Yesterday I fell asleep in the Wife's Honda whilst she shopped, maybe 45 min or so with the radio on and the heater fan blowing but the engine off. When she came out the car would not start but did with a jump.

Is there any way this activity should have run the battery down? Its a new car with 7000 miles for pete sake.

(Course I am used to diesel batteries so this thing looking about as big as a couple boxes of baking soda looks pretty suspect to me).

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

If you're looking for a way to blame the car instead of your wife blaming you for this...you're on your own, pal.

It's a small battery that drains quickly...they weren't designed to run items without being charged at the same time. Intermittent operation of the engine would have prevented it.

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1987 560SL
85,000 miles

I would not have thought it would but what JP says does make sense. Another possibility is that the battery is old. Just because the car is new(ish) does not mean the battery is. That could have an effect as well could it not????

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Some cars have integrated electric heaters as well (vw tdi comes to mind) I'm not sure the fit is one of the though.

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TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
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Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

Theory 1: If the car is used for nothing but short commutes, the alternator is not able to fully restore the battery power used by the starter, and therefore the reserve that you were dipping into is not as high as it should be.

Theory 2: The OEM battery is of ca-ca quality. I had a battery on an 18-month-old car go away recently. I didn't even bother to determine if the warranty was in play for this component - I just went out and bought the highest CCA battery I could find that used that battery case size.

I'm guessing that you did run the battery down -- I had "battery shock" in the other direction when I bought my first OM617 battery . The battery that came in our Corolla from the factory made it over 125,000 miles before any sign of trouble, so I would assume that the Honda is the same way.

I have killed the new Costco battery in the Corolla before by starting/restarting 3 times in 2 minutes...

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1982 300SD -- 211k, Texas car, tranny issues ____ 1979 240D 4-speed 234k -- turbo and tuned IP, third world taxi hot rod

2 Samuel 12:13: "David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die."

Then you might have gone up in smoke!

Were daytime running lights on? 10A draw right there. Radio draws another 10A. Heater fan, maybe 15A. We're up to 35A. Was the heater dial on Defrost? A lot of newer cars assume that the owner is a f**king idiot, and turn on the A/C for you when the heater is set to Defrost, meaning that the radiator fan would be running. Another 25A.

60 amps for 45 min would do a healthy job of killing a battery.

Ooooh there is some good thorough thinking. thanks! I bet the lights were on though pretty sure not the defrost.

I'll still get it checked I think.

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Blower fans draw more current than most folks suspect. Newer MB cars have a dedicated 40 amp circuit for powering the blower motor, and that does not even include the control circuitry.

A quick google shows the Fit has a 40 amp-hour battery. That means it can supply 1 amp for 40 hours. However the inverse is not true, it cannot supply 40amps for 1 hour. At higher current draw rates the battery discharges much more quickly.

Given the blower fan and radio perhaps you were drawing 20 amps for the better part of an hour. While that certainly didn't flatten the battery, it could well have discharged it 50% or more. That's likely enough to prevent the car from starting.

BTW, the ginormous group 49 batteries used by MB are 100 amp-hours. You would have been fine.

Open the hood and look at the battery Tom. My lawn mower LITERALLY has a battery as big as the one in my wifes Honda Fit.

Just not very much capacity. In Honda's defense, it really doesn't need much.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

And this is why I run a lithium battery on my bike. Only get 3 starts between charges, but it's tiny and recharges quickly.

Time to measure under the hood and stuff the biggest battery you can FIT.

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$60 OM617 Blank Exhaust Flanges
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Assuming the battery wasn't 100% dead and the thing had a real transmission, couldn't you have just pushed it? It doesn't take much speed to get the engine spinning at the 100 rpm or so required for a start.

Speed,

You are suggesting that someone in todays America would have a three pedaled transmission in their car?

Too bad we didn't think of this in the manual vs automatic war we had a month or two ago. Another point for a manual.

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2001 SLK 320 six speed manual
2014 Porsche Cayenne six speed manual

Annoy a Liberal, Read the Constitution

It's a Honda Fit, not an Escalade. Definitely a possibility.