Battery Change any problems

[kingsley]

The time has come to change my battery just taken delivery of a new one from Honda. Question I have is: I have a Toad alarm fitted. Will I have any issues with alarm, radio or ECU etc when I disconnect the battery. Or can you connect another 12 volt battery via engine compartment and keep 12 volts on. I have not been able to locate the Toad alarm to see if there is a switch or key to isolate.

Thanks

Kingsley

[britlude]

i changed my battery last weekend, connected a jump-pack in the engine bay fuse box terminal, and was just careful with the positive lead in the front compartment when i swapped the battery over.

this preserved the radio,time and more importantly the alarm/immobiliser settings! if you don't the time and radio will reset, and no idea what will happen to the toad

[kingsley]

Hi Jonathan,

Many thanks ...I will do the same . Makes sense and will avoid any issues with alarm.

Thanks

Kingsley

[TheSebringOne]

Hi Kingsley, I didn't have any issues when changing battery, but had to reset clock/stereo as I did not connect another source to
the rear fuse box. I have a factory fitted alarm & immobiliser, so I can't help with with after market system.

Jonathan, do you have an oem alarm/immobiliser as I did not realised putting a new battery reset the settings?

[Nick Graves]

My battery was getting a bit critical. Maintenance free allegedly, but no water in it so the plates were melting...

Using a battery conditioner, one doesn't realise until one parks away for a while & returns to a desperately slow crank. The alarm misbehaving's another sign.

Anyway, a battery charger (you could jump start from your other car) across the engine preserved all those tedious settings whilst I did the cleaning/swapping.

This is stupid, but the sinal indicator on the 'Lude & crazy alarm say the battery is not good. The spec suggests it's probably been there since the build date in Sep-99 so I'm a bit loathed to change it. Bloody good, those Panasonic batteries!

[TheSebringOne]

Nick, 12 & half years is some going on the one battery.
Not sure if you can now get Pansonic car battries?

[britlude]

Jonathan, do you have an oem alarm/immobiliser as I did not realised putting a new battery reset the settings?

i've an aftermarket alarm fitted by a previous owner... ( i only found the oem alarm switch box at christmas, but don't have any honda remotes)

[Nick Graves]

Nick, 12 & half years is some going on the one battery.
Not sure if you can now get Pansonic car battries?

Indeed - amazing, isn't it? Even if the car wasn't registered here until January 2000, it'd still be impressive.

All the other Hondas are now running Panny-replacement Honda-badged batteries, I suspect from their tie-up with Yuasa. Which is why I suspect the 'Lude's is OEM equipment. Either way, I don't recall ever being able to buy Panasonic car batteries in the UK.

[nigel]

We may need to hear from "The Kaz" but for decades Hondas and probably other manufactures, if you get a plain 9 volt battery, connect it to its respective connector, usually one of those black thingies with the two tabs, (I have several i've bodged/nicked over the years in my tool chest), that is connected to a cigarette lighter adapter plug, plug it into the cigarette lighter as if you were going to power an accessory, then disconnect the main battery it will hold the codes so you don't have to go through all the re-program rubbish.
Just a tip that works on my other Hondas.

Cheers
nigel

[kingsley]

Hi Nigel,

Battery changed no problem. Just to be on the safe side side.....I just linked 12 volt supply from the battery on my BMW using a piece of 2.5mm cable with croc clips. Clip on poss and neg in engine compartment. Removed battery from NSX making sure the poss terminal was wraped in plastic. Cleaned bracket clamp. fitted new Honda battery reconnected then removed cables from engine compartment. No issues with radio, or alarm all codes retained.

Kingsley

[Hondaboy]

Well done thanks for sharing as I too have a toad alarm and don't want to upset it should I have to disconnect the battery for replacement or cleaning etc

[kingsley]

Hi Hondaboy,

I was just conerned that if I just disconnected the battery I would have a problem with my Toad Alarm / Immobiliser or radio etc. Toad are no longer in business. So know help there.

Also it gave me the oportunity to clean the bracket up and put a piece of heavy duty rubber in front of poss terminal. I bought a Honda battery as they were quite cheap. If you need to change your battery just buy 4 large croc clips and short piece of cable. Just watch when you are walking backwards and forwards you do not knock either end. My friend wants to borrow my lead when he does his.
Kingsley

[AR]

What Nigel said works well. I have one ready made bu they are easy to make.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

The radio tuner board design and logic are different for the country spec and while I can confirm that if I disconnect the battery, I would loose the pre-set radio station frequency on the JDM NSX but not sure about the UK models.
If you use the auto search feature, I’m quite sure you will loose the setup but I think the pre-set station info is pre-programmed or backed up by the small backup battery on the board for UK models??
Unlike the radio on JDM NSX, EU models have RDS feature so much easier to set it up again if required.

Regarding the small battery device connected to the cigarette lighter socket….
The power to the socket on our NSX is only provided when the IG key is in ACC position and it is activated through the specific relay so you need to be aware of this. If it is in OFF position, you will loose the power even with such device when you have disconnected the battery.


There is no way I can keep the battery connected while carrying out some of the services on the NSX but I normally don’t have any troubles with the security/alarm system.

I just need to wear the ear plugs on re-connecting the battery and be ready with the remote fob in my hand.
Some of the system will make loud sound as soon as you re-connect the battery so you just need to operate the remote to arm then disarm and that’s it.

For Toad system, there is a specific procedure to disarm it without the remote.
For the system installed by Honda UK, there is another way to disarm it without the remote.


For disconnecting the battery, I’m more worried about loosing some of the error codes and ECU co-efficient data than the security/radio setup….

In US, some of the state uses the OBD-2 status data for MOT and if you disconnect the battery, some of the status data may not be ready when you arrive at the test station.

Still, if you are very careful, probably a good idea to use the method mentioned in this thread for quick battery swap purpose.

Kaz

[Nick Graves]

Indeed, it's even minor things like the one-touch windows needing to reset & stuff like that. With modern rubbish, it can take an age properly to re-programme the car.

On cars with the poles at the same end as the battery; like Kaz say, be careful not to knock them!

[nigel]

Thanks Kaz, I forgot about the key on bit.
And I agree with you in that i'm more concerned about the ECU learned memory than the radio pre-sets.

Cheers
nigel

[Lowndes]

Although the battery in my car is still OK it is clearly past its best so I thought I would replace it before it lets me down at the wrong moment. Should be simple enough surely?

The manual says 52AH/5 HR. OK so 52 amp but no mention of CCA. Also no mention of critical dimensions but as I am going to have to take the spare wheel out anyway I can measure the existing one. If I put the car reg. no. into Europarts there is an Exide premium battery for £75. 65AH and 580CCA.

But reading on here there seems to be a suggestion that Honda Original Panasonic is the way to go. Any electrical reasons for this?

Elsewhere in the manual there is plenty of stuff about disconnecting the battery if charging insitu but no mention loss of critical data should you chose to do this. so I am not too sure whether I need to follow the suggestions on here of keeping 12V across the system by a series of jump leads. I keep a spare 12V battery in the garage for emergencies so can make the connections if necessary.

So setting aside loss of radio codes (irrelevant as it is not tuned in anyway ) are there any critical issues that might arise if the battery were disconnected. And if there are I wonder why there are no warnings in the handbook.

And as an aside it is interesting to note that Kaz confirms that the power socket is switched. Damn nuisance in my view if you want to leave the car on a trickle charger. Has anyone any suggestions for a workaround.

Cheers

Nick

[paulc]

Hi Nick, changed my battery last year for a bog standard one from a local garage absolutely no issues what so ever. Car started first time, radio works, and the alarm all work fine and have had no problems since.

[Nick Graves]

Why pay 75 notes for a battery when an OEM one is £66.29 and will have the terminals correctly oriented? Not always guaranteed...

Most CTEK trickle chargers come with a hardwire kit - that is invariably too short. I don't like the idea of stuffing voltage up a fag lighter - they can get rather hot. I've just not decided on a good place for a HW.

I don't find opening the cupola, propping the lid & removing the fuse box cover too much of a chore; the poles are adjacent to a convenient powerpoint in my garage. But I can understand if you do!

[kingsley]

Hi Nick,

I paid £55.00 for a Honda battery part number 31500-SV2-0001HE. Fits, works, started first time... no problem. I have a hard wired CTEK Battery Conditioner connected. Regarding keeping 12 volts on. I was concerned more about the alarm and immobiliser than codes etc so that is why a just fitted a lead to the connections in engine compartment taking care to wrap the poss terminal. I note that Kaz mentions about losing error codes and ECU data. Why risk any problems when we have an additional set of battery poles in the engine bay. I few years ago I purchased from e-bay a cigarette lighter socket with 9 volt battery built in.This was rubbish and did not work. When I changed the battery on my BMW. I needed to have the ignition on ...but the device did not work.

So simple 4 croc clips and piece of cable. Works great.

Kingsley

[Lowndes]

Thanks for the advice Kingsley. Paul and Nick for your input also.

Spoke to my local Honda dealer. The original part no. was 31500-SLO-71 but apparently that has been superseded by the one quoted by Kingsley below. No longer £55 but even at £66.29 seems reasonably priced. Will collect it tomorrow. Will also look at a hard wired solution for the CTEK.

Point taken Nick about the cigarette lighter for trickle charging but I have used them for years without problems and of course a cigarette lighter that didn't get hot would be of limited value!

Thanks again guys.

Cheers

Nick


Hi Nick,

I paid £55.00 for a Honda battery part number 31500-SV2-0001HE. Fits, works, started first time... no problem. I have a hard wired CTEK Battery Conditioner connected. Regarding keeping 12 volts on. I was concerned more about the alarm and immobiliser than codes etc so that is why a just fitted a lead to the connections in engine compartment taking care to wrap the poss terminal. I note that Kaz mentions about losing error codes and ECU data. Why risk any problems when we have an additional set of battery poles in the engine bay. I few years ago I purchased from e-bay a cigarette lighter socket with 9 volt battery built in.This was rubbish and did not work. When I changed the battery on my BMW. I needed to have the ignition on ...but the device did not work.

So simple 4 croc clips and piece of cable. Works great.

Kingsley