04 Accord starting problems.
06-06-2014, 03:41 PM
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04 Accord starting problems.
Ok so I'll be thorough in describing what I've done/checked to help along any advice people may have for me.
About two weeks ago my accord began starting very slowly, basically behaving they way it does when it's a standardly cold MA winter and the battery is old. The thing is, my battery is only 4 months young.
After some observation over a few days, I noticed that after a good drive (work to home, approx. 25 min) the car can be turned off, and if immediately turned back on, will fire up at a normal fast pace. Once the car has sat for a while though, not running, (anywhere from an hour to overnight) the car starts super slow as if the battery is almost dead. My first assumption was a parasitic draw, but here's the catch... The battery never fully dies, just seems to behave as if it's almost dead after it has sat for a bit.
So today I took it to a buddy's house who, as a disclaimer, is only a hobbyist mechanic, but owns some fancy testing equipment. After fiddling with my car for a bit, he brought me over and told me this: when hooked up to my car while off, he said he was expecting to see 12-12.5v, or lower if the battery was "on its way out", and that it's normal for that number to drop a little when the starter is pulling on it, but in the off position my battery is reading over 13v. The alternator was reading normal on the tester, and he said the fact that, when given the proper charge, the car starts fine, leads him to believe the starter is ok as well. He was straight forward about not knowing if that was too high of a voltage or not, but expressed that he thought it was higher than it should be. After, he fired the 'ol girl up though, and while juicing the starter, the battery's voltage dropped to 5-6v, almost into the "bad battery" area of his tester and he's not short if it's a faulty battery or a faulty starter.
At this point I'm going to take it to a mechanic, but I'm wondering if these symptoms are anything someone can educatedly link to either my starter or my battery.
About two weeks ago my accord began starting very slowly, basically behaving they way it does when it's a standardly cold MA winter and the battery is old. The thing is, my battery is only 4 months young.
After some observation over a few days, I noticed that after a good drive (work to home, approx. 25 min) the car can be turned off, and if immediately turned back on, will fire up at a normal fast pace. Once the car has sat for a while though, not running, (anywhere from an hour to overnight) the car starts super slow as if the battery is almost dead. My first assumption was a parasitic draw, but here's the catch... The battery never fully dies, just seems to behave as if it's almost dead after it has sat for a bit.
So today I took it to a buddy's house who, as a disclaimer, is only a hobbyist mechanic, but owns some fancy testing equipment. After fiddling with my car for a bit, he brought me over and told me this: when hooked up to my car while off, he said he was expecting to see 12-12.5v, or lower if the battery was "on its way out", and that it's normal for that number to drop a little when the starter is pulling on it, but in the off position my battery is reading over 13v. The alternator was reading normal on the tester, and he said the fact that, when given the proper charge, the car starts fine, leads him to believe the starter is ok as well. He was straight forward about not knowing if that was too high of a voltage or not, but expressed that he thought it was higher than it should be. After, he fired the 'ol girl up though, and while juicing the starter, the battery's voltage dropped to 5-6v, almost into the "bad battery" area of his tester and he's not short if it's a faulty battery or a faulty starter.
At this point I'm going to take it to a mechanic, but I'm wondering if these symptoms are anything someone can educatedly link to either my starter or my battery.
06-06-2014, 08:18 PM
#2
Honda-Tech Member
Re: 04 Accord starting problems.
A "dead" battery can still produce 12.6V, but have not current moving capability. Age is a factor in current capacity, especially if the battery is not properly secured.
All car batteries need to handle "surface charge" which is a capacitive effect of recharging the battery at voltages higher than the cells themselves produce. This charge will decrease as the vehicle sits, to a nominal 12.6V. Any battery tester needs to be calibrated to adjust for surface charge before a battery can be tested accurately.
Check your engine and battery ground points for damage or corrosion, and for loose terminal connections. Load testing the battery in a stationary test station will prove the battery's usefulness.
If all of these check out, a shorted stater commutator, or excessive mechanical resistance is the cause of the poor start.
You should not see more than .8V across the starter wiring while cranking. A 5V drop at first glance would indicate a cell that is not shorted, but heavily damaged, and as such cannot contribute adequate current without inducing a huge drop in voltage. (IE a dead cell) Do NOT confuse this with starter cranking voltage, which ideally should not drop below 10V. THe .8V is the resistance of the starter cable and ground to and from the starter. Any competent technician can measure this.
All car batteries need to handle "surface charge" which is a capacitive effect of recharging the battery at voltages higher than the cells themselves produce. This charge will decrease as the vehicle sits, to a nominal 12.6V. Any battery tester needs to be calibrated to adjust for surface charge before a battery can be tested accurately.
Check your engine and battery ground points for damage or corrosion, and for loose terminal connections. Load testing the battery in a stationary test station will prove the battery's usefulness.
If all of these check out, a shorted stater commutator, or excessive mechanical resistance is the cause of the poor start.
You should not see more than .8V across the starter wiring while cranking. A 5V drop at first glance would indicate a cell that is not shorted, but heavily damaged, and as such cannot contribute adequate current without inducing a huge drop in voltage. (IE a dead cell) Do NOT confuse this with starter cranking voltage, which ideally should not drop below 10V. THe .8V is the resistance of the starter cable and ground to and from the starter. Any competent technician can measure this.
06-08-2014, 07:22 PM
#3
Honda-Tech Member
Re: 04 Accord starting problems.
Ok so I'll be thorough in describing what I've done/checked to help along any advice people may have for me.
About two weeks ago my accord began starting very slowly, basically behaving they way it does when it's a standardly cold MA winter and the battery is old. The thing is, my battery is only 4 months young.
After some observation over a few days, I noticed that after a good drive (work to home, approx. 25 min) the car can be turned off, and if immediately turned back on, will fire up at a normal fast pace. Once the car has sat for a while though, not running, (anywhere from an hour to overnight) the car starts super slow as if the battery is almost dead. My first assumption was a parasitic draw, but here's the catch... The battery never fully dies, just seems to behave as if it's almost dead after it has sat for a bit.
So today I took it to a buddy's house who, as a disclaimer, is only a hobbyist mechanic, but owns some fancy testing equipment. After fiddling with my car for a bit, he brought me over and told me this: when hooked up to my car while off, he said he was expecting to see 12-12.5v, or lower if the battery was "on its way out", and that it's normal for that number to drop a little when the starter is pulling on it, but in the off position my battery is reading over 13v. The alternator was reading normal on the tester, and he said the fact that, when given the proper charge, the car starts fine, leads him to believe the starter is ok as well. He was straight forward about not knowing if that was too high of a voltage or not, but expressed that he thought it was higher than it should be. After, he fired the 'ol girl up though, and while juicing the starter, the battery's voltage dropped to 5-6v, almost into the "bad battery" area of his tester and he's not short if it's a faulty battery or a faulty starter.
At this point I'm going to take it to a mechanic, but I'm wondering if these symptoms are anything someone can educatedly link to either my starter or my battery.
About two weeks ago my accord began starting very slowly, basically behaving they way it does when it's a standardly cold MA winter and the battery is old. The thing is, my battery is only 4 months young.
After some observation over a few days, I noticed that after a good drive (work to home, approx. 25 min) the car can be turned off, and if immediately turned back on, will fire up at a normal fast pace. Once the car has sat for a while though, not running, (anywhere from an hour to overnight) the car starts super slow as if the battery is almost dead. My first assumption was a parasitic draw, but here's the catch... The battery never fully dies, just seems to behave as if it's almost dead after it has sat for a bit.
So today I took it to a buddy's house who, as a disclaimer, is only a hobbyist mechanic, but owns some fancy testing equipment. After fiddling with my car for a bit, he brought me over and told me this: when hooked up to my car while off, he said he was expecting to see 12-12.5v, or lower if the battery was "on its way out", and that it's normal for that number to drop a little when the starter is pulling on it, but in the off position my battery is reading over 13v. The alternator was reading normal on the tester, and he said the fact that, when given the proper charge, the car starts fine, leads him to believe the starter is ok as well. He was straight forward about not knowing if that was too high of a voltage or not, but expressed that he thought it was higher than it should be. After, he fired the 'ol girl up though, and while juicing the starter, the battery's voltage dropped to 5-6v, almost into the "bad battery" area of his tester and he's not short if it's a faulty battery or a faulty starter.
At this point I'm going to take it to a mechanic, but I'm wondering if these symptoms are anything someone can educatedly link to either my starter or my battery.
With that being said,Ive replaced numerous starters on '03-06 Accords for dragging and slow cranking.(Many times after the owners have already replaced the battery)
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