88 Civic Electrical Problem

This sounds as if you have a connection problem at the battery. I would try cleaning both battery connectors with a small wire brush (or preferably a battery terminal cleaning brush designed for the job), then make sure you securely fasten them onto the battery posts and see if things light up.

Fuse blown? Guessing - Charging a dead battery sometime damages the charging system. I`m thinking the morning temp shorted the fuse out. Rick

That was a bad move. I made that mistake once, very eary in my days, fortunately nothing came of it, and it's not likely that caused your problem. But consider what you did. By starting it, you used battery power, but by not going driving afterwards, you didn't recharge the power that was used to start the car. So don't start your car unless you are going to drive it for a few minute to recharge the battery.

BTW, the battery you bought, they did charge it right? New batteries have to be charged before they are installed.

Obviously, check all your connections on both ends of both battery cables as the next 15 posters will tell you. When you have no power it's easy to track with a VOM or a test light. The test light can be any 12V bulb with wires on it to check down the line. The battery itself is not the problem. Perhaps you disturbed a wire when hooking up for the jump and it was right on the verge of not making contact.

Usually a long trip home would charge the battery to its capacity. Starting once or twice has no effect. This is a good habit, at least for me, to verify a working charging system.

I've never seen a drained battery battery sold in stores. Unless it's the type sold as a kit. Acid/battery kit. The original poster might want to try jumping 12V battery to the starter solenoid to verify good ground. If cranks, then ground, battery, battery posts connects are good. Rick