maverickfhs

It's automatic and has 155K miles, battery is ~2 months old from Costco - interstate one.

Resting voltage of battery is 12.6-12.65V. + and - cables are tight and clean.

It was running fine until last weekend and was parked since Sunday, today I went to start it and it's not starting.

While cranking battery light on the ODO stays on. Could it be an alternator or a starter? It does have fuel and makes a noise while cranking, but not that kind of noise which we usually here when car is good and about to start. No CEL or anything on ODO either, except battery light I mentioned above.

Thank you for any of your help.

Colin42

battery weak from the cold? = weak crank
try boosting with another car?

maverickfhs

Yes it seems to be weak crank, but battery is less than 2 months old.

I'll try to jump start and see what happens, thanks for your advice

ezone

It's the charging system warning light, it has little to do with the battery.

It is supposed to stay on until the engine is running and the alternator is charging.

I'd want to know what that voltage drops down to while operating the starter. Then I'd want to know the amp draw of the starter too. Maybe do a voltage drop test to check for bad connections

Usually if it cranks slow, the battery is weak/drained, or the starter is on its way out. If the battery was run down in only a few days, it may have an excessive drain causing it to discharge the battery.

Occasionally I find ground cable connections in poor condition too.


Not sure if this pic will link, but this was a bolt that held a ground cable to the body, it had rusted enough to allow high resistance which caused arcing under high amperage load (during both starting and charging), and that had literally welded the washer to the bolt head and broken loose dozens of times to cause the metal to transfer from the bolt head to the washer:
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maverickfhs

Thanks very much EZ, as usual.

I was over thinking it, pressed gas pedal a few times and cranked car while holding gas pedal and it started, it was brutally cold in last few days and I suspect fuel was having issued.

Drove it for 20-25 miles and started it 2-3 times and started on 1st crank.

Thanks again for your help

maverickfhs

Curious, is it a good idea to put anti-seize on ground bolts or just clean them and leave them alone? Asking for 2006 Civic though

ezone

Ah, so it may have been a bit flooded

maverickfhs

Yes, clearly that was the case. Think it was flooded....

How can that kind of situation be avoided in future?

ezone

I've done it that way, I use metallic anti seize if I do....Or I may apply some grease since it can protect bare exposed metal


The battery neg cable where it attaches to the body sometimes gets pretty ugly. There's another ground wire right behind that one that goes from body to the transmission that probably needs some help too. You might need to pull the battery out to get to it.

maverickfhs

Dang, that's in really rough shape. I am going to lube mine this weekend, at least whatever is visible

ezone

A typical scenario is someone starts the car to move it around in the driveway (20 feet)....then the next time they go to start it it won't.

Don't shut the engine off cold. Don't shut it off until it's been driven and is up to operating temperature.
I know that's not always possible, so it's best to know how to deal with it if it does happen.

Take apart the connections and use a wire brush/wheel or sandpaper to get clean, shiny metal on all contact areas:
*Both sides of the cable eyelet,
*the bolt threads and the underside of the hex head and washer
*the body IMO really should have the paint removed where that eyelet lays so there is bare metal to bare metal contact (electricity can't pass through paint)--the factory bolts the cable right to the painted surface, and the bolt threads are the only thing conducting electricity between the cable eyelet and the body.

Then grease the freshly exposed bare metal so it doesn't corrode right away
I like dielectric silicone grease, and sometimes I use plain ol wheel bearing grease but it can be messy