Sears car battery go bad in a year?: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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Jan. 20, 2010 1:03 p.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

Been having some electrical issues. Sometimes my car will start fine other times the car is dead. Thought it was my battery (Sears stock type battery for my 93 Civic Si). But they ran a check and all was fine. I told the tech that the battery has been drained several times, and had to be jump started or trickle charged overnight. He told me these newer batteries draining them will not hurt them. I purchased the battery in September 2008.

So the other night couldn't start my car, kept trying and trying, but everything was dead (if I turned the key a brief power blip would light up my enviromental controls for a split second). Popped the hood, got out of my car, and wiggled the battery and my interior lights came on. Got back in and lights turned off. Lucky some guy who autocrosses with me was parked next to me to help. He wiggled the terminal again and I started the car. Worked fine. Seems the negative terminal is lose. So when I got home I tightened everything up.

But my question now is is it my battery bad? My wife left my car lights on several times in the past, can that corrode the terminals inside? How do I go about getting a replacement?
Jan. 20, 2010 4:24 p.m. mel_horn Dork

Do you still have starting problems? Did you clean both mating surfaces of each post and cable? Loose cables can prevent the battery from charging and/or delivering current to the starter, lights etc.You might want to get an electrical system check to see if the major components are charging or causing an excessive voltage drain. The simple act of leaving the lights on will not corrode anything by itself.
Jan. 20, 2010 5:03 p.m. Toyman01 Dork

If the inside of the terminal and battery post aren't shiny, they need to be cleaned. My guess is terminals, the battery is probably still good. Loose terminals corrode so I would start there.
Jan. 20, 2010 7:18 p.m. White_and_Nerdy Reader

Occasionally a dud battery can happen. I knew someone whose Civic wagon wouldn't hold a charge. Started by replacing the battery. Didn't help. Tried the alternator, wiring, all kinds of stuff, and nothing fixed it. So she parked it and bought a Prius instead. Six months later, she gave away the Civic - to me. I replaced the battery and NEVER had electrical issues with that car again.
Jan. 21, 2010 5:32 a.m. foxtrapper UltraDork

CivicSiRacer wrote: wiggled the battery and my interior lights came on.

Clean the connections and tighten. Connections have to be both clean and tight. No, neither will directly harm a battery.
Jan. 21, 2010 7:07 a.m. BoxheadTim HalfDork

+3 on checking the connections and make sure they're tight. It's not quite clear from the original post but I assume that you could move the battery clamp and not the post, correct?
Jan. 21, 2010 11:53 a.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

On Monday I did loosen the negative cable and twist back and forth a couple times and retightened. Didn't think about cleaning, will try that when/if the wife gets home with my car. LOL.
Jan. 21, 2010 11:54 a.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

BoxheadTim wrote:

+3 on checking the connections and make sure they're tight. It's not quite clear from the original post but I assume that you could move the battery clamp and not the post, correct?

Didn't wiggle, but the slightest pressure turned on/off my interior dome light. The cables weren't loose when I got home but I did loosen the cable and retighten.
Jan. 21, 2010 9:16 p.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

ok I think my car is possessed or at least doesn't like me. Wife had no problems today starting my car going to work and coming home. I get in it to head to my job and it's dead. LOL. So took my wife's Odyssey. Just cleaned the terminals and retightened everything so hopefully we will see tomorrow. :)
Jan. 22, 2010 11:54 a.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

ok new dilemna and you guys probably have a grassroots fix for this. Used my battery terminal brush on the posts cleaned them up good. Used the smaller brush for the wire clamps that attach to the posts. When I went to reinstall and tighten the postive down with a socket it's now loose. So I guess I took off enough metal on the posts to make it smaller. Any ideas from you guys?

BTW car started up fine this morning. Will see when I leave work.
Jan. 22, 2010 12:50 p.m. foxtrapper UltraDork

Positive and negative are different sizes. One is smaller than the other. Make sure you've got the right one on the cable end.

Many times the bolt is badly corroded and fused to the terminal. Make sure the nut can in fact run down on the bolt and squeeze the terminal closed.

Battery posts are tapered. Open the terminal up wide enough to get it down thoroughly on the battery.

Look at where the cable goes into the terminal. If it's all corroded, seriously consider replacing the cable.
Jan. 25, 2010 10:51 a.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

Well looks like cleaning the terminals helped a lot. Thanks guys. Car has started every time since cleaning. they didn't look bad though just weird. As for the terminal I'm going to switch the postive out for a newer one hopefully it will be tighter.

I swear this car is possesed or does not like me :) Wish there was a lemon law for used cars. LOL. I fix one thing and another pops up. Although soon this will be a new car with 240,000 miles.
Jan. 25, 2010 11:02 a.m. iceracer HalfDork

Reminds me of a problem I had with a customers car. The battery kept going dead. In the shop we could find no problems nor a draw. So finally, when the customer called that the car wouldn't start, I went to his house. The car was parked on a rather steep driveway. Turns out the trunk compartment light had a mercury switch whick turned the light on due to the incline. Really Weird
Feb. 1, 2010 11:19 a.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

ok so far so good. Tuesday night took me awhile to get the car started so I finally just removed the positive and negative leads and crimped them a bit to make the grab the posts better. Looks like that's what it was. Even though the leads were touching the postitive side was sliding a bit. Looks like the copper leads have stretched a bit during the course of 16 years LOL.

Time to replace I guess this year when it gets warmer.

Thanks for all your suggestions grassroots style LOL.
Feb. 1, 2010 11:34 a.m. mad_machine PowerDork

I found that if you leave something minor broken.. it stymies the gremlins.. they are not sure what to do.

Glad this was an easy, if annoying fix
Feb. 8, 2010 11:54 a.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

Funny how I wrote my reply and then the gremlins came back. The negative and positive were loose again. So I just snipped the old terminals off and put new ones on.
Feb. 8, 2010 12:12 p.m. GameboyRMH UltraDork

That's exactly what my Samurai did with cruddy terminals. After cleaning them, I smeared them with vaseline - this keeps water, corrosion and crud out, but when you clamp on the terminals it's squeezed out of the way and contact is made. I haven't had any more terminal trouble since I did this.
Feb. 21, 2010 4:59 p.m. CivicSiRacer Reader

After putting new terminals on the gremlins disappeared for about a week and returned. The terminals were solid. Got back in the car and by accident hit the headlight switch and my power came back on. So I thought it was my headlight switch, so I ordered a new switch off Ebay.

Last night I was poking around and noticed my one grounding bolt coming from the fuse box to the shock tower (and from the battery) was a little lose. If I wiggled that the lights came on and off. UGH :) I'm telling you guys my car is possessed. So I tightened that down to about 7ft/lbs since it's such a small bolt. Let's hope it's that.
Feb. 21, 2010 5:15 p.m. ncjay Reader

What happened to me a while back is that the terminal connection was cracked inside the battery. Sometimes it was fine. When it didn't work, you could play with the cable and get it back working until it vibrated apart again. Cleaning the connections make you think it works, because all you did was twist the connection back together for a short time.