technocrat

So my wife's 2011 Acura MDX started blaring the security alarm on Sunday night and it showed warning stating

" Battery Charge Low" Switch off all electrical Devices

put the car on charging and the blaring had stopped. Kept car overnight with it, disconnected and drove a little today, parked. The blaring started again.

Now she has put it on charge again. Btw the battery does seem to charge pretty quickly with even a low volt charger(3-4 hours)

From what ever i could read on the forum these look like signs that battery need to be changed.

Before I come back to the battery suggestions, here are some detail on current running & battery

- The current battery was replaced by Acura in Jan 2017 (it has run around 17k since then)
- Since last 6 months the daily is very low around half a mile a day and on some weekends it gets driven(deliberately) but most it just remains parked as we use the TLX more.

Considering all this, is it time to upgrade or weekly charging would suffice?

I am in Canada now and no cheap Costco Interstate Batteries, i checked and found following options,

Costco Kirkland AGM battery - $179
Costco Kirkland non AGM - $99 / $120 (the listing on rack was misplaced so was confusing so need to go back and check which one was which)
Interstate AGM battery(MTZ-34R) - $440
Inetrstate regular(MTP-24F) - $212.95

Canadians, Since there is no Autozone, where can i get a battery check done in GTA(Brampton) area?

Look forward to your suggestions

thoiboi

You're barely 24 months into an OEM battery, you should be able to get them to replace, but understand it sounds like you have some sort of a parasitic draw causing your battery to deplete.


OR it could be that the battery has a bad cell in it, but I'd do the parasitic draw test prior to replacing the battery.

technocrat

Challenge is that the battery was replace by a US dealer but I am in Canada now.

Yes, I want to do the test and hence asking Canadians where I can do that as there is no Autozone :|

thoiboi

Yourself

TLguy2013

I'm wondering - have you checked the Hands-free link (HFL) for battery draw down? If not, go to YouTube and check it out. The unit is easy to remove and if it's failing it can over draw your system and prevent adequate charging. Also, the Bluetooth unit can do the same thing, so check it out too. The good news is they are fairly easy to replace yourself and relatively inexpensive (<$300.00 CDN each when last I checked).

The OEM battery shouldn't be failing IMO, but if either of these two items are the problem any warranty on the battery would likely be void. You also mentioned the battery was purchased at a US dealership? The warranty, if any, should still be valid anywhere in NA, so I'd check that out too.

technocrat

Well now that you mention the HFL was replaced under warranty around the time battery was changed.

As for warranty on Battery,i will have to check if I still have receipt. Btw Acura Canada and US are separate entities but will still check. Thanks

TLguy2013

It's my understanding and experience that an Acura warranty is honoured throughout NA. I was in NC a year or so ago, and there was a warranty issue that was handled n/c (to me) at the dealer there. Has that been the experience for others?

csmeance

AGM is the best way to go, use honey and other sites to find coupon codes. You can get them as low as $140 picked up from your local auto parts store!

The blaring is a sign that something is wrong with one of the door switches or hood latch. This makes the car think it's not locked and the car will not go into "sleep" mode. 10-15 minutes after locking car electronics go to sleep and should be drawing about 20miliamps of current. Faulty HFL can draw 200ma! Bad door switch will cause no sleep mode so car will draw 200+ mA when off!

technocrat

Thanks, so far if the car is parked without being locked(inside garage) the alarm doesn't ring. I will try and see over the weekend if it shows which door shows open.(Plan to open drivers window or may be sit inside and lock the car and see what MID shows)

The car is not showing any sign of low battery either. So could be a faulty sensor after all.

csmeance

If you can setup a camera in the car like an old phone to record you'll probably catch it without having to sit in the garage! Most of the time with Honda/acura car's its the stupid hood latch.

technocrat

Thought will give an update. since charging the batter wasnt working, I finally bought the battery from Costco and also bought a powerbank based jump starter. Decided to jump start the car as it wasn't starting the night before I was taking it to a local service shop. Car started with jump starter in one go.

Next day to my surprise it started without any assistance. Took it to the shop and asked them to do a battery test. The battery test showed that the batter is in good condition. CCA measured was 703 which is higher than the required 630, cranking was also at 10.71V in 0.88s. No issues reported with load and without load either.

So next suspicion was BT/HFL Module, so decided to wait and watch for next drain. Been over a week and the car is working as if nothing happened. One thing to note Havent connected any BT device since then, not sure if that makes any difference but still.

So have returned the Battery and the charger as both were practically useless and only the portable jump starter came in handy so have kept that

TLguy2013

Thank you for the update. It's always good to know what others experience with their cars. Dealers aren't always upfront about issues/solutions...

technocrat

So the security alarm blaring problem has resurfaced, will take it to the service center

vtec_v6

As csmeance mentioned, check the hood latch. Worked for me on my 2010 MDX Advance. I randomly had my alarm go off and initially I thought it was my battery needing replacement. Fast forward few months AFTER changing battery to AGM (odyssey), alarm started going off again. Checked battery level--it was good. And then after a little research found this thread:

https://acurazine.com/forums/2g-cl-p...switch-811061/

I disconnected the hood latch (alarm) switch. Voila. Problem solved! I hope this helps.

technocrat

Thanks, I am also going to disconnect the BT module and check for the door and hood connectors.

technocrat

Just called Acura and was given a quote of $147 for diagnosis and I was like WTF. The guy over phone did mention that it could be the latch.

Is it easy to disconnect or will have to take off some panels to disconnect the switch?

TLguy2013

What about going to an audio shop that also does security systems?

vtec_v6

Super easy. Just pop the hood and look under the plastic shield which covers the hood latch. You'll find the alarm connector there. Disconnect the plug.

technocrat

Super, will try that and update here.

technocrat

Ok so disconnecting hood sensor seems to have done the trick. Thanks