I just purchased this 2016 Honda CRV. I generally always purchase Hondas as they have a great reputation. Unfortunately, it looks like I may have to make better decisions in the future. I've only had this car for ~5 months. The first 4 months no issues with the battery. All of a sudden, every 5 days I need to jumpstart it. I found lots of comments on the internet from owners with similar problems and also saw that there was a class action lawsuit against Honda for model years 2017-2020 with this same issue, so I'm assuming it's an ongoing issue with no real resolution.

I paid a lot of money for this CRV and have terrible anxiety every time I need to use my car to get to work, the grocery, pick up my grandkids, etc. You should not have to worry if you're car is going to start EVERY TIME you need to use it.

It's at the shop right now (9/26/2023) and they just called to say the battery, alternator and starter are all fine (surprise!) but they will keep looking to see what could be causing the intermittent battery failure.

I'm 65 years old lady. When I’m done driving my car, I have to open the hood and attach a trickle charger to my battery. It’s a 2016 Honda CR-V. Car runs fine, but if you park it for under a week, the car won’t start. Had it towed 3 times to the Honda dealer. First they they removed a after market alarm that they said was causing the problem, which I was unaware of the car having alarm on it, as I bought the car new. The 2nd, 3rd time tow, Honda said they could not find any thing wrong, but said I had rat droppings in my car causing the problem. T

hey put in a new battery for free, but never paid me back for the after market alarm being removed. I hate this car because of this battery problem. The other day my garage door was not opening so I could not attach the trickle charger to the car. You can see what a pain this is. The car was not a problem in the earlier years as I drove it daily to work, but I’m retired now and don’t drive it daily. Anybody know of a class action lawsuit for this problem?

I am a failure analysis engineer for a major heavy equipment manufacturer.

The regular battery for the Honda CR-V is the long, skinny** 51R. It has 410 cold cranking amps and costs $160+, and is Dealer-installed. It is specially designed to be as light as possible to help Honda meet EPA fleet fuel economy standards, which is why it is expensive.

The Honda dealer cannot isolate the starting problem in a "dead battery" CR-V because the battery temperature and charge state has changed since you tried to start it.

The dealer may say that though the battery tests good, a light load would kill it in less than half an hour.

**The battery is long and skinny, meaning: --the the plates are long and very close together. --long plates are not very rigid, compared to the older, bigger batteries.

Plates warp as they age, and warping too much lets them touch, which shorts the battery internally. This is a battery design problem, not a Honda CR-V problem.

I'd say the 51R battery design allows the plates to touch when the temperature, accessory load charge drain and possibly other conditions are met and thus, the CR-V will not start. Because the plates are long and flexible, a temperature change and charging restores the battery. The shop tech says the battery is good because it is good at the moment he tests it, and you get the service bill.

The 35R battery installed in Canadian CR-Vs may be the answer, because it is of heavier, standard design with short, rigid plates. Canada gets the heavy battery because they have colder winters and no EPA fleet standards to meet.

The Canadian-spec CR-V battery is much wider, has 650 cranking amps (240 more!) and fits in the same place under the hood as its weaker 51R counterpart. My local "big box" store has the 35R for $73 in a 2-year battery and $103 for the more powerful 5-year version, DYI installed.

Switch to the 35R battery and get all the benefits and at half the cost of the expensive, trouble-prone 51R.

Thank you.

Purchased this vehicle on 10/12/20 and the battery started draining to the point of not starting after sitting for 3 days or longer. Happened several times, luckily at home where I had a charger/start booster and could start it my self. I had the battery tested and it tested good twice at different places. I then looked up possible issues and found a service bulletin on replacing the AC relay. Took it to the dealer and told them about the issues and service bulletin. They replaced it under warranty.

However it recently sat for a week without being used and the battery was drained again. So the problem is better but not fixed. I have seen suggestions to get a larger more powerful battery but have not tried this fix.

I bought the car brand new in May 2016 and the first winter I was stranded in the freezing cold in Utah. I had the car jumped off by roadside assistance and drove it about 20 miles. When I got home and tried to restart the car it wouldn't start. I had it towed about 30 miles to the dealership to have the battery replaced then had to waste more time driving the sixty mile round trip to pick up the car. I was pissed. I have an old car with a four year old battery that works just fine. I've never had a battery die after eight months but I gave them the benefit of the doubt it was just a bad one. Wrong, it had three more times, every winter.

I WENT TO DEALER. I EXPLAIN THAT BATTERY DID NOT WORK. I BOUGHT HONDA CRV 2016. DECEMBER 5, 2018 MILES 28,132 PREVIOUS OWNER LEASED. I AM SENIOR LADY RETIRED.

IN FEBRUARY 2019 MY CAR WAS 31,120 MILES. I WENT TO DEALER MR. STEVEN BALDINI (MANAGER) MAKE A COMPLAIN WHO SOLD ME THE CAR AND I TOLD HIM BATTERY ID DEAD, I REQUESTED BATTERY HAS TO BE CHANGE. THEY CHARGE AND LATER HAS SAME PROBLEMS.

THANKS GOD, MY DAUGHTER BOUGHT FOR ME GOOLOO JUMP STARTER POWER BANK. IT'S DEAD BATTERY EVERY DAY I HAVE TO CHARGE POWER BANK. I WENT TODAY JUNE 3, 20 DEALER, THEY TOLD ME BATTERY IS NOT UNDER WARRANTY, ONLY UNTIL 36,000 MILES.

MY CAR HAS 38,178 MILES. I have RETIRED LADY. THEY KNOW THE PROBLEM HONDA CRV IS BATTERY. I WAS DOING MY RESEARCH AND MANY PEOPLE HAVE THE SAME PROBLEMS. PLEASE THEY HAVE TO BE REPORTED AND FIX THIS PROBLEMS. DEALERS AND EMPLOYEES TAKE ADVANTAGE AND DON'T FIX THIS PROBLEMS.

This is the third time our CRV's battery unexpectedly died. We left our cabin - the car started up just fine - and drove 25 minutes to the ferry terminal. Parked, all lights off, ignition switch in the off position (no aux or any other intentional draw from the battery). The ferry arrived but our car would not start - wouldn't turn over and appeared as though the battery was dead. The fine ferry folks had a portable start kit which got us going no problem. Loaded on the ferry, shut the car off for an hour's boat ride, crossed fingers, and the car started without assistance - no problem. I've had the battery and charging system tested twice and both times the results indicated everything was normal. The second set of tests was done by the Honda dealership. So what gives Honda? It seems many are people have trouble with CR-V batteries going dead and solutions are few and not obviously correct for this particular scenario.