Yet another cold car problem

Check the connections to the battery are clean and tight. Alternator should be OK if was just replaced. Make sure the belt is tight. If they are all good, replace the battery especially if it is original equipment since it should never have lasted 6+ years in the first place. (My philosophy is to be pro-active with batteries so I can change on my terms and not get stuck. I replace every 4 years and can shop/wait for a good sale ... and do it when the weather is nice not cold!)

Bob

Thanks for the info Bob, I'm still a relative car newbie so I just took it on good faith when the dude told me my battery was still fine.

I do have one other question which I forgot to ask earlier, I went on the canadian tire website to check out what they have in car batteries, and I didnt see anything on their site which states : "this battery is good for all GM vehicles" or "all honda's" or whatever...... is a car battery a car battery?, or are they size dependant like wheels are?, I'd prefer to be forewarned incase the salesman makes a mistake and sells me something that doesnt fit.

Thanks again!

Phil

Most all car batteries sold today are all 12 volts. The major differences are in size (obvious physical dimensions), the post locations (top, side, or both) and the orientation (positive left or right). Some claim to be maintenance free or sealed while others require water. Some use slightly different plate orientation to get more amperage from the same exterior size.

Make sure what you gets fits in the space and can be connected. Then get the largest size and Cold Cranking Amps you can find for the money. If you are going to keep the car a long time, look into Optima, otherwise, get the Die Hard or whatever else fits the bill cheaply. Good luck.

Sales person should be able to know what fits your vehicle from their DB.

Bob

The fast clicking noise suggests a bad starter. I don't know how they can verify this but if it becomes more frequent that's what I'd look at.

Remove the 123 from my addy to reply.

Wurm wrote:

imho,

Usually this clicking is the relay closing the switch, the starter cranking, but because the battery is so low, the voltage goes to dirt fast. Which causes the relay to open, and the start to stop, and then voltage spikes upward, which allows the relay to energize and close again, etc, etc, etc.......

Typically if this was in the summer time, I would getss a bad connection, but the temps you stated sound like your battery is getting a little exhausted. You might try to prepare the car for starting the next day when you finally park the car. Park, allow the car to continue running, and take the time to turn off everything(lights, fan, radio, etc). When everything is off, then turn off the engine and leave. This preps the car for minimal loads on the battery later, and gave a little extra juice for cranking.

Just a guess, but get me a few more starts before I had to replace my aging battery in the past.

hth,

tom @

While it could be the starter, the fast clicking to me suggests a starter that is not receiving sufficient amperage to crank, thus I'd still look at the battery and starter connections (clean and tight), the battery itself (likely root cause), the alternator belt (not slipping to prevent proper charging), the starter (could have dirty or defective solenoid contacts), and lastly the alternator (which he indicated was fairly new).

Good luck!

Bob