Car does not start always needs a jump ??Alternator??

Hello folks,

I registered on this forum to see if some one could give me some advice on the issues I am running into with my '90 civic dx.

Here are the symptoms:

If I don't drive the car for a day, the barrery looses charge. After charging the car runs fine, again, as long as I don't leave it "undriven" for a least a day.

I measred the voltage across the battery, while engine off, it measre a little over 12 Volts. When at idle it measre about 13.6 volts. When all instruments are on (A/C, lights, whipper, radio) voltages drops to about 11.6 volts.

By the way, I just replaced the battery a couple of months ago because the battery was dying and I kept having to re-charge it.

Anybody have any ideas, is it the alternator, oh and I checked the alternator belt it was pretty tight.

Any help would be appreciated...thanks

Sounds to me like you have a slow but steady drain on the battery. I had this once on my 92 Dodge van and it turned out to be the courtesy lights on the vanity mirror were left on when the mirror was closed.

But, it could be your starter or solenoid. What happens when you try and start it before you need a jump? Are the lights nice and bright and do they dim almost to the point of going off when you try the starter? If not, your starter may be going bad and just needs a little extra juice to turn over.

You can check the drain on the battery by turning everything off, unhooking the battery and connecting an ammeter in series with the battery. There should be a slight drain to keep the clock running for instance, but anything bigger than a micro amp or so is suspect. Once you've determined you have a drain, you go to your fuse box and pull the fuses out, one at a time, and check each time to see if the drain has disappeared. This will at least tell you which circuit is using the juice.

If you don't have an ammeter, you can do the same thing (but it will take much longer) by removing a fuse, wait a day then see if you still need a jump.

Good luck.

Greg

Moving this thread out of the "off topic" section.

This section of the forum is for general banter and off-topic threads.
In the future, threads like this go here:

www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/f1135

Sounds to me like you have a slow but steady drain on the battery. I had this once on my 92 Dodge van and it turned out to be the courtesy lights on the vanity mirror were left on when the mirror was closed.

But, it could be your starter or solenoid. What happens when you try and start it before you need a jump? Are the lights nice and bright and do they dim almost to the point of going off when you try the starter? If not, your starter may be going bad and just needs a little extra juice to turn over.

You can check the drain on the battery by turning everything off, unhooking the battery and connecting an ammeter in series with the battery. There should be a slight drain to keep the clock running for instance, but anything bigger than a micro amp or so is suspect. Once you've determined you have a drain, you go to your fuse box and pull the fuses out, one at a time, and check each time to see if the drain has disappeared. This will at least tell you which circuit is using the juice.

If you don't have an ammeter, you can do the same thing (but it will take much longer) by removing a fuse, wait a day then see if you still need a jump.

Good luck.

Greg


Greg, thanks for your reply,

Before a jump, there is no power, I get nothing, no dash lights, radio, nothing. When I start the jump, I get dash lights, but car does not start immediately, it takes a good 5-10 minutes of charge time before the battery has sufficient power to start the car.

I'll try your suggestion, but do you think it is normal for the voltage to drop from about 13.6 to 11.6, when all instruments are on (radio, a/c, lights, whipper), and do you think the alternator is okay?

Thanks again for you input,

Sounds like it's the battery to me, you could take it to a shop and have them do a load test on it.

It's not the alternator because it get's 13.6v at Idle the alternator is working.

so either slow drain... or Bad battery... I would check the little light in the hatch on the passenger side... I have accidently fliped it on a couple times and cause my battery to completely drain... it can be hard to spot specialy if you have the cargo cover.

usually when a car is on, your voltage would be more towards 14v. id, along with the other ideas, would just test the alt also.

usually when a car is on, your voltage would be more towards 14v. id, along with the other ideas, would just test the alt also.


I agree.

Your voltage regulater may be biting the dust. Check the alternator.

Please note he mentioned at Idle, My idle is like 800rpm and it usualy only charging at 13.5v but once I get over 1500rpm it up to 14.4-14.8V as per my voltage gauge.

Best thing he can do is this

1. Does the car run with the battery unhooked yes = alternator is fine, no = alternator is bad.
2. after driving the car park it overnight with the gound unhooked on the battery. the next morning put the gound back if the car starts you have a current drain. if it does not start the battery is bad.

happy hunting.

I had the same problem with my 87 civic hb, then I replace the battery. Then a few months later it happend again, so I replaced the altanator and it works fine. The same exact thing happend on my 91 corolla wagon too, same changes, same fixes.

Just change the altornator and battery and be rid of all the problems.