2006 Acura TL with 130,000 miles, every single one of which I've driven. I now have a new daily driver, so the car only gets driven for any period of time on weekends. However I do start the engine twice a day to move it in/out of the driveway so that I can put my nicer car into the garage.

I live in Dallas, so naturally extreme temperatures quickly killed battery within a month of Acura being "retired". The new battery didn't fare much better, and was completely discharged at least three times before I finally got a Battery Tender Jr trickle charger. I put the car on the trickle charger at least 1-2 times/week, in particular when nights are cold. It seems to keep the car starting quickly, though battery often seems to only have 11.5 volts if I haven't either (a) been actively driving it on the weekend or (b) just pulled it off of trickle. At 11.5V, the car will start fine, if a bit hesitantly-- call it a two-second start as opposed to instantaneous at full charge.

This morning, the starter finally died. Is this just due to the car being 8.5 hard TX years and 130K miles old? Or would there have been a correlation with the weakened battery? Do I need to go get a new gel battery and leave it on trickle daily to avoid a repeat of this?

 

It's because of starting 2x/day and then not driving it after to re-charge the battery. I imagine for the 8.499 years and the 129,900 miles there was no problem like this. So the only big difference is the battery being discharged hard twice a day with no re-charging.

Also Dallas/TX is hardly extreme weather and Acura (hondas) are barely beginning to be broken in at 8yrs/130k miles.

Best solution IMO is to make it so that you don't have to move the TL 2x/day if possible. Then if its only a weekend car, take the battery out and leave it on trickle charger during the week. Otherwise it's not a very feasible plan it seems.

 

Hard to say. I wouldn't call replacing the starter after 130K and almost 10 years out of the ordinary. That's not exactly premature wear or failure.

My bigger question/ concern is what seems to be a parasitic draw on the battery. If I'm reading you correctly, it dies after a few days of non-use? That is not normal. You may have a problem with the electrics somewhere that is killing the battery, most on the forum would suspect the bluetooth/ HFL module.

 

Both my Acura's starters died this year.... the tsx in the dead cold and the TL the last week before I stored it for the winter.

The TL starts but occasionally I have to give the starter a wack. Thankfully I can pull it out on my own and replace it with a rebuild over the winter.

TL has 108K (km's) and is a 2007. TSX is a 2004 with 150K. On all my cars I have owned the starter is the only thing that has failed on me (99 prelude, 01 maxima, 04 tsx and now the 07 tl) and I know for sure I am not holding the key down for a long period. Outside the TL the other 3 had remote starters.

BTW if you have a new daily, why keep the TL ? Sell it.

 

I remember reading a post, probably from ihatecars about short drives in the winter not being good for the car. Surely moving the car from the driveway is even worse than a short drive?

 

its just a starter that needed replacement, but you do have a parasitic draw somewhere, most likely HFL. you should be able to go weeks/months between starts without issue

 

I would try the battery first to see if its weaken by HFL before replace the starter.

 

^^ for sure if you havent replaced the starter, start with battery

 

Definitely start with a new battery and try and keep the short trips to a minimum. Can you leave your car on the street or isn't that a good idea? I would agree with nist7 that the 2x day start with little or no recharging time isn't going to be all that helpful for your battery.
I know you said you have a trickle charger but can tell you once an automotive battery has been discharged (aka deep cycled) it won't ever be the same again. Auto batteries are not meant/designed to be deep cycled like marine batteries are.

 

The starter could have just been tired. High temps will wear it faster, but it shouldn't be that big of a concern. If the new one lasts as long as the old one, it will likely never be replaced again.

Now, starting the car twice a day, every day, only to just move it around is absolutely brutal. That's really quite hard treatment. You're going to find the oil diluted with fuel, and the battery in a perpetual state of low charge. Automotive starting batteries hate being discharged, even a little bit. The alternator in your car NEVER really 'charges' the battery, it just mostly maintains the battery if its in good condition. And it takes a considerable amount of time to replenish the juice lost due to starting, somewhere around 5 minutes of driving or 10 minutes of idle. If you start it just to move it, twice daily, sure it might be able to turn the engine over, but its not going to last long as you're finding out. Starting the car to move it is totally fine, as long as you drive the thing at least a few minutes after and it started off in good shape. But do this over and over, and it won't be a happy battery.

Try and avoid starting the car for a short period if its just going to sit. If you start a car thats sitting, you should drive it, or just let it sit. If you know its going to sit a week or more, put a quality automatic charger on it or disconnect it entirely.