So my wife and I are in the line up at the Ferry waiting to come back to Victoria and she accidently left her head lights and fog lights on. Not to mention that we were also listening to the radio. When she tried to start the car an hour later the battery was dead.

I guess the other nice thing about an MT is that you can push start it when the battery is dead, so I told her to get out and push while I tried to start the car...LOL. Just joking. I pushed and she worked the ignition.

I guess HIDs really kill the battery....

 

HID's are supposed to use less energy than a standard halogen bulb. They are way more efficient. Its probably the fogs and stereo that wore it down.

 

I agree, it's probably the stereo. The OEM TSX battery does not have a whole lot of juice to begin with.

 

The HID's should consume about 35w each. Your fogs consume 55w each. Standard headlight bulbs consume 50-65w each. The car's electronics, and specifically the stereo alone consume a lot of energy. Honda uses pretty small batteries in their 2.4L engine'd cars.

I'm honestly not surprised?

 

Well that sucks ass. What is a good replacement battery?

 

Optima

 

Red or preferably a Yellow top.

 

Optima red top is good for cold cranks and the occasional wife-likes-to-play-music-for-a-long-time-with-the-car-off.

If she plans on doing this constantly, I suggest a yellow top is which deep cycle and better for that kind of use.

There are also other good top brands out there, but these two are popular. Going up a size isn't a bad idea either as long as it fits in the tray. '10MY TSX is getting the V6 and larger battery, so it might be that that larger V6 battery size will fit in the same I4 tray. Worth a look.

 

I am surprised (and happy) that you could start the MT TSX by using the clutch. I thought the clutch had to be depressed for it to start (safety feature)?
I will have to try it out.

 

Clutch just has to be depressed for the starter to turn on. All Honda's have been that way for at least 20 years.

 

Thanks Mucter. My last Manual Transmission Honda was my first one, a 1988 Civic LX Sedan. I can't remember if it had the safety feature, but I know I did pop clutch start it a few times. But I remember when one time when I was about 15 years, old my older brother was working on his 1980 Civic. The hood was up (opened forward), he was standing on the side of the car and I was on my bicycle in front of the the car with my front bike tire perpendicular to the Civic's bumper. My bro's girlfriend was in the driver seat. He asked he to start it up, it was in first gear, it started right up and pushed me backwards about 10 feet and off my bike by the time she got the Civic stopped. Thought I was going to die. I was not hurt thankfully. She did not know about manual transmissions and clutches, I guess my brother just did not think she did not know to step on the clutch or put it in neutral. We joke about it today. I am glad it is now a safety feature and still allows for dead battery pop clutch starts.

 

It's been a while since I have looked does Optima make a battery again for our car? I know they stopped making them a few years back when I had my Integra. I think they use the same battery.

 

Is Optima available in Canada?

The owner's manual listed upto 3 different specs, from 36 AH/5HR to 47 AH/20HR

 

isn't your battery covered? My dealership told me that the battery was guaranteed for 4 years, and if it died in that first 4 years, then the replacement was covered for another 4 years.

 

The car wash jockeys @ Acura ran my battery down while blaring my stereo in the wash bay (this, of course as it was in for service to replace the blown speakers ) but anyway, service dude offered a new battery with his apologies.

 

The thing is, if he or his wife plans on listening to the radio with the car off, he'll need a better battery. The OEM battery is very weak so he's better off getting a different one if he plans on listening to the radio a lot while the car is off.

 

Checked under the hood this morning, my CBP come with a Panasonic 55B24L battery, which is rated at 45 AH/20HR, w/ 410 cold cranking amp and load testing 200 amp.