Hi All,

I am an IT guy by trade and not the greatest with cars so I am looking for some advice. (you probably hear that thousands of times.)

I have a 2009 Honda civic LX with 144K on it. I bought the car in 2011 for $12,000 (Maybe it was cheap because it was a lemon?) with 74k on it. My wife and I live in Oakland near a train station so we mostly commute by train to work and don't drive the car too often. We average like 9,000 miles annually so we don't drive a lot at all.

The last two weeks the car has slowly started. Now the battery seems to drain all the way down if I don't drive the car around for a good amount of time. I took the battery out and brought it to OReilly auto parts and they tested the cells and the starter and alternator with their basic tests. Nothing came back as being faulty. I bought a battery pack and that will start the car and everything is fine after that. If I leave the car in the lot over night and then try to start it, the car is completely dead. I now leave the windows down and doors unlocked because even the valet key won't power the door locks.

I noticed that the AC also recently went out as well. I am thinking there is an AC issue which may be draining the battery but thats a total guess.

My question in this: Is is possible for when the car to be powered off that some system such as the AC or something else can be drawing power out of the battery? I last bought the battery in August 2016 and the cells tested ok. I'm assuming O'Reilly does extremely basic testing but its still better than what I can do. I am trying to avoid buying a battery and spending $150 on something thats not going to fix the issue.


Here is the history within the last 8 weeks of the problems that started to occur:

1. Cinco de mayo weekend - I only have the valet key because my clicker is broken. Tried to use Valet key which has been working for years and the locks wouldn't initiate. Had to call a locksmith and blew $100 (South Lake Tahoe Tourism prices FML)

2. Beginning of June - Car started to turn over slowly. (I replaced starter two years ago)

3. June 15th - Now it won't even turn over. Had to purchase a car jumper power bank to start car. Once I use that, the car starts and runs fine. Power seems to be draining while the car is off. Alternator tested good supposedly according to OReilly auto parts LOL for whatever that is worth.

Please any advice would be very helpful! My wife is b**ching at me and wants a new car. But I know 140k miles on a honda is just scratching the surface. Trying to save on that car and insurance payment since this car loan is paid off.

Thanks,
dan

 

 

Thank you! I found that the relay for my AC compressor was broken. It wasn't turning the compressor. I replaced that relay and the compressor blows cold now. So far the battery is not dying so I hope this is it. I tried what I thought was a spare relay that was just labeled with a (!) and the car turned on , but wouldn't accelerate and the check engine light came on.

So after putting that relay back to the original spot and getting a new compressor relay everything seems OK now.

 

Great news.
Thanks for the update