I just bought a brand new battery and alternator and my cars still doesn't start properly. I jump-started it and drove it around to charge the battery and I am still having the same problems. Any ideas?

 

your starter may be going bad. When they do, sometimes it will draw too much current for the battery alone to enable it to operate, when you hook the jumper cables to it, you then have enough amperage to make the failing starter work, bring it somewhere that can test the amperage draw of the starter while you are cranking it. I'm not sure what the exact amperage draw spec is, I would imagine no more than say 120 amps or so.

Chris

 

it's not the starter. When I put the brand new battery in, the car started up fine. Then After about 2 hours, the battery went dead once again. So my next thought was the alt not charging the battery. So I changed the alt and the battery still seems to have no power.

 

do you have any electronics in your car that stay one? maybe some amps..or a video setup or somthing? Although the civic is notorious for its starter and battery problems.

 

no, i turned everything off on the car. I let it run for 15 mins then shut it off, and the battery was still dead. It seems as though the alt is not charging the battery properly.

 

i work at a battery store and you'd be surprised how how many people say their alternator is new and then it turns out it is defective. get that checked first, even if it is new.