My 95 civic was slowly losing power on me so I replaced the battery. Then the damn thing wouldn't hold a charge so I replaced the alternator. That seemed to have fixed the issue up until today when I went to start it and got nothing. The car had been sitting for about a week due to bad road conditions. I jumped the battery and it kicked right over. I let it sit for about 15 minutes to give the battery time to recharge, but when i went to move the car it died again. When I tried to re-start it, i got dash lights then nothing. The only thing I can think of at this point is that there is an exposed wire somewhere draining the power, but i highly doubt it. Could my starter need to be replaced?? Any fresh ideas would be appreciated. I'm starting to get burned out on troubleshooting this. Thanks.

 

Yeah sounds like an electrical problem. Did you recently install an amplifier or something?

 

Make sure all of connections are cleaned and free from corrosion. Did you bench test your original alternator.

 

Check whether your battery connectors are tight and not corroded. If corroded, clean well to allow good electrical contact. Then recharge battery fully. Some Auto Parts stores offer this as a free service.

Also make sure the connection of the battery ground wire to the body frame is tight and making good electrical contact.

 

I have an 89 civic having the same problem. I tested with a multimeter and got 12.6 after jumping battery for maybe 30 seconds, after starting the car (slow start), it dropped to 12.1 at idle. I checked it again in maybe 5/10 minutes and it had dropped to 11.3. I also replaced the alternator and battery after first seeing issues. Alternator replaced first.

I did a test on my dad's 92 aerostar just to get an idea of what volage should be. He was running 14.6 at idle and 13.5 @ cold crank. I'm in the process of moving from home to another home. I'm going to dig into this thing come Monday morning. There's some tests I'll be doing to find out what componant (if any) is causing my power drain. I'll also be doing a test to see if the alternator is bad(even though it's new reman.)

Good luck untilt then, hope we can figure this crap out, I need my wheels man!! My baby is sick again

 

Anyone know what the starter should be getting for voltage to it at start up?