So, i took a friend on a trip with me to cali and we were gone about 6 days and when we got back, her car wouldn't start. It seemed to crank slowly, but not like the sounds of a dead battery. As i cranked more and more it seemed to crank faster and faster until it finally caught and started up. Is this a precursor to something else that could be going bad?? Starter possibly? I have a decent amount of experience with cars, and this def is not the battery. Any thoughts?? 2000 civic, about to hit 100k, completely stock.

 

definately clean the the cables and terminals on the battery good. then try and use a battery you know for sure is good. see if the problem persists

 

oh and also, i was just informed batt was replaced about 3 weeks ago, terminals look clean and all wires running to starter and ground look good...

 

get it tested by a ac voltage pass through tester, these can predict the usefull life of a battery and let you know if it should be good for an additional 6 months or more, we use one at my work made by midtronics, we get cars all of the time thast start fine, and we dont even think the battery is questionable on a maintenence, and when we test the battery for the maintenence inspection it says fail repeatedly. these testers can be done for free at firestone, a lot of oil change shops, and basically its a tester that does not apply a lod to the battery to test it, it passes an ac voltage through the battery and how the battery bends that voltage lets it know how the lead is doing and what the availiable current in amps is. i think it sounds like the battery, dont second guess it. its the weakest link in the starting system, and the starter, if going bad would go crankity crank and start to crank quicker, if anything it would crank slower as you held the key in start, another simple check to do is put a meter on the battery, then tekll a buddy to crank it over and watch how far the voltage drops as it goes crankity crank, and see what it does as it speeds up and whatnot.

 

sounds good i'll have her check it out, thanks!