MY 01 w/ original stock battery so it's about 4 1/2 years old. It's definitely struggling now so i looked at the little window on the battery which shows a red ring which means it needs water. The battery says maintenance free so why does it have the little window that tells you you need distilled water if you can't add any? is there any way to go about adding water to this battery or should i just suck it up and buy a new one? If i DO need a new one what should i get? same or one of those dry cell batteries?

thanks for advice people...

 

My experience is that if you let it go dry it will surely die.. and if you add distilled water it will die a little slower. I consider it a simple maintenance item in my hot environment that kills batteries, and just buy a new one every three years.

 

That little window is not to tell you that it needs water. It's to indicate the specific gravity of the fluid inside (acid concentration). It may need water. It may need acid. You don't generally mess with a maintenance free battery. 4.5 years is quite a good period of service for an OEM battery. Consider yourself fortunate. If you've been satisfied with how it's worked for you, of course you can get another one just like it from your Honda dealer. However, there are other cheaper alternatives that will give you the same performance. "Die Hard", Interstate, Everready comes to mind. There are others. You can also go with the more expensive "Optima" batteries. Mixed reports on these.

 

Just above the indicator it shows one of the possible status markers as, "distilled water"... and that is actually what is showing in my window. I'd like to add water to get at least a little more life out of it until i can get some clearer answers on a dry cell battery... (weight vs wetcell, temperature tolerance, cca vs wetcell, cost, etc...) where would i add it and how much?

thanks xviper...and anyone else who wants help

 

no one else has any input? c'mon people i know SOMEONE here had to have added water to the stock battery... or maybe you have good info on a drycell...

 

OK, I have. On the OEM Panasonic (I think) battery, you will see 6 plugs. These may be under the stickers. You can remove these plugs with a big screwdriver. Add dist. water to the full mark in each cell.

 

cool thanks, i'll try that tonight.

 

Yes I added water to my battery over the summer...it was definitly struggling and had been for some time. Mine is a 00 and the battery was at least 5+ years old...but thats in good CA weather soo...

anyway, adding water only added another month or two to its life and it actually spilt acid/water around the battery area and messed the paint up there...although I'm not THAT worried about it.

I ended up getting the Hawker Odysey dry cell battery...so far I love it and I know a couple other people with it too...its only 15lbs

 

yup i just added water to mine and it seems to be a lot better (thanks xviper). I'll keep an eye on the paint also...thanks for the heads up. i tightened the battery up pretty tight so i hope it doesnt leak out of the plugs...

as far as your Hawker goes, where did you buy it and how much? also what kind of CCAs does have compared to the stock?

 

This is where I bought it

http://www.gotbatteries.com/items.asp?para.../SL105/37L105S6

I don't know what the stock CCA's are but this has hmm...I'll look for it cause I know its on the battery. Its 200 something I think. Whatever it is, I know its plenty for our car cause I have a friend that uses it to start his fully preped v8 mustang even in below 0C weather