I did a quick search of the forum and didn't see anything specific to my problem, so I'm posting a new thread. I apologize if this is actually covered somewhere already.

My girlfriend's 2005 Accord keeps having problems starting. Last year when this happened, she took it into the dealer, and they said the problem was a dead battery and replaced it. And it's been mostly okay in the last 18 months, though there've been a few cases where it wouldn't start and needed to be jumped.

Recently, it's happening a lot more, but the battery in it is only 18 months old. Each time, if we jump the car, it runs okay for a few days, and then randomly has trouble starting. I haven't been able to see any patterns to it like cold weather affecting it or anything, and she drives it enough that there should be no problem with the battery staying charged. There are no after-market accessories that should be chewing up the battery's charge.

What I'm wondering is, is this a known problem? Is there a TSB for this, or even a recall? Any help on this would be appreciated!

 

Does the car have a volt meter in the gauges? If so, it should read 14 volts while driving. If not, the first thing to check is the charging system. Have the alternator/voltage regulator tested....That is typically the cause of a weak charge to the battery.

 

When you go to start the car, does the starter spin the engine? Or does nothing really happen when you turn the key to start the car?

 

Well, the dealer she took it to checked it over and couldn't find anything wrong, but was able to determine that *something* was drawing on the battery even when the car was off. He thought it was the alarm system and disconnected it, but the problem still seems to be there.

When starting the car, the starter does seem to spin the engine. At least, you can hear the usual cranking sound. Does that help at all to narrow down the suspects?

 

Something is drawing current from the battery in your car. You should do some tests to isolate the circuit that is causing you problems. Was any electrical work done on the car right before the problem started happening? Like installing a radio, alarm system, etc... Anything other than what comes stock on the car?

To test for a parasitic draw, you will need a volt meter.

Disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. Plug the black lead of the volt meter into the com, and the red into the 10 amp (or 20 amp) plug. Set the meter to amps. Touch the red volt meter lead to the negative battery post and the black volt meter lead to the negative battery terminal. If you read more than 25-35 milliamps, then something is drawing too much battery current. The first item I would unplug is the alternator connection. See if the amp reading drops. Next open the under hood fuse box and start pulling fuses one at a time. See find out which one(s) is drawing current. I hope this makes sense.

Here is a link to what I am talking about below. Just copy and paste this into your browser.

team-integra.net/forum/blogs/shore96teg/351-how-check-locate-parasitic-draw.html