newFitOwner

I bought my 2013 Fit at the end of 2013. Today, I checked the batter. A blue circle with a red dot in the middle means good. A red circle means add distilled water. A red dot in the middle means needs charging, and this final combination is what I saw. I figure this was because I drive only one day a week, and it is on a milk run, i.e., much starting, no extended driving. So I took it on a 45 minute drive with high rev. The red dot remained.

Is there anything further I can do before bringing it in to Honda?

Jimi Hondrix

Drive it to autozone or other chain parts store and have them test the battery and alternator. They can also try a trickle charge on it but that will take a few hours.
Also, If you have a battery charger disconnect the pos and neg terminals and charge the battery overnight. Either way best to get both battery and alternator tested. Being the battery is four years old and combined with your driving usage it wouldn't be a surprise if the battery will no longer hold a charge.

newFitOwner

What's the difference between driving it to autozone vs. driving it to Honda?
P.S. I'm operating under the constraints of a highrise apartment dweller. No outlets, no working on the car in the parking garage.

Jimi Hondrix

Autozone won't charge (pun) you a fee. Honda may or may not..but, you should ask them first if they do.

newFitOwner

Ah, I see. Googling (thus far) indicates that it might be a U.S. business. I'm in Canada. But thanks anyway.

newFitOwner

Hooray! After this 2nd weekend of high-rev extended-duration driving, the battery is now back to the healthy indicator colours of a red dot encircled by blue.

Jimi Hondrix

Probably should still get the battery and alternator checked out anyway. Don't you damn Canuck Hosers (lol) have anyplace that will check them for free?

newFitOwner

I'm trying to minimize time wasted bringing the car in for checkups. If I get any further problems, that would provide the impetus for me to bring it in. Crappy Tires might do it for free, but I try avoid them based on negative experiences.

newFitOwner

By the way, I strongly suspect that the charge issue is due in part to the fact that the vents must always be directed at the windshield to avoid fogging, and the A/C always engages when the vents are directed at the windshield (even though the LED on the manual A/C button doesn't show it). I see two design flaws here. One is the incessant fogging, even in ventilation mode (rather than circulate mode). I do not know the cause, but I know that this was not a problem in past subcompacts that I've driven or owned. So I always end up directing ventilation toward the windshield, which leads to the 2nd design flaw: One cannot choose to go without A/C when directing the ventilation at the windshield. I will never know whether directing the ventilation at the windshield would sufficiently avoid fogging without A/C -- that operational mode is not available. Whether it is sufficient probably depends on the external temperature, but at least I should have the choice and be able to try it.

These design decisions mean that whenever I'm driving, mo matter how short the drive, I will always need to direct ventilation to the windshield, and always have the A/C on. A hostile condition for the battery. To compensate, I have adjusted my driving pattern to always drive in high RPMs, i.e. choosing a gear that is lower than I would like to lessen wear on the engine. Basically, a poor design decision leads to a shorter engine life. Or, I can simply decide to change batteries every 3.5 years.