nothing posted after this reply I figure I’d put in another addendum. It’s now close to 7pm and measured it again and it is 12.63V. I don’t know what was going on with the multimeter before but clearly something was not right for it to measure >13V. Anyways, I’ll keep an eye on things and if I see things not stable I’ll just get another battery, but for now this one seems to be working well enough].

[ADDENDUM 4: Tried multimeter again, showing 13.08V.  |O I don’t know what’s going on with it. So last time it measured 12.63, before that 13.06, I am not doing anything different.]
« Last Edit: January 06, 2023, 12:55:29 am by edy »
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #31 on: January 10, 2023, 04:39:08 pm »
Hey everyone,

It's been about 5 days and more testing on the battery. It cranks the car for a day or two, then refuses to start the car. I've brought the battery into an auto repair shop twice for testing on special machines, both times they are telling me cold-crank amps is in the high 200's to mid 300's (depending on it's state of charge) and that the battery is still OK and doesn't need to be changed (it's rated at 500).

I've checked drain on battery when car off and parked, doors locked and all lights off by checking current using multimeter across negative battery terminal to negative connector lead and initially it jumps up to a couple A (likely computer and other components turning on) and then within a few seconds drops down to 0.1A or even less. So I don't believe anything is draining the battery in the car.

Also, last night charged up battery and immediately after disconnecting from charger it was 12.8V. After a few minutes it settled to 12.6V. I then put it in the car, connected it and left it overnight. In the morning the battery was 12.1V but I was able to start the car. Drove to drop of kids at school and then to the mechanic, maybe 30 minutes driving.... When I got to the mechanic the battery was up around 12.4-12.5V. They tested it again on the machine, they said battery was ok. They used a "fancy" machine that checks individual cells also.

At this point, I'm going to do the following to try and narrow down the flaw. It could either be battery, alternator not charging it, or some phantom power draw when car is off. I checked battery leads when car is running (with battery disconnected) to see what alternator is putting out and it was measuring 14.2-14.4V so alternator is delivering charge so I can't imagine it's that.

So trouble-shooting steps:

1. disconnect battery when car is parked and see if it still drains it
  - if my voltage drops while it is just sitting there doing nothing, maybe battery has some internal issue and for whatever reason all the machines are erroneously claiming it's still good

2. connect battery across multimeter to keep eye on amps, then start pulling fuses one by one and seeing if there is a current draw change. However, as I mentioned normally current draw is very low even with all fuses in so I can't see that being the case.

3. alternator charge not good enough, even if voltage reading is high on terminals? could it be encountering some other issue not providing enough current to the battery?

And down the rabbit hole we go....  |O
« Last Edit: January 10, 2023, 04:40:52 pm by edy »
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Offline bdunham7

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #32 on: January 10, 2023, 05:13:55 pm »
How many miles on your CRV?  Does it rattle a bit when started cold?  Timing chain wear or other related parts are a common issue causing P0341 on higher mileage K24 engines.  If you are using oil, keeping it full is a must--you should check it every fueling, just like the old days.  The oil consumption may vary drastically under different conditions.  Also, good 5W30 oil won't kill your old CRV engine--even in cold weather--and it may or may not help with consumption and the other issues.
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Online PlainName

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #33 on: January 10, 2023, 05:25:43 pm »
My money is on the battery - needs replacing.

If it were a current draw then the battery would be flat (and buggered), but it's not.
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #34 on: January 10, 2023, 05:49:30 pm »
I reread your OP just to check a few things. This sounds very much like a bad connection, if the battery tests at the garages are to be believed, and I see no reason not to.

When you say you checked for loose connections, did you check the main earth, and did you check the connections into the main fuse board which are usually not easily accessed without some disassembly?
The main earth can appear to be well terminated, but the cable can be badly corroded and giving poor or intermittent connection. The main fuse boards on cars this modern can be problematical, there's so much controlled through relays by the various body control modules. My drivers side dipped beam is out atm, lamp is fine, wiring is fine, bloody relay in the main fuse board is the problem. One common enough issue is relay contacts welding closed, so lights can't be turned off   :palm:

Anyway, you could easily have a problem in the fuse/relay board. It's worth reseating everything as a first attempt   :-//
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #35 on: January 10, 2023, 07:09:10 pm »
Thanks everyone for all the suggestions.

I just took the car out for a quick run from work to the bank (3 minutes away). I had the battery negative disconnected from the car negative lead during the entire whole morning (9:30am-1:30pm) since I parked at work (at 9:30am the battery was 12.43V after disconnecting). Checked again before starting the car (1:40pm), battery voltage was relatively stable at 12.38V.

Started fine, drove to the bank, stayed there maybe 10 minutes and drove back to work and got back around 2:00pm. Drive each way probably less than 5 minutes. Once I parked at work again (2:00pm), I checked the battery after I disconnected it again at negative terminal only and was getting 12.52V. I've left it disconnected for now. I will check battery again when I finish work closer to 6-7pm. Again I am going to assume some "settling" is normal as it just stopped charging and will probably drop a bit over the next few hours before I leave work.

I'm going to try this again over the next few days, always disconnecting the battery whenever I park, and keep checking the battery voltage. If it is charging when I am driving (which is suggested by the fact that it was 12.38V at 1:40pm and by the time I got back after driving at 2:00pm it was 12.52V) then the alternator must be doing the job. If the voltage remains stable when parked, that is good news for the battery. Remember, with the battery disconnected it only dropped from 12.42V to 12.38V over 4 hours this morning. I am also accounting that there may be measurement variability, temperature changes due to hot engine compartment, and "settling" after being charged while driving.

Therefore the last possible culprit would be when the battery is connected to the car, probably some parasitic current draw in the vehicle when it is parked... perhaps not constant, it may be sporadic. Then I have to isolate what system is responsible for it. For now, I'll continue keeping the battery disconnected whenever parked and will make a log of voltage each time I connect and disconnect the battery (when starting and parking the car), along with times and temperatures, and post the results.
« Last Edit: January 10, 2023, 07:21:20 pm by edy »
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Offline sokoloff

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #36 on: January 10, 2023, 07:27:59 pm »
If it is charging when I am driving (which is suggested by the fact that it was 12.38V at 1:40pm and by the time I got back after driving at 2:00pm it was 12.52V) then the alternator must be doing the job.
Why not directly measure that by starting the car and measuring the voltage at the battery terminals? If it's over around 13.8V at just above idle, you're probably good. (It should be closer to 14.2V at a normal RPM, but if it's noticeably above the resting voltage, it's charging [or offering charge at least].)

You could have a failed diode in the alternator's rectifier or worn brushes that would allow partial operation but still indicate the need for an alternator replacement. Unfortunately, on the CR-V, they're in a somewhat inconvenient location. It's DIY-able, but is more annoying than most, especially the bottom bolt.
 

Online themadhippy

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #37 on: January 10, 2023, 07:34:03 pm »
could it be as simple as your not driving the car long enough to replace the  starting current.It used to be said it takes 20 minutes of average driving to replace the energy taken by the starting motor,longer if you had the headlights on,or windscreen wipers going
 

Offline tom66

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #38 on: January 10, 2023, 08:06:59 pm »
Worth also checking the starter motor itself.  When the starter motor in my 206 was going out, it would take sometimes 10 seconds to get the engine going.  A brand new replacement had it running in one second.  Combine that with a weak battery and perhaps it just doesn't have the oomph required to turn the engine over fast enough to guarantee start.
 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #39 on: January 11, 2023, 03:11:58 pm »
I checked the battery last  night and this morning. When I parked the car again around 2pm yesterday it was at 12.52V (having just been driven). Left from work at around 7pm and before I hooked in the battery again it was at 12.39V (note: battery not connected to car from 2-7pm). Drove home arriving 7:28pm, checked battery and was 12.53V (having just been charged by alternator while driving). Unplugged battery again overnight, but checked in again at 10pm last night and it had settled to 12.40V after several hours.

This morning checked battery and it was 12.31V (temperature -7C outside). Started fine, drove kid to school then work, about 40 minutes drive. Got to work and unplugged battery and it was 12.18V! Keep in mind that due to cold mornings, I start heater in car and have radio going and perhaps not driving long enough (and if battery is already "meh") then perhaps all these short trips and cold weather is contributing to the problem on top of an already questionable battery.

My 2011 Honda CR-V has only 80,000km on it (50,000 miles) which is a joke for an almost 13 year old car. Most trips have been short, school and work are 10-15 minutes away. Only when I need to drop kids and then go to work I need to do a longer route. Combined with cold temperatures, running a bunch of things in the morning (heater/radio,etc) and a battery that is showing it's age, plus other factors that may be compounding an already compromised system takes it over the edge after several days like this.

I found this post and going through some of the suggestions and testing, as well as comparing to the voltages I'm getting:

https://www.jdpower.com/cars/shopping-guides/how-to-test-a-car-battery-with-a-multimeter

I checked voltage on battery terminals when hooked in and car started, to see what alternator is doing. I'm getting 14.10-14.20V, especially if I rev up the engine a bit and everything is off. Once I start turning on a bunch of stuff (lights, heater, radio) it drops to 13.89V. But according to the article above, anything above 13.5V is still ok, so I don't believe alternator is necessarily to blame. As well, once the battery has a charge, the starter turns over the engine in less than 2 seconds.

I also turned-over the car while trying to read battery voltage while starter was cranking. Keep in mind after all this testing with all accessories on while parking, the terminal voltage on battery had dipped to 11.93-12.00V but I was still able to turn-over the car and for a brief moment I could read the voltage went down to about 9V while starter was drawing power, but I can't be sure (my multimeter doesn't update very fast).

When I left the car this morning at 9:04am it was reading 11.93V. I'll see what happens tonight. I left battery unhooked from the car and will test it again when I leave work. Trip home is only 10-15 minutes (4.5 miles city). Likely not enough to charge my battery much either, but I'll leave it unplugged again overnight and check again each morning.

I'm suspecting it's just a weak old battery that coupled with perhaps some of the usage patterns and contributions from older alternator/starter is starting to dip below reliable cranking power necessary in the cold Canadian mornings, despite having been tested twice at Canadian Tire (using their "fancy" battery testing gear) claiming it's still "ok". Maybe I need to increase my trip time and reduce the use of interior accessories, heater, radio and lights completely to balance out.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2023, 04:04:19 pm by edy »
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Offline ebastler

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #40 on: January 11, 2023, 03:58:13 pm »
Might it be easiest to just buy a new battery and see whether that takes care of it?

Ideally you can come up with a reason why you always wanted a used battery to play with, e.g. for that small solar panel for your garden shed. Then it doesn’t hurt if it should turn out you bought the new battery prematurely.  ;)
 
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Offline tom66

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #41 on: January 11, 2023, 04:09:36 pm »
Not familiar on failure modes for lead acid batteries, but is a high self discharge rate a possible failure? Say some kind of internal breakdown in the insulation between two cells?
 

Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #42 on: January 11, 2023, 06:24:26 pm »
Not familiar on failure modes for lead acid batteries, but is a high self discharge rate a possible failure? Say some kind of internal breakdown in the insulation between two cells?

The insulation between cells is plastic; essentially the bottom half of the battery is a plastic moulding with another plastic moulded part glued/welded to the top once the electrodes are in. The individual cells sit in wells with the series bus bars penetrating the moulding at the top, above the electrolyte level.

If you had a crack in the plastic wall between the cells I guess it could affect performance in a number of ways, depending on the severity. The thing is, how does this crack happen without obvious external damage? It's an interesting idea, but I think very unlikely.

I'd still be checking the main earth strap resistance, while waggling it, and the main fuse/relay box connections.
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #43 on: January 12, 2023, 06:26:02 pm »
Might it be easiest to just buy a new battery and see whether that takes care of it?

Ideally you can come up with a reason why you always wanted a used battery to play with, e.g. for that small solar panel for your garden shed. Then it doesn’t hurt if it should turn out you bought the new battery prematurely.  ;)

Ok so I finally bit the bullet and got another battery (51R type)!  :-/O

I've been monitoring my existing battery over the past few days and it's always showing around 12.28-12.32V usually on standby, with battery disconnected at work and overnight, usually about 8-10 hour intervals after driving 20-30 minutes each time (just enough to trickle it back up to 12.4-12.5V before I turn the engine off again). I am able to crank the engine but I am worried about getting stranded. At least having another battery in the "boot" for now is a good idea.  :-+

The battery voltage here shows it may be reaching the limits of cranking ability. Apparently newer batteries should be up in the 12.5-12.6V range in "standby".  Certainly, my multimeter is not testing it under load. It may drop significantly once the starter is drawing power from it. If it is standing by at 12.3V then it is already compromised significantly. It's just that my car is still able to manage even that low (perhaps in another car or with different driving pattern it would have been considered "dead" long ago).

Secondly, I have *NOT* yet tested the battery leaving it connected in the car overnight and at work. Leaving it connected will keep a few things still drawing power but that take only a few mA. Now I am starting to do that as well to see if it causes further drain, perhaps down to 12.1V or into 11V range for an extended period. Based on my previous tests I am not seeing much current draw when car is off. Nevertheless, if it drops just a bit lower it may be enough to take this mediocre barely-sufficient battery over the edge of the threshold and not allow me to crank the engine! I am not going to keep disconnecting my battery every time I drive the car.

I've looked at various ground points, fuses all look in good shape. Testing connections to chassis, getting good volt measurements. When the battery-testing guys tell me battery still "ok" at ~280-340 CCA (of a 500 CCA-650 CCA rated battery) based on their machine, I don't trust it. I asked a few people and all of them tell me 7-8 years is considered good length of time out of a battery. A few other mechanics told me if the CCA's are getting that low it is on it's final legs.

I haven't returned my old battery for the $20 recycling fee/deposit yet, although I have a few weeks to come back in with the receipt from the newly bought battery and get some money back. In the meantime I just want to try out a few more tests with it outside my car:

1. I'll fully charge it in my external battery charger, test voltage
2. I'll see if I can power a circuit, some 12V device or try using an inverter to power a small bulb.

I'm curious to see how much this battery can still do before I give it back. At this point I don't care if I kill it if I'm bringing it back to recycle..... Unless you think I still can get some use out of it for something, then I'll keep it. But if it doesn't last long on a charge I don't want to throw out an easy $20. Any suggestions?
« Last Edit: January 12, 2023, 06:36:07 pm by edy »
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Offline AVGresponding

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #44 on: January 12, 2023, 06:49:03 pm »
Even once the old battery is as dead as a dead thing you will get some money for it at a scrapyard. Probably not as much as $20 though, unless it weighs upwards of 80 pounds.
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Online PlainName

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #45 on: January 12, 2023, 06:53:23 pm »
Yep, IME scrappies don't care about condition, just bung it on the scales and pay per pound kilo. Last time I did this they couldn't even be bothered to take the batteries out of the large box I carted them in, so I got some cardboard weight thrown in as well :)
 

Offline bdunham7

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #46 on: January 12, 2023, 07:27:12 pm »
Any suggestions?

The K24 Honda engines are very easy to start and the Mitsuba PM gear reduction starters typically will tell you if they are going bad by making noise.  So if your battery is struggling to crank your CR-V in anything other than Arctic temperatures, it is in pretty bad shape.  Take the $20.
A 3.5 digit 4.5 digit 5 digit 5.5 digit 6.5 digit 7.5 digit DMM is good enough for most people.
 
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Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #47 on: January 19, 2023, 03:42:04 am »
I bought the new battery last week (Jan 12) but did not actually install it. I drove around for almost the whole week on the old battery, car started ok but after 2-3 days (around Jan 15) it threw that same "Check Engine P0314" code immediately on startup. Seems like cranking an engine on a weak battery caused some misfire that the sensors picked up on. Anyways, I drove around until today with "Check Engine" light on but the car still starting (battery not completely dead) and driving fine. I decided I did enough testing, so I put in the new battery.... And immediately upon starting the car after installing the new battery the "Check Engine" light cleared!

I'm not sure how the computer handles error code checking but I assume the moment the test completed ok, it cleared the code? I thought it takes a bunch of "ok" tests or driving cycles until it clears and therefore once a problem is detected, even when fixed it doesn't go away for a few days? Was it a coincidence that as soon as the new battery went in, the "Check Engine" light turned off?

Anyways, I thought it was interesting that this entire thing started with a weak battery. Meanwhile, while all this was going on, my tire inflator "nipple" also broke so it wasn't able to inflate a slowly-leaking tire I've been monitoring over the past few years (because  the "nipple" couldn't push on the valve pin on the tire to open it up). I fixed that by buying a cheap valve-less "extension" that quick-connects onto the tire. Then after I successfully inflated the tire, the next day it was almost flat... normally it would last a few months before needing inflation again. I ran to a tire shop and turns out it was a leak around the rim (cheap fix), most likely due to salt-corrosion or hitting some potholes. I hope this puts my car issues behind for a while. I intend to drive my 2011 Honda CR-V until they ban gasoline. It only has 80,000 km/50,000 miles on it. According to the Honda dealer website they should last until 250,000-300,000 miles. At this rate, it should get me to 2071!!! (it will outlast me!)  :-DD 
« Last Edit: January 19, 2023, 04:06:39 am by edy »
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Offline sokoloff

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #48 on: January 19, 2023, 07:12:12 am »
I’d say you have a good shot. Our 2005 CR-V just turned over 225K miles at 80 mph in the middle of a 1500 Christmas road trip. Rust from New England salt will kill ours before the mechanicals go bad.
 

Offline edyTopic starter

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Re: Murphy’s Law with my OBD2 reader
« Reply #49 on: January 20, 2023, 01:18:14 pm »
I started more tests on my old battery now that it’s out of the vehicle and debating whether to return it for $20 or keep it as a portable/emergency energy source. I have a charger and 600W inverter and want to know what I can expect out of it (it’s a 51R size).

I hooked up a 25W bulb for a few hours and it barely made a noticeable difference in voltage (battery went from 12V down to 11.8 or so). Then I plugged in my laptop (which no longer has a usable battery) so it ran only off the power supply which is rated 90W (19V x 4.74A max) but the inverter was telling me it was using 45W. That also lasted an hour or two and then the “E01” low voltage error appeared, battery was getting close to 10V.

I unplugged the laptop and plugged in a 120V desk lamp (which uses an LED bulb for regular light socket) and the battery voltage recovered and it’s still going. So it can handle a few W for now for lightning, charging phones, etc. I’m going to charge up the battery again and try some more loads to see how long I can run it and how useful it would actually be for emergency or portable energy situations.

One thing I noticed was that this setup will not be ideal for me to use in the field for radio reception on my laptop (using a RTL-SDR USB radio dongle/antenna). Any noise from power supply, whether plugged into wall or to inverter, introduces noise into my radio reception. When I run the laptop off the internal LiIon battery the noise floor is significantly lower and I can hear better signals on a long-wire strung between trees.

[UPDATE:]

It's been some time for me to do some more testing....    Charged up the battery fully to 12.5V, then started a timer and was able to power my older ASUS laptop (which has no battery) on a 19V power adapter for about 5 hours until the battery voltage dropped under the threshold of the inverter (~10.5V).   So this battery is a keeper.  :-+  Now time to keep an eye again on the new battery in the car and see if it's charging well enough as that could have been another factor.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2023, 03:13:23 pm by edy »
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