My car (a 2018 Honda HR-V) and my wife's (a 2012 Honda Civic) both use the same form factor of battery (51R), but a different CCA rating. My HR-V's OEM battery is rated at 410 CCAs, but the Civic's is 500.
Both batteries are approaching two years old. Our car batteries have traditionally died at between 2-3 years. Therefore, I'd like to buy a battery to keep in the garage, that I can swap into either car immediately when its battery starts to show symptoms of terminal decline. I check both with a tester monthly, and top them up with a 2 amp trickle charger (just to prove what a sad, middle class, middle aged suburbanite I am, this is my first Saturday evening of the month ritual!). My wife's Civic usually needs serious charging, because almost all her driving is 2-3 miles from a cold start. Less so me, because I often do 200 miles a day on service call drives.
Here is my question: if I buy a 500 CCA spare, could I damage anything in the HR-V if it ends up being installed in it? I'm guessing that the alternator will just never charge it completely, but otherwise no problem. But just in case it's a bad idea to install a battery with a greater CCA capacity than the starter motor needs for some reason I don't realize (stress on the alternator while driving, maybe?), I thought that it's a question worth asking. Thanks in advance.
Both batteries are approaching two years old. Our car batteries have traditionally died at between 2-3 years. Therefore, I'd like to buy a battery to keep in the garage, that I can swap into either car immediately when its battery starts to show symptoms of terminal decline. I check both with a tester monthly, and top them up with a 2 amp trickle charger (just to prove what a sad, middle class, middle aged suburbanite I am, this is my first Saturday evening of the month ritual!). My wife's Civic usually needs serious charging, because almost all her driving is 2-3 miles from a cold start. Less so me, because I often do 200 miles a day on service call drives.
Here is my question: if I buy a 500 CCA spare, could I damage anything in the HR-V if it ends up being installed in it? I'm guessing that the alternator will just never charge it completely, but otherwise no problem. But just in case it's a bad idea to install a battery with a greater CCA capacity than the starter motor needs for some reason I don't realize (stress on the alternator while driving, maybe?), I thought that it's a question worth asking. Thanks in advance.
Comment