Civic - Honda :: Dead Battery, Car Won't Move In Neutral
May 11, 2012
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?
View 5 Replies
Advertisement
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.
View 15 Replies
I'm sure it's been mentioned before, but if you need to put an 01-03 Prius into Neutral with dead battery (i.e. to push the car so you can reach it with jumper cables) you need to remove the rectangular panel on the bottom drivers side of the steering column. It's tiny, smaller than a postage stamp. Use a strong pen-knife or very small screwdriver to pop the panel out.
You may want to remove the panel when things are good, so if you ever have to use the gearshift release you don't have to hunt around for a knife since it's on pretty tight from the factory. (just leave it off once removed).
View 2 Replies
A little back story my hybrid battery went out about 4 months ago ago and I've been saving money to get it fixed. I've been trying to remember to start it and get it moving every so often. Well I guess I didn't do it enough because go to drive the Prius yesterday to get it started and moved since it's been awhile and the main battery is dead. The way the Prius is parked I can't even get to it to jump it. I'm wondering is there a way to put it in neutral with a dead battery? Or is there a way to charge the battery, since it's actually inside the car? And I'm assuming since the 12V is drained, I'll have to replace that as well correct?
I'm about over this car, while it done great the first 7 years I had it, past two have been a royal pain. Ready to go back to a normal engine and car.
View 8 Replies
i was trying to align my headlights last night and forgot to switch them off. now the battery is dead and i need to shift it to neutral to roll it out of the garage and jump it. but it won't shift. the dealer said to turn it to on and step on the brake. doesn't work. i just get a buzzing sound coming from the engine compartment. is there any way to shift it? or do i just need to take the battery out and get it charged?
View 9 Replies
Now with the new clutch installed, it makes a terrible noise with my foot off of the clutch in neutral. I can't get into any gears; it'll just grind gears.
Here is a video of the noise. Again the noise only occurs with my foot off of the clutch pedal. Quiet with my foot on the clutch. I can't get into any gears.
1996 Honda Civic
View 19 Replies
I have a 1997 Honda Civic 5-speed with about 200,000 miles. It is making a low-pitched whining noise when I let the clutch out in neutral. I took it to a mechanic who immediately diagnosed it as the throw out bearing. Being mechanically inclined, I dropped the tranny and changed the clutch and bearing, but started it back up, and the noise is still there - as if I did nothing at all. It is not constant volume - sometimes it is louder than others. It is usually loudest first start of the day. I live in Houston, so its not like it is "cold", just not hot. To be fair to the mechanic, the bearing was quite corroded, but everything else seemed to be working properly.
View 13 Replies
My 93 Honda Civic (manual T) is starting to be difficult to shift into gear. I mainly notice it when the car is idle and in neutral. I go to put into 1st or reverse and it won't go. I try all gears at that point, and it's the same. When it finally does go, it's a loud thud-like noise. People around look over at me! It doesn't happen every time, but I am noticing it more and more. And it's a bit scary when I have been at an intersection or something and I can't get moving. It has 189k. I have also noticed that the car is loud, too, when I am in reverse up our driveway and the clutch is slightly depressed.
View 7 Replies
it's a 2000 honda civic EX. I pulled into a parking spot and slowed down, then decided to speed back up and when I accelerated it was like the car was in neutral. No gear would drive. Turned off the engine and re started and it shifted and did fine then about a 1/4 mile down the road the same thing happened. It just switched into neutral. The transmission fluid is full and clean and the filter has been changed. There was no warning signs at all.
The only caveat I can think of is last week at 15 mph my front passenger wheel fell off after someone replaced a tire. I traveled less than 10 feet on the wheel. But didn't think the transmission would be low enough to hit the ground.
At first I thought transmission clutch but it would be doing it in one direction? Then I thought maybe a pump? Or could it be a sensor or the torque converter.
View 6 Replies
This weekend I was one a trip in my '98 Civic, and I noticed some movement in my temperature gauge. It didn't really overheat; the needle never got near the red, but it did go a little higher than usual.
Normally, once the engine heats up, the needle on the temperature gauge doesn't move, not even a little. It sits right under the squiggly lines on the temperature gauge icon. However, on Friday, when I got off the highway, the needle rose into the upper part of the icon, to the part with the thermometer.
As soon as the car started moving, the needle on the temperature gauge went back to its normal spot, so I assumed it was a problem with the radiator fan and I kept on driving, prepared to turn on the heat if the needle on the temperature gauge started going up.
Saturday morning I took the car to a local shop in Jacksonville, and it turns out the engine needed a new fan and a new thermostat.
The first lesson that comes to mind is that keeping an eye on my temp gauge might have saved me an engine. It certainly saved me a head gasket. Since a head gasket or new engine would have been worth more than the car, catching this before it became a problem saved me from having to buy another car.
The next lesson is that my Civic had two things wrong with the cooling system, and yet it barely showed any symptoms. The air conditioner doesn't work I guess since a working A/C would probably have made it overheat. In any case, I've probably been driving without a working radiator fan for some time.
The final lesson is that if I had tried to diagnose this myself, I'd probably be driving around with a new radiator fan and a bad thermostat. I paid about $435 for a new fan, thermostat, and fresh coolant (I declined the cooling system flush) and it was worth every penny.
View 5 Replies
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.
View 10 Replies
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.
View 10 Replies
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.
View 4 Replies
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....
View 9 Replies
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.
View 12 Replies
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?
View 5 Replies
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.
View 6 Replies
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.
View 4 Replies
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?
View 9 Replies
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.
View 2 Replies
I have a 2003 Honda Accord that I bought used two years ago. Lately, when it rains heavily, the battery light on the dash turns on and the power steering shuts off. I've had to pull over a couple of times. The problem only happens when I drive over 20 mph, solves itself within a minute after I stop, and never happens when it's dry outside. I think the problem has to do with splash from water on the road. What's going on, and how I can fix it? It's pretty dangerous.
View 10 Replies
