Questions and Answers

Honda Feeling a Little Rundown

Q. Recently my car does not start because of battery drain, I am doing jump start then it starts o.k. My residence and work place are very near by (2 miles). So for last few months I am driving only average of 6 miles a day.

I use heavy radio and A/C. Once I give a jump start and run the car for 30 minutes or so then switch off and starts o.k. So what might be the problem is the battery gone bad, or any alternator problem?

My car spec
Year: 1998
Make: HONDA
Model: CIVIC LX
Manual or automatic transmission: AUTOMATIC
Mileage: 18,000
ABS brakes: NO ABS
P/S - A/C - Cruise control: A/C Cruise control
Rack and pinion steering: POWER STEERING

Please give me the advice.

Thanks,
Appreciate your service

A. A 1998 with only 18,000 miles on it should not have an alternator problem, so I'm going to assume that it's okay for now.

The problem sounds to me like the car is not running long enough to fully charge the battery. It takes about 9 miles of driving to replace the charge the starter takes out when you start the car. So, over a period of time the battery will run down. When you jump start the car, you are actually starting yours with the other car so that is not solving the problem.

I would take the car to a shop with a charging system tester. Have them give it a 1 hour medium charge and then test the whole charging system. It's possible the battery has gone bad due to this condition. If everything checks out good, then what you will need to do is either take the car out for a drive two or three times a week or get a 30 or 40 amp trickle battery charger and hook it up to your car when you park it at night.