Good evening all,

I've replaced the starter on my 96 Accord because it was going bad about 4 weeks ago. The car ran fine. Then I did another unrelated repair job and in the process killed the battery. I replaced the battery two weeks ago and the car ran well that weekend with multiple shut offs and starts. I was gone for two weeks and came back to the car to start it and all the interior lights came on but when I went to start the car, it wouldn't crank. I just assumed that the battery had gone dead because I hadn't driven it in 2 weeks, I didn't drive it all that much after I had replaced the battery, and the local temperatures have been 30s and 40s. I tried jumping the car, but to no avail. I got some friends to push the car and I was able to pop the clutch and start it no problem. I drove it around for about 20 minutes to charge the battery. When I came back, I parked, turned it off and attempted to start it again to see if the battery had charged enough. Unfortunately, same problem. Lights came on, but no crank. I roll started it again no problem just to make sure, but the battery still won't crank the engine.

Do I just need to charge it more? Is this a grounding issue? I don't think this is an alternator issue because it's fairly new and there aren't any other indicators of a bad alternator like dimming dash lights while driving or a warning light. Really dumbfounded. Thanks for reading!

 

Another thing, I did smell something odd perhaps like burning rubber or something very faintly coming from the engine while I was driving it. When I replaced the timing belt a few weeks ago perhaps I didn't tighten the pulley enough and it's slipping and not getting enough charge to the battery?

 

Clean battery posts and cable terminals.
Find the negative cable's grounding point and clean that.

Take volt meter reading of battery with engine off
Should be around 12.5 volts. If fully charged.
Does say anything at all about the battery's capacity for holding a charge or delivery of current

Take volt meter reading of battery with engine running and head lights on
Should be about 13.5 volts to 14.5 volts. If charging battery

If those readings are okay then take negative battery post off and insert meter in current (ampere) reading mode between negative post and ground
Engine and everything else should be turned off. Wait fifteen to thirty minutes. Check the ampere meter reading.
Should be less than 0.050 amperes or 50 miliamps.
If more then you have a parasitic drain.

 

take your battery to where you purchased it and have them do a load test. cells sometimes fail. charge battery full if possible before checking battery.

 

Got it fixed. It turned out to be a bad lead going to the starter. Thanks everyone!

 

Thanks for the update.