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Hello,

I'm having a problem with my wife's 2003 Civic EX. It started when she called me up and said her car wouldn't start. She was right next to an auto parts store and she said it was just clicking so I told her to go grab a battery while I drove out to where she was. So I get there and her old battery is only a year old, and when I tested it with my multi-meter I got around 12.75V. But when I wiggled the battery cables I noticed that on the positive side it had two cables coming into and one just came right out. So I went and got new battery terminal connectors and put those and and the car started up fine.

Fast forward a few days and now she's at home and the car won't start. Well the battery's good so I decided to pull out the starter and have that checked. I brought to my local Autozone and they tested it and said it was good. I put the starter back in and the car starts up. Odd.

Here's the other thing, when the car doesn't start, it clicks once, like the solenoid is engaging but there's not enough juice to crank the engine. Then all the dashlights shut off, they were on before. Like the battery is completely disconnected. I turn the key off and then try it again and now no lights at all come on, even without starting and just putting it in the ACC or RUN position. I also noticed when it's like this I can't shift it out of park (I was trying to put it into N to move it somewhere that was more convenient to work on it). But when the battery is completely disconnected, it shifts fine. Does the immobilizer lock the shifter? Everything I read about the immobilizer says it will just show the green key symbol. Plus if it was that it shouldn't start at all right?

So it looks like I'm looking at some electrical issue, which are the bane of my existence. Any clue on what I should check next? It seems to me that once I put into the start position it's getting shorted out somewhere and then the short doesn't go away until it's left alone for a while or the battery is disconnected for some time. Because once it doesn't start, no dash lights will come on at all, until it's left alone for a while. Then it will do the same thing again. It won't start but the lights will be on and it will click if I try to start it, then no lights again. The only fix so far is disconnecting the battery and waiting.

I gave her a 12mm wrench to take the negative battery terminal off and told her if she gets stranded to take that off, wait a few minutes, then put it back on, since that seems to be the only thing that works in the meantime.

 
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So it looks like I may be having the same issue as described in this thread.

I'll try cleaning the battery connections real good tomorrow and see if that makes the problem go away. They weren't covered in corrosion or anything but they weren't nice and shiny either so it's worth a try.

If that doesn't work it seems it may be an ignition switch issue maybe?

 
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That is definitely the place to start. You can also check/clean the engine grounds, should be one from the passenger side of the engine going to the radiator support and another under the air cleaner on top of the transmission.