Like I made in my other post, my new OEM Acura battery died just after 4 months.

My question is how long should the car run for after cranking for the alternator to fully recharge the battery? Roughly of course.

I ask b/c I'm wondering if my short commute (3.6miles each way) to work is a contributing factor.

 

The batteries are known for being no good. 5 minutes of driving should be enough for it to recover from cranking. As mine started fading out over it's last month in service, I made sure to take pleny of long drives, turn off the seat heaters and unnecessary stuff a few miles from home and it made no difference.

Short trips definately don't help but they're not the reason it went dead so quickly.

 

Thanks. I figure if I only drove 7 miles on a daily basis, it would at least last 2 years - even on a not so great battery.

 

You prob have NAVI. Happened to me too on the OEM battery. These cars are kinda known for eating the OEM battery on the TL with NAV seems it is quite common.

 

Yeah I have Navi (08 TL-S). But I rarely ever use it. Screen is usually off, 80% of the time.

 

I'm on battery number 4 at 48000 miles. Have navigation. The last battery lasted 1 day...bad cell. What a joke.

 

In the time it took me to swap out my front springs(well-I wasn't in any hurry), I believe I drained my battery with about 4 cds.

 

dead batteries need to be charged with a machine,----jump start and drive is bad news

The alternator is NOT designed to run the kind of output to recharge the battery
it normally just makes enought to replace what the car is using

A TL with heat/air fan going, radio on, headlights/drl on is barely making enough to run at low rpm- let alone keep itself fully charged or recharged after odd useage

try driving in a lower gear to get rpm above 2500- that will charge it back good,
and take the car on a 30 minute freeway drive once a week to dry the moisture from oil and exhaust systems- thats per the book for extreme low miles commute useage, to keep the car healthy

 

?

Aren't the alternators rated at like 120 amps? That's a lot of current... even at the nominal 12 volts it 1440 watts.

Steve