pretty sure the battery is on it's way out on my S.
left standing for around 3 days, and it wouldnt start. litle bit of life, but not enough to spin it over.

since it does hold charge for a day or two, no huge urgency to replace it today. gives me somet ime to look around online.

cheapest i've found so far for the 054 battery (JDM type) is

 

Try Chopras in Bedworth, He does great deals on batteries.

 

Try a Honda dealer they may just surprise you with a competitive price and ultimately a superior battery.

 

They may also suprise you by selling you the wrong one. And how is a battery superior anyway?

I just bought the Halfords HB054 for

 

The OEM battery is probably superior to some of the replacement batteries out there but i'm sure you can find an equal or maybe even better one but ultimately you get what you pay for in life.

The battery in the S is pretty titchy though and only just up to the job so you need something with a bit of quality unless you want to be changing batteries every couple of years

 

I've always found the Honda supplied battery cheaper

 

[QUOTE=Dembo,Dec 30 2007, 11:34 AM]
I just bought the Halfords HB054 for

 

Yep.

 

batteries

 

Battery Charging
Battery charging takes place in 3 basic stages: Bulk, Absorption, and Float.
Bulk Charge - The first stage of 3-stage battery charging. Current is sent to batteries at the maximum safe rate they will accept until voltage rises to near (80-90%) full charge level. Voltages at this stage typically range from 10.5 volts to 15 volts. There is no "correct" voltage for bulk charging, but there may be limits on the maximum current that the battery and/or wiring can take.

Absorption Charge: The 2nd stage of 3-stage battery charging. Voltage remains constant and current gradually tapers off as internal resistance increases during charging. It is during this stage that the charger puts out maximum voltage. Voltages at this stage are typically around 14.2 to 15.5 volts.

Float Charge: The 3rd stage of 3-stage battery charging. After batteries reach full charge, charging voltage is reduced to a lower level (typically 12.8 to 13.2) to reduce gassing and prolong battery life. This is often referred to as a maintenance or trickle charge, since it's main purpose is to keep an already charged battery from discharging. PWM, or "pulse width modulation" accomplishes the same thing. In PWM, the controller or charger senses tiny voltage drops in the battery and sends very short charging cycles (pulses) to the battery. This may occur several hundred times per minute. It is called "pulse width" because the width of the pulses may vary from a few microseconds to several seconds. Note that for long term float service, such as backup power systems that are seldom discharged, the float voltage should be around 13.02 to 13.20 volts.
Chargers: Most garage and consumer (automotive) type battery chargers are bulk charge only, and have little (if any) voltage regulation. They are fine for a quick boost to low batteries, but not to leave on for long periods. Among the regulated chargers, there are the voltage regulated ones, such as Iota Engineering and Todd, which keep a constant regulated voltage on the batteries. If these are set to the correct voltages for your batteries, they will keep the batteries charged without damage. These are sometimes called "taper charge" - as if that is a selling point. What taper charge really means is that as the battery gets charged up, the voltage goes up, so the amps out of the charger goes down. They charge OK, but a charger rated at 20 amps may only be supplying 5 amps when the batteries are 80% charged. To get around this, Statpower (and maybe others?) have come out with "smart", or multi-stage chargers. These use a variable voltage to keep the charging amps much more constant for faster charging.