Hi there,
Honda CRV, 2002.
Been having a lot of problems with starting. Have had battery replaced numerous times, alternator and charging system checked, all are supposedly good.

However, the vehicle will only start when boosted. I've been carrying an extra battery around and just boosting off that every time. Works, even with an old battery that may or may not be fully charged.
Bought a new battery last week, put it in and the car started without a boost once. Then, came out a few hours later and needed to be boosted to start.
Today I took my current battery (bought last week) in to check it, they said the battery is fine (12+ volts) and the cold cranking amps are about 485, which are supposedly fine to start it.

So battery is good, alternator is good, car won't start.

I need new ideas of what to check next. I know next to nothing about cars but want to do it myself because I really can't afford to take it in anywhere.

Suggestions?

thx!!

 

Seems like you've been doing some work already. I'd check the starter.

How does it sound when you try to start it with just one battery?

How does it sound when you jump it and start it?

 

how are you boosting it? positive to positive and negative to negative or positive to positive and negative to chassis/motor? might have a bad ground (battery to chassis or chassic to motor)

 

@dogbiscuit- yep, I've been working with this problem since last October. I get frustrated and let the car sit, the get back at it again, then get frustrated and try to sell, no luck, etc. I did just think about the starter the other day, once they told me the battery was still good. When I try to start it with just the one, it depends. There is rarely any sound, perhaps one or two clicks. mostly it's just nothing though. With two batteries, it sounds like how a car sounds when the battery is really low...it's a struggle and it turns over very slowly, then fires up. I have no idea if it's possible, but I thought perhaps for some reason the starter? isn't drawing enough power to actually start the vehicle, or something in the ignition process isn't correct, but I don't know what to investigate. Any thoughts (i.e. names of parts, etc...i'm going to be working from the Hanes manual).

@LDForget--I've just been doing the + to +, - to - tried and true jumping. Never heard of the neg to chassis/motor. What would I do for that? And this is a really dumb question, but is the chassis simply any part of the metal frame?

thx for your interest/help, folks!!

 

Also, the vehicle runs great once it's running. Sometimes I see the dash lights flickering while I'm driving and I worry that it might die while being driven, but it hasn't yet. I've been looking at the leads from the battery too and they look pretty old. Are those something that can be replaced? I'm sure one of the places I took it to for an electric check also checked the leads and replaced one, but maybe it's the other. Would that cause any of these problems?
thx again!

 

the proper way to boost a car is by going positive to positive and negative to chassis. chassis is anywhere on the body or on the motor that has bare metal.

How do your terminals look? from the new information, sounds like theres a bad connection between the wires and the battery.

 

I am having the same problem I hit a pothole last night and now the only time the car will start is with a jump

 

More than likely you have a battery terminal loose. Happens more than people think...

 

Start with the simple things first - get a terminal wire brush thing at AutoPepZoneBoys and clean the terminals/posts, then maybe charge it if possible, if not get it running and run for a while. Wouldn't hurt to check the other end connections either, and clean them.

 

Either loose connection or a plate broke free inside the battery


To the OP, it sounds like you have a parasitic draw that is killing the battery while the car is off. With a fully charged battery, pull the negative cable off. Use a multimeter set to DC amps, touch the positive wire to the negative battery cable and the negative wire to the negative on the battery. Post up what the meter says.

 

check the - cable comming from the battery going to the gearbox. In stead off putting the extra battery try putting a extra cable from the - battery pole directly to the gearbox and try to start . Putting it on the chassis is no use when there is no connection between chassis and gearbox (starter is fixed on the gearbox)

 

This probably has nothing to do with your issue, but last year my 2013 refused to start, after checking the entire electrical system. A friend told me to check the voltage of my battery in the key fob. I checked and was 1.3v instead of 1.5v. I replaced the battery and it started and haven’t had a problem since.