Legal Bill

Elsewhere on this forum Rob tells a story of Honda reliability in the form of a lawn mower. This thread is a counterpoint in the form of a battery. Two years ago, almost to the day, I decided to spend about $60 more for a Honda branded battery rather than a Walmart or Advanced Autoparts battery. The reason was longevity. My original Honda battery worked great for about 8 years. Oddly, I only used it for about six of those years. A member in New England was selling his car and offered to swap his nearly new Optima battery for my much older factory original. I said sure. The fellow I traded with ended up keeping his car and my original battery continued to start his car for two more years. In the meantime, the Optima failed in about three years. I bought an auto part store battery and that lasted about four years. When that failed, I decided to go get a Honda battery. Now, I'm not sure the Honda labeled battery is built by anyone different than the company that supplies Walmart or the auto parts stores. I was just going by my experience. So in June, 2015 I went to the Honda dealer and bought a nice new Honda battery.

Last night I decided it was time to start up the S2000 and go get an inspection sticker. My sticker had expired in May and I neglected to get a new one before I left on business for three weeks. So I got home early from work yesterday and grabbed the keys to head over for a sticker. The battery was dead. After heroic efforts involving wrenches, battery chargers and a little distilled water the battery was declared un-reviveable. I found my receipt and drove to the Honda dealer in my BMW this morning. The battery had a 100 month warranty and the way it works is you get a free replacement if the battery fails within two years. I had bought the battery on June 10, 2015 so I was two days inside the replacement period. The dealer promptly replaced the battery with no further questions and I drove home and installed it.

The car started right up. But I knew the car would not pass the emissions component of the inspection. I have had a battery die in the S2000 before and I learned that it takes about 100 miles of driving for the ECU to reset itself in order to pass the OBD II inspection. So not wanting to get a ticket, I drove to the local inspection shop to get a rejection sticker. That way I could drive around for a few days and not worry about getting a ticket for the expired inspection sticker. I told the attendant that I needed a sticker and the car would probably fail due to the replaced battery earlier this morning. He asked what year the car was and I told him it was a 2002. "Good news" he said, "this car is now exempt." Yes, my car was now officially 15 years old. It didn't have to pass the emissions test. So I passed the saftey inspection and got my sticker. At the end of the day I had a brand new battery and the car was legal again and I was none the worse financially. But the warranty clock does not start over again. I hope this replacement battery goes the 100 months I thought I was going to get two years ago.

tof

Happy days! Good luck with your OEM battery 2.0

ralper

See how well things work out when you deal with Honda.

SheDrivesIt

Pretty sure that the "Honda" battery is not OEM from Japan but an Exedy labeled as a Honda. Your original OEM was a Panasonic. Beauty of the Honda battery is that it DOES have a pretty generous warranty at about the same price as your auto parts store "GOLD" battery with a decent warranty.

Chuck S

Honda doesn't make batteries, of course, they buy them like they buy tires -- in bulk and from various manufacturers. Good chance your Honda-branded (private label) battery was made by Johnson Controls as they're the largest maker in the USA. There's a manufacturer code on the battery which will pinpoint who made. Since these are heavy there could be several makers for the same "brand" battery to minimize shipping costs. The "Honda' battery you buy in Maine could easily be made by a different company than the one sold in California. But none of these companies are Honda.

-- Chuck

tof

Just to reinforce the above re Panasonic...My NSX had an Acura label battery that was installed for a previous owner by his Acura dealer, per the service records I had on the car. (Love me some complete service history from new.) I do recall being impressed with how long it had lasted. It also carried a label indicating that it was manufactured by Panasonic.

Morris

I have a 2005 Honda RX-12 jetski with the original battery still working fine. That's 12 years if you're counting. I've had three Seadoo jetskis before this one and I think about 4 years was the tops for battery life in any of them.

ralper

The original battery in my S2000 was made by Panasonic and I got about 9 years out of it. I've replace it with a Sears battery and have so far gotten 6 years out of it. What's amazing about both is that my S can sit for a month or two at a time without being used. At the end of the two month period, I have to charge the battery, but so far it always holds the charge and within a few miles seems to be as strong as before.

Over the years I've been pretty lucky with batteries. I'd say the average life of a battery for me, regardless of whether the car is garaged or not, is about 7 years.

Chuck S

I specialize in killing boat and car batteries and wish I could leave a car for months and it will still start. My S2000 is on at least it's 3d battery since new. Replacement battery in the car when I bought it 3 years ago and I had to replace that last August. Will see how long this one lasts. Was in stock at AutoZone so I'm guessing it's a common size.

-- Chuck

Conedodger

I just replaced the original Panasonic in my 2003 S2000 last year. (13 years!) I would have paid the high dealer cost for another Panasonic if they carried them here. Instead, I went for an Interstate blem for $45.