Tony
Just found this question and I am posting this answer as a warning to any who may also find it.
I have a Honda Jazz 08 (2007 model). Other models/years use the same battery.
After the car was parked in the garage for two weeks during bad weather the battery appeared nearly flat with not enough life to crank over, although the built-in status indicator in cell No2 showed cell charged o.k. I gave the battery a short charge at 2A and it started the instant the engine turned over. To understand what had happened I checked the individual cells.
The cell caps are covered by the label so I cut a ring around the caps with a craft knife and checked the specific gravity of each cell with a Hydrometer.
Cells 1-5 were at near fully charged condition but cell 6 (nearest -ve term) was down to 20% of full charge.
I won't bore you with details but the battery had had optimum service and had never previously been a problem. It was obviously a failed cell so I drove to my Honda garage and they tested the battery and gave me a printout saying 'Good Battery'.
To cut a long story short they said they have to test it with the prescribed Honda automatic tester and would not approach Honda re a warranty claim as they would test it on the same tester and reject it. I drove home and re-checked the cells and as expected cell 6 was a dud.
As my wife was now refusing to use the car for fear it would let her down, I went back to the garage, complained and asked them to check the cells for themselves. Although it was a garage selling and servicing 3 major makes of car they did not have a Hydrometer on the site. They are unable to test the fundamental principles of a battery and are happy to send unsuspecting customers away with a faulty battery even when the evidence suggests a problem.
They rely on an automatic tester which is fooled by certain battery conditions.
Here comes the warning... I bought a new battery (Honda replacement part) from them.
As a precaution after 6 months I tested the cells. Cells 1-5 good SG1250, Cell 6 SG1240 already slightly down. I tested again after 1yr and Cells 1-5 still good SG1250, but Cell 6 SG1210.
I have bought an expensive smart charger and make sure that the battery is as good as can be expected, fully charged and equalised with Cells 1-5 at 1250/1260 and Cell 6 at 1220.
This now keeps my wife happier but I’m still working on how to tackle Honda on having the same fault on two of their branded batteries. To me it suggests a batch/production problem at the source manufacturer.
But it does beg the question as to how good are Honda branded batteries (not very) and about the competence of the leading garages. I feel sure that a small local operation would be more competent and less reliant on automatic test gear. They would also probably be less likely to send a customer away with a sick battery clutching a ‘Good Battery’ printout.
And I wonder how many warranty claims Honda have avoided.
Hope this helps someone.