so i have a 97 civic dx hatch. The other day i go to crank it and it clicks and cuts off all power. If i disconnected the battery and let it sit for a couple minutes and reconnect it i could get power back when having the key in the on position but again once id turn to the crank position it would click then cut all power. So long story short i replaced all the ground wires with new wire and sanded the grounding points. Still nothing. Then i took a wire and connected it to the positive terminal turned key to the on pisition to prime the fuel pump. I then touched the wire to where the small connection hooks upto the starter solenoid and it cranked over and ran. I reconnected the original wire from the harness and shut it off. Ive cranked the car just fine multiple times since and drove it around a few days with no issues. But my fear is it will happen again. Any idea what could of caused it?

 

The most likely cause of this is bad connections at the battery. There are also cases of a bad connection inside the battery so it sometimes works and sometimes is dead. If it happens again, leave the key on so there is some load on the system and measure voltage at the battery and across each connection to see where the voltage is being lost.

 

Thank you. Teah my ohm meter stopped working wouldnt you know. I was going to do that. But oh well. The connections at the battery have newer high end audio terminals and no corrosion on battery posts or terminals.