The reason I'm posting this is because I have everyone telling me different things. I noticed a month ago that my car was struggling a bit when trying to start it after it had been sitting for several hours. But it never failed to start.

Last Friday night, the car started up slowly on my way from work. I stopped at a gas station and came back to the car no more than 5 minutes later to start it again - almost totally dead. You could hear the engine try to turn over 4-5 times REALLY slowly, then it'd do that really fast paced clicking noise. I got a jump start and went home. I turned the car off, then started it right back up to make sure it would start back up in the morning. I went out to the car in the morning, and it wouldn't start again. I got another jump start and the car started up better for the last 6 days. It didn't start slowly, it would start quicker than it had in months. Just this morning, I go out and it took me a minute to get the car started up. This is by far the longest it has ever taken for me to get the car started up.

So I've found over the past couple weeks that this thing seems to do well for several days after a jump start, and performs just fine when I'm not leaving it sitting for hours at a time. But on a day where I may leave it untouched for 8-12 hours, it struggles starting up or doesn't start at all. I'm being overly cautious here, unplugging my car charger, turning off the AC/radio, no lights left on, etc. before I turn the car off.

I've heard a variety of reasons for this, and I was hoping to see if anyone can tell me exactly what it is...so far I've heard:

- it's the battery cables (AAA guys reason)
- it's the battery itself
- alternator
- starter

Please help! I'm looking to get this thing to be as reliable as it was, but not get too pricey if it's not necessary.

 

Im no expert, but something could be slowly draining you battery. How old is your battery btw?

 

yeah sounds like something is draining battery, you got a sound system in the trunk ? ..this is a common cause, check its wiring. other than that replace battery with New unit.

 

I want to say something is draining the battery as well, but I'm thinking that it could be the battery dying as well. I have owned the car for 4 years in November and never changed the battery. Probably sounds ridiculous, but I never saw the point in changing it if it was working. Whenever I took it to a mechanic to get work done (water pump, timing belt, brakes, etc.), they checked just about everything on the car and never saw a reason to change the battery.

In terms of the sound system, I know that the previous owner had one hooked up in the car, but they took all of the equipment when they sold it. I'm rocking an OEM CD player and nothing more. Any other thoughts?

 

May as well test your battery to see if it is fine still or time for a new one, before you
start looking at other things. If you cant do it yourself you should be able to find a
place to test it for you for free. Most places here with check you battery for free
i assume it would be the same where you live.

 

Car alarms also have a tendency to drain batteries.

 

Do you have a Digital Multimeter? set it to current mode and put it in series with the battery lines and see what the current draw is when the car is off. If there's something draining the battery that fast, it'll probably be in hundreds of mA range.