I got 1 of those portable chargers that can jump your battery and it saved me from several headaches in the past.

Today, however, after a month+ of not driving, it could not jump my TSX. The car still had enough electricity to light up some dashboard indicators and make that flickering sound when trying to start with not enough juice. The charger was still working properly but it as not strong enough. My battery is a Duracell only ~6mo old.

What worked in the end was a chunky "portable power station" that, from checking Amazon afterwards, probably had a rating of 1400 Peak/700 Instant Amps.

Anyone know what specs we need to be able to resurrect a near-depleted battery?

I'm also told the weak handheld portable charger can also work if left on the battery for ~30min to charge it? Can anyone confirm?

 

Batteries are tricky. If they go totally flat, consider it toast. I seemed to me that 20 years ago, I could revive a dead battery and limp along for a while, but recently it seems like once they go totally dead, they're dead for good.

After months of pandemic lockdown and not driving anywhere, I picked up a few adapters so that I could plug in all the cars to the Battery Tender Jr I got for my motorcycles. It specifically says not to use it to trickle charge car batteries, but I don't listen.

My TSX got nuked, went totally flat and I couldn't revive it. The wife's car still had a little bit of juice - sounds like yours is at about the same point. And it came back after being hooked up to the TenderJr for a couple days.

The longer you let it charge, the more power it'll regain. And it depends on the output of your charger. 30 minutes probably isn't enough... but it might get you just enough to start the car and then let the alternator do it's job.

 

Ah did not know they might be unrevivable. How long was your TSX out of action?

 

Yeah, when they go totally flat, they'll develop shorts across the plates (from what I've been told) and that effectively kills the ability to actually battery.

The fuller story is that I had a 3 year old OEM Replacement battery in it, which is notoriously shitty and has about 3 years of life before they just go tits up even in optimal conditions. I knew it was about to start struggling. Parking the car for covidpocalypse, I probably didn't drive it but maybe once a month for 4 or 5 months. The last time it just gave up.

I'd gotten this little wonder a year ago, finally, after threatening to do it for years. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

And I can say it's amazing. Once it feels like a battery starts to act sad, I make sure it's got a charge and then toss it in the trunk. I limped along with it in the TSX for a week or so until I got a new battery in. Just made sure to charge it up when it got about 50% capacity so I knew it was good to go.

It's got some sort of Turbo button that will increase the output for more oomph if needed. It jumped my 4Runner with a dead-dead battery so that it could drive up onto the flatbed enroute to it's final destination (different story for a different day).

But highly recommend that little jump pack.

 

Cool thx. I park in an underground garage so I'm not near a power outlet to be able to use the plug-in maintainers. They should make one that straps somewhere inside the hood. That should be able to maintain for a couple months at least. Even better if it's smart enough to charge the maintainer when running.

 

For reference, the one I have (no longer available on Amazon) that fell short has specs of:

500A 10800mAh (up to 3.0L Gas/ 2.0L Diesel Engine)

Good idea on you for going above & beyond with the 800A Peak 18000mAh Car Jump Starter up to 7.0L Gas lol.

 

I think you just described a second battery.

Which is a (fairly) common mod on the 4Runner; adding a second full size battery under the hood for added capability.

 

Not quite enough room under the hood of the TSX to do that. When I got the new battery, I picked up the larger V6 battery and shoe-horned it in there. It's not quite a perfect install, but good enough for now. Also went away from the OEM garbage and picked up some AutoZone garbage instead. We'll see if/how much longer it lasts than stock.

 

How come you got the V6 battery? Is it due to weather conditions or are there other advantages aside from when starting up?

 

Yeah, the V6 battery is bigger with more CCA. And although I live in the sunny side of the country, having the extra available is piece of mind. Cost difference wasn't *huge* for the battery, but once I bought all the extra OEM shit to make it mount like it was supposed to be there, I realized it was kinda stupid. Probably should have just rolled all the money spent into the strongest stock size battery I could find.

But it was a 'rona project so that's my main rationale.

Still yet to be seen if it actually lasts longer. If it doesn't make it at least 5 years I'm gonna be pissed and chuck the battery and all the ancillary shit back into the ocean where it belongs and go back to stock.