My son purchased a 1990 Accord EX (his first car, only 16) and we brought the car home and it has been parked for about a week. We went out to start it Wed night and nothing, no power at all. Nothing lights up, comes on etc. The battery is brand new (less than a month old).

We checked all the battery connections and they seem fine and no fuses blown. What could it be?

I did find a red wire that was attached to the positive battery cable and followed it thru the cabin and into the trunk area. Apparently at some point the car had a sound system installed in the trunk. Also found some RCA cables running to the same area in the trunk. I disconnected and removed all these wires and went back to stock setup. Could this have been draining the battery?

Not big on electrical stuff, but could use some help in figuring out what it could be. Being it is xmas day, O'reillys is closed so I can't replace the battery. Will swap it out tomorrow.

Any and all input is greatly appreciated as I really want to get this fixed for my son while he is visiting his mother this week (school break).

Thanks

 

you may have something staying on in the car that shouldn't be (technical term is "parasitic draw") best way to test for it is pull the negative terminal off and place a test light between the cable and battery, if the light come on brightly, you have a draw... you can narrow it down by pulling fuses one at a time, and when the light goes out, or gets very dim, you've found the circuit with the draw... from there you can see what that fuse operates and hopefully track down where the problem is. keep in mind you have to have power in the battery for this to work, and if you don't have a test light, you can get a cheapy at o'reillys when u get the new battery.

 

I would suggest putting the battery on a charger to see what happens. I would check the battery cable ends. I think your radio draws some amps for the memory and will light a test light in series.

 

Thanks for the info.

Thanks, but we removed the radio and all after market wiring. Cable ends look to be ok, but I will probably replace them anyways.

 

If you still have the factory ends on I wouldn’t replace them as it is hard to seal them where the cable coating meets the new ends. I was just wondering if they were corroded. I suggested the battery charger as most have a boost setting and even if the battery is dead just turning on the charger should get enough power for dash lights to help troubleshoot.

 

Check the obvious easy stuff like trunk light that stays on, glovebox, etc.

If the previous owner did the wiring for the stereo, he might have done some "creative" wiring elsewhere, so other stuff that SHOULD turn off with the key might remain powered (ventilation blower, rear window heater)??

 

My old accord was having the same problem and went through 2 batteries, ended up being just and unlucky me getting two crap batteries from walmart (free replacements tho so not to mad about it)

 

Update time.....
Parts store said the new battery must have been bad from the get go, so they gave me a brand new one and (knocks on wood), haven't had any problems with the new one for the last couple weeks.

Thanks to all for their suggestions.

 

Thanks for letting us know.

Seems like there's more stories lately about new batteries being bad out of the box.