Civic - Honda :: 1997 - Cannot Start / Battery Reading Less Than 1 Volt
Jun 22, 2011
Tried to start my car this morning and nothing .(headlight switch was off),checked the battery and it read less than 1 volt (did return to 5 volts after being disconnected for a while). Drove the day before with no apparent problems or lights. Battery is a die hard gold about a year and a half old. checked pos battery cable to ground read 1.8 ohms went up into the high k ohms when I removed the horn/stop fuse(which was good) .Also after market alarm installed. Am I chasing gremlins or did the battery just suddenly die.
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My 2006 Honda Civic LX has 120,000 miles. About a month ago I stopped for gas, and when I got back into the car, it wouldn't start. It cranked a couple times but then after a couple tries that stopped. The power all came on as normal (lights, radio, everything with no dimming), but the engine wouldn't go all the way. I got a jump and things were fine for a couple of weeks, then it did it to me again, following a brief stop in the grocery store after my highway commute home. Again, jumped the car and went home.
After four days with no sign of trouble, it happened again at the gas station. I then took it to a mechanic who spent 2 days with it and declared my problem a mystery. He couldn't get the car to not start for him and said my battery, alternator, fuses, everything he looked at seemed fine. He thinks it could be the starter but couldn't be completely sure enough to do such expensive work. I also let it sit for two days to see if there was a battery drain, but it started up just fine after sitting for those two days. I did notice that it seems to not want to start the day or two after I use my headlights. Now, 5 days since the last episode, it's starting but the crank is a little slow. My battery is one month old. I'm at a loss and don't want to throw money at the problem without knowing. I'm tired of driving everywhere afraid to turn the car off, too.
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Im the second owner of a 2008 Toyota Prius (Package II) with 23k miles.
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I have an 02 Civic EX. Engine light has been on for over a year, runs just fine. Reading misfires on 3 cyl, and cat code. I have since: changed all plugs and coils, changed both front and rear o2 sensors....switched coils around to see if code misfires changed (yes).
I see this is a common problem but no one has a solution..? I'd rather NOT change the cat converter and pay for that only to find out the light stays on. Need to smog so I can sell!
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If the Prius 12 volt battery (the one that is like all other car batteries, not the hybrid battery) goes out, can you use jumper cables to start it like any other car?
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Parked my Honda Civic (1997 stick shift) in driveway at a slight forward downward slant. Two days later it wouldn't start: dash lights come on, get high pitched noises from engine but no start. Tried for 2 days, same results. Ambient temp is in 60's. Had routine service 2 weeks ago and it was running fine.
Tow truck driver tried it, got same results. Had it towed a mile to mechanic (front end elevated while towing). Mechanic called to say it started on first try for him but seemed to be running rough. He checked it over and now has come up with 2 or 3 things it may be but isn't really sure.
Mechanic Is going to replace the ECP (?) to start with but is going to be going at it one part at a time.
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I've had a scangauge on my truck for years and today while on vacation I noticed the voltage was fluctuating between 12.5-13.5 while driving. It has always ran at 13.5-13.7 .... I checked it with a fluke and it is a solid and steady 13.8v at idle. Why would that gauge be fluctuating like that? Truck seems to be running fine.
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It drove fine for about 3 weeks, and then one day when I went to start the car, it acted like the battery was going bad. This didn't make any sense to me, because the battery had just been replaced a few months before I bought it. It was a weekend, and the car seemed fine otherwise, so I figured I'd just take it to a mechanic on Monday.The next day I drove it to the grocery store, and when I went to start it nothing happened. The electronics came on, but it wouldn't start. No cranking, no clicking, nothing. I finally got it to start by pumping the gas while turning the key. However, even after I got it to start, everything electronic in the car would shut off and then come back on again randomly, and the car would try to stall out every time I came to a stop if the electricity happened to be off. After getting it home, I couldn't get it to start again at all. I didn't sell my trusty old '97 Toyota Tercel. I have driven it across the country and back four times, it has 281,000 miles on it, and it has never given me any problems. That's what I've been driving since all of this started.
And I got the Civic to replace the Tercel. Now I'm thinking I might just get rid of the new car and keep the old one! Haha!I couldn't afford to have the Civic towed to a mechanic, so I had my mechanic friend come and look at it several weeks later. The first thing he thought it could be was the battery, so we went and had the battery tested. Sure enough, the battery was bad, so we took it to wal-mart (where the battery came from) and they replaced it with a new one.Fast forward to three weeks later: all of a sudden I'm having the same problem I had before. Slow to start this morning, and then this afternoon I'm driving down the highway and BOOM everything electronic SHUTS OFF, all gauges drop down to zero, and I feel the car lose a little power. It still drove because it was running on the alternator, but the electronics kept shutting off and coming back on again. It got to a point where about every other second it would blink on and then off again. When I got the car home, I shut it off, switched cars and continued about my business (all of this happened while I was taking a car full of kids to their parents). When I went to start the Civic after getting home, all of the lights came on but the car would not start.I don't know what to do.
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my wife now drives what was originally my 2005 Honda Civic from '05-'10. In the last 3 or so years since she's been driving it, the Civic has developed a tendency to die on her at inopportune times. A quick jump always fixes the problem but I never, ever had this problem myself when I was driving it and I've had the battery tested at AutoZone twice with both techs telling me the battery was in great shape with cranking amps well above its rating. I've offered to just buy a new battery and eliminate the issue but the "it's fine" report from AZ has me puzzled.
I have noticed that corrosion tends to build up on her positive battery terminal very quickly and I suspect she's getting some drain due to that but I'm stymied as to why it happens. The only thing (and its a stretch) that I can think of is she has a habit that her father taught her of cranking the heat, the defroster AND the A/C in her car when it's cold out. Normally I wouldn't think this would make a difference but I wonder if there is somehow condensation developing in that tiny little Civic engine bay as a result?
I've asked her not to do it and see if the situation improves but old habits die hard. The battery does tend to come up dead (of course) more in the winter but it's not an exclusively cold weather situation. Anyway, after jumping her car in single digits this morning before dawn I am ready to admit defeat and just get a new battery but figured I'd throw it out to the many voices here.
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My fiance has a honda civic that has been sitting in an indoor garage for around a year. I move the car about 6 months ago with no issues. Recently we needed to move it again and of course the battery was dead so I decided to push it. With the key on, I released the shifter lock and put the car in neutral but the car wouldn't budge an inch.
Is it possible this is more than just rusted brakes? If it is just rusted brakes do I need to take off the wheels to free them?
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Since buying new my Civic VP automatic, it seems I've been plagued with electrical gremlins. Right off the bat, I noticed the lights would arbitrarily dim and brighten with no rhyme or reason. The dealer checked it and found no problems and could not replicate it. It still does it now at 117K miles with no predictable pattern.
Also, it has always seemed to idle too low while crawling in Columbus, OH, traffic, with the battery light coming on when adding in temperature extremes (while running A/C or defroster) to the mix. At first, I was able to rev the engine in neutral or get out of traffic and open it up to make the battery light go out, but that doesn't seem to work anymore. Also, I can make the battery light flicker just about anytime when I let off the gas. I had to replace the factory battery (under warranty) with one I bought off the AAA service truck.
I had to replace that battery, too, along with the alternator (rebuild), at 88K miles at my local mechanic 2 years ago. It died again yesterday, on the interstate, after my vain attempt at getting up the rpm's when the battery light came on strong. It's at the AAA garage now where they said it needs another alternator (rebuild), but the battery is OK.
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I have a 2007 honda civic lx 4doors my problem is that when the car is sitting overnight the battery gets almost flat when I drive the car in the day everything is perfect I get test the battery starter n the alternator everything is find what is the problem here....
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The mechanic I use told me how he repaired a fault with the Honda Civic hybrid battery that kept the check engine light on and indicated a code for a faulty battery. It appears that if the different cells in the battery have a voltage variance between them that is outside of the parameters set, the light will come on and stay on. The customer was told by Honda service that he needed a new battery, but the car was out of the warraqnty period.
The mechanic theorized that he could remedy this if he drained the battery down and recharged it. After two cycles, the check engine light went off. I wonder if this would work for other hybrid owners?
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Just yesterday I was driving my 2012 Cvic down a hill and the battery and oil light came on. Not but 5 seconds later as I came to the bottom of the hill my brakes went out (the car didn't cut off) so I pulled up the parking brake and cut the car off.
I started to call for roadside assistance but before I did I thought to try to start her up again and boom! Everything works fine! What could have caused this?? Computer system in the car? Brake fluid? Also just two weeks earlier I had full minor service on her. Tire rotation, oil/filter change, brake fluid added etc.
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My daily commute to work is only 1.5 miles. Due to one-way streets along the way, I take different routes going from and to home in my 1993 Honda Civic EX. So only when coming home, I frequently encounter 2-3 red lights with long wait times. To save gas, I would turn off the engine, restarting a few seconds before the lights turned green. I recently had my battery die that was only a little over a year old. Could this could be the result of the frequent restarts over a short distance?
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I have a 2001 Honda Civic with 190K miles. Usually runs fine. The other day it was torrential downpours as I'm driving on the highway. After about 100 miles of rainy driving, I lost the ability to accelerate. All accessories still on, but no response from the gas pedal. At the same moment, the check engine light came on, then -- while coasting off an exit ramp -- the car made a loud squealing noise for about 10 seconds.
I turned the car off, and was able to restart it without problems, although the engine was idling strangely with a faint knocking/fluttering noise. Drove to a Sears where they ran diagnostics on the engine -- the only code that came up was that the TDC Sensor was picking up noise. But the car ran, so we kept driving and the check engine light shut off on its own.
Managed to drive 2 hours to our destination, but had one incident of squealing from the engine (about 10 seconds while slowing down and then speeding up), and lost ability to accelerate again, this time accompanied by the Battery Light coming on as well as the Check Engine.
Today the car is in the shop, with Check Engine light off again but Battery Light still on. Mechanic suggested it might be the Alternator, but that seems odd to me because we just replaced the alternator, battery about 5 months ago and all accessories worked fine when we lost ability to accelerate, and the car was able to restart.
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1995 Honda Civic appears battery is dead, takes 20 turns to start up, then has trouble with RPM's while driving. Even the clock and radio reset I thought the battery was so dead, but the car still starts up every time. And sometimes when I accelerate it has trouble keeping up and chokes a bit. Is this one problem or two? It seems electrical to me.
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I have a 1997 Honda Civic with 275,000 miles on it. After driving for an hour or so, it starts getting hot when stopped or nearly stopped. It goes back to normal temperature when I start driving. It does cool down if I turn on the heater. I just changed the timing belt/water pump and put it a new radiator and changed the thermostat hoping it would solve the problem, but it hasn't. I checked and the fan does come on when stopped. Could it be a cooling system clog that a flush might be able to solve or might it be the head gasket?
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I recently had some work done on my 97 Honda Civic (manual), and asked them to adjust the parking brake while they were at it. They tightened it up as they usually do when they work on the car (the other work was not brake-related, although they DID replace my master cylinder just back in February). Two days later, my brakes began to fail (much like they had when I needed the master cylinder replaced). Turns out, something happened with the parking brake such that the cables seized or something and caused the regular brakes to overheat. Once they cooled down, the regular brakes were fine again, so they disconnected one of the cables for the parking brake and ordered replacement cables to be installed next week, for a not inconsequential sum. My question is: did they screw up when they adjusted the parking brake, such that I shouldn't really have to pay the full amount for this subsequent repair? Or was this likely inevitable?
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I have a '97 Honda Civic w/ about 168k miles, am hoping to get at least another year or two out of it before I go looking for a used Honda Fit or something similarly budget-minded to replace it. I just ran the A/C on cold for the first time this season (I realize I was running it all winter when I defrosted the windows), and it was clearly not working, just blowing hot air. Now, the last time I had anything done with the A/C was in 2005, when I was in a minor accident and the very nice mechanic flushed it and replaced the freon (if I have that right) for no extra charge in the course of uncrumpling the front of the car for me.
Which brings up two issues:
1) I no longer have a trustworthy mechanic where I live, and have had much difficulty finding one, and
2) the car already has a salvage title so is worth about $500 max.
Now, obviously it is worth more than that to me, since it will still be cheaper to fix than get anything else, but I have the impression that A/C repair could get quite expensive, and it is enough to make me wonder if I could afford the monthly payment and insurance increase on that used Honda Fit..
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In recent months there is a new noise in my 97 Civic (75,000 miles). In any hard turn and particularly on U-turns there is a grumbling sound which seems to come from the front end. The noise doesn't happen on gentle turns. It grumbles a bit on 90 degree turns and wholeheartedly grumbles on U-turns. I checked the power steering resevoir and it is full so it is between the lines.
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