1990 Honda Accord LX Can't Start (Clicking)

1990 Honda Accord LX, 4 doors, AT, 173,495 miles. Everything runs good before I detached battery. Battery was changed in June, 2001 and battery has 108 months warrenty. I was fixing front passenger side low beam light bulb and want to detach battery to gain access. I took off negative pole, but can't take off positive pole. Finally, I can replace light bulb without taking off battery. Re-attached negative pole, but car can't start (start with clicking sound). Detached both positive (broke screw) and negative, wire brush battery poles and clean terminals. Attached them back and still got clicking sound and can't start engine. Checked battery around 11.2V. Jumpped start to start engine with another car. Checked battery around 13V. Drove for 25 minutes (~15 miles) and stop engine. Still can't start and have to jump to start engine. Normally, how long/far do I have to drive to recharge battery? Does anyone knows what would be the problem of this kind? Thanks in advance!

 

Sounds like a weak battery to me. If you can jump start it, that means the starter is ok.


You will want a full 12v at least to start.

And just because you have the voltage, doesn't mean you have the amps.

 

Thanks for the replied! If battery is weak, why I didn't have problem of starting engine before disconnecting battery. Besides, battery still have at least 3 more years to go. Any other ideas?

 

You say you cleaned the terminals, but I would guess that you missed something or the terminals are not tight, and the likelyhood of a 6 yr old battery being bad is a real possibility. I have had to replace 3 60 mo. bats in the last several years, with only about 2-3 yrs on each.

 

Go to autozone and have the battery tested. If good, have them check the charging system. Also, make sure the connections to the battery are tight as
Bill mentioned.

13 volts when the car is running sounds a little low. With engine running, check the voltage at the positive terminal of the battery and a metal part of the engine. If it differs from the voltage at the pos and neg battery terminal you might have a bad negative cable.

 

If it was fine before and your sure you have clean terminals and a good connection, I would check your cables. From removing and moving around you could have disturbed a cable that was bad and now wont carry the load needed to start the car.

An easy way to test this is to use your jumper cables in place of the cars cables. If it starts up- You need new cables......

 

Thanks to all of your replies! Battery has 84 months warranty and it has been used for 69 months so far. It is the battery problem. After changing a new battery, car can start as usual.

 

Awesome! Glad it's fixed. I wish other parts on our vehicles had a 84 month warranty with no questions asked! Thanks for posting the update!