Battery and Starting
 

Our family just bought a 2007 Honda Accord Hybrid from a VW dealer replacing a standard 2007 Accord that we had leased. The car was something of a mess and my wife was redetailing the car a second time (after the dealer had a go) to make it even cleaner. So for about two hours, the car's interior lights were on and for a good portion of that time, so was the radio (which was only supposed to stay on for 15 minutes to program the XM Radio as we continued XM for our turned in vehicle which the HAH was replacing). For about 15 minutes, I also did some reprogramming of the Navigation system, deleting all the old entries and putting in a few new ones.

When all this was done, we turned the ignition and nothing happened. All the lights worked, so did the radio, but the Navigation system was also down. Except for my 15 minutes of Navigation programming, I was not with the car, but I am assuming the battery had issues due to the car running its electricity without any gas.

I let the car sit for about 90 minutes, and it then started right up and for the next three days, it has had no issues.

However, it is my wife's car and if something goes wrong in the future, I will hear it, so is there another underlying issue?

(And yes, I was able to put in the code to restart the Navigation system for those of you who are wondering.)

Thanks for any help.

Robert

Re: Battery and Starting
 

Here is likely what happened.

The Accord Hybrid uses the IMA battery for starting during warm weather. But if the 12V battery is below a set voltage point the "computer" won't start the car.

It is weird to the owner as every clue you would expect in a "normal car" is reasonably ok. That is the interior lights, radio etc all seem fine but when you turn the key nothing, absolute silence, not even a decent grown. Charge the 12V battery for a few seconds/minutes and the voltage comes up and all 144+ volts in the IMA battery energize the IMA motor and the car runs just fine. That is why the car sounds like it has such a "sweet" starter motor.

My guess is the car sat around a fair amount before you bought it and your efforts added to running down the 12V battery below the cut-off voltage. As you let it sit for 90 minutes the 12V Pba battery recovered to above the cut off voltage.

If you don't drive it regularly it would be wise to put a reliable charger on the 12V battery and make sure it comes up to 100%. If the car is still under Honda factory warranty your 12V battery is part of that deal should the problem persist.

The owners manual has some more info on this and usage of the 12V battery during cold weather.