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I have a 2008 Civic LX that is having some electrical issues. Previously, if I didn't start my car for a few weeks in summer (or a week in winter), the car battery drained. Usually I could simply re-charge it (though it would take many hours); on a couple of occasions I had to swap in a fresh battery (luckily mine was under warranty). I suspect that I have some parasitic drain that I have yet to be able to find.

This is just background for the latest issue I have....just in case they are related.

Currently, my car electrical system is doing something that seems very strange to me. After the car has been left out in cold weather for a day or two, I can open the car doors with the remote, but when I try to start the car, I will get absolutely nothing....no dashboard lights, no turnover sound...nothing at all, as if the battery were completely dead or disconnected. This seems odd...if the battery were truly dead, then the remote unlock wouldn't work, right?

Then, if I attach and plug in my car charger (CTEK MUS 4.3) using it's "cold weather program," the charger will tell me that the batter is "ready to start" in five minutes or less. At that point, my car starts up flawlessly. Again, if the battery were truly drained, then I would have expected the charging to take much longer, as it has in the past. Usually, I can then use the car. Park it. And then restart it without any issues.

A couple times, I've run into this problem on a shorter time-frame. Once, I started the car without issue, drove it five miles, did some business, came out a half-hour later, and the car was "dead." I got a jump start and the car turned over instantaneously.

Can anyone explain (or hypothesize) what's going on here? Is this some kind of problem with a loose wire or fuse? Could it be related to my parasitic drain problem? This doesn't seem like an alternator issue, does it?

Thanks in advance for any help offered.