When I try to start up my car, I hear a "crank, crank, crank, crank, and then it starts up"?

I just got a brand new battery in January of this year. What gives? Need a new starter, alternator, battery has already gone bad???

Thx.

 

I'm not sure exactly what you are saying the problem is. Is the starter crank noise abnormal or is cranking by the starter abnormally slow?

 

I'm not sure what the problem is either. I said I have a new battery that I installed in January of this year.

I was wondering if the cranking noise meant that I needed a new starter, a new alternator, or maybe my battery is already going bad considering it's an AutoZone Duralast battery.

The noise does not sound abnormal. But the longer I leave the car in the driveway, the longer it takes to start up when I get in and turn the key. When I say leave the car in the driveway, I don't mean weeks or months. Usually it's at most 4 days. But if I use the Civic every day, there is less cranking before it starts up. If I don't use it for, like I said 4 days, it will crank really slow, until it finally starts up. Today freaked me out cuz it cranked like 5 times before starting up and the cranks were really slow and I did not think it was going to start at all.

I hope that clears everything up.

Thx.

 

It sounds like the battery is low. Given that the battery is new, you may have a parasitic drain. Have you recently installed or modified anything electrical in the car?

Also, are your battery terminals or connectors corroded or loose? Is the dash battery light ON? Is the alternator belt loose? At night, do you notice the lights dimming and brightening when driving?

 

All I've done electrical was take the subwoofer and back speaker system out, including two amplifiers. I didn't disconnect anything on the battery cuz I didn't really know what to disconnect. I did not reconnect a new speaker system. Currently, I have no sound (LAME), but it's been like that for a while.

 

so you have a power wire hooked up to the battery running to wherever the amps were, and it's just hanging off bare wire?
definitely cap that off with a wire nut or one of the crimping wire nuts, and some electrical tape.

like ronj said, are your battery terminals tightly clamped to the battery posts?

 

They should be clamped tightly cuz my mechanic friend did it, but who knows, it was like below-zero weather when we did the swap, so maybe not. I'll make sure I check that right away.

 

The easiest way to do it, is to have your charging system tested. They can isolate the problem. They used to it for free at Sears but that was some years back. Boy do I feel old when businesses used to do things for free.

 

^any auto parts store will check it free
they'll check alternator and battery

 

the shop i work for does it for free, so hopefully it should be no problem. When you turn the key, does it ever not do anything? and you have to try it again before it will actually start to crank. could be loose connection to the starter? i only say this because it has happened to me a couple of times where i have a bad connection on my power wire to my starter.