I recently bought a 2001 Honda Civic Ex 5 Speed Coupe. I have had problems with starting it now. It has 75,000 miles on it and was purchased from Carmax, who said they did a complete check of the car before selling it. The car wouldn't start one night at school when it was pretty cold. I do live in WI and it is winter. AAA came out and tried to jump my car. It was not working then he hit the unlock button on the keyless entry and it started. I don't know if that was why it started or not. However now today the car would not start at all. I tried the AAA guy trick and it did not work. This morning it cranked very slowly then just started clicking. I tried again tonight and the car just clicked. all other electronics work fine. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

Check that the battery is connected solidly. One way to tell is to turn the lights on while you try to start it. If the lights stay lit but it only clicks and doesn't crank, it's probably the starter itself. Was there any warranty on the car by Carmax?

 

Winter is a bad time for batteries.

1) Start by charging the battery. Some auto parts chains offer this service free of charge.

2) Before reinstalling the battery, clean the battery electrodes and connectors to allow good electrical contact.

3) if you still have starting problems, then replace the battery with a new one.

 

auto parts stores will also check your battery and let you know if you need a new one or not

 

^+1
check all grounds and connections,
check battery is charged
the clicking you can hear is coming from the starter solenoid, which (i think) is attached to the starter motor, there are two little metal contacts inside it which are making the clicking, they could have become worn, or simply there is not enough power to it. I think on the civic (i have not looked to closely at my starter) that you need to replace the whole starter if the solenoid has gone, unless your feeling adventurous, open it up!!

 

I don't think the contacts are sold seperately. I have made one good starter out of two bad ones before but that's not for beginners. If the brushes in the motor are worn out it will turn slowly or not at all. In fact it won't even click if the brushes are so bad there's no continuity thru the motor.

Does sound like it could be the battery though, or the battery is not being charged, or the cable clamps aren't clean and tight. If you can roll-start the car and drive it to a consumer-oriented auto parts store they will check all of that for free.

 

the shops in the US seem pretty good for tht kinda battery electrical business, I don't think they would do that over in the UK