Topic: My car didn't start twice in one week...what might be the causes?

[rami007]

Hi,

Happy holidays everyone. In less than a week, I had problems starting my car. It happened last Monday around 5:00 pm and yesterday at the end of boxing day around 6:00pm. So as you can see,it didn't happen first thing in the morning, but it was almost at the end of the day.

I called the roadside assistance, and they gave me a boost, and the car was running again. What happened exactly that once I tried to start the car, it wouldn't start and it gave continuous flashes or lights. One more thing, yesterday the ABS sign came on, and the light of the car instrument panel went down as if the car is going to stop or loses power.

I don't know the cause of that, but I thought of the battery...what do you think? However, the lights are working fine!!!  BTW, my car is an Acura El 2004 which I bought used a year and a half ago.

Thanks for any feedback for the causes...

[No H2O]

I don't know the cause of that, but I thought of the battery...what do you think?

Get it running and measure the voltage across the battery. You do have a $25 digital multimeter?

With the revs up a bit...say 2 to 3 thousand, you should at least see voltage in the upper 13s (*). My cars show 14.3V, even with loads turned on (rear window defroster on, high beams on, heater blower on high, etc).

Your headlights only draw 10 amps. Your starter on a very cold day will easily draw far more than 100 amps.

(*) if for some reason your battery was drained due to leaving something on, you'll see less voltage at first, but you should see it slowly increasing as the battery charges up (while maintaining the same RPM).

You might also check the connections at the starter and battery.

[carsncars]

The battery, and, by extension, the alternator seem to be a weak spot on Hondas--particularly Civics (which includes the EL). Like hcrv said, check the battery.

[onearmed]

My friend's 2003 honda civic replaced the battery around 6 months ago for the same symptoms. 

Just a random statistic.