Hi,

Here's the story. My 1999 Honda Accord has 143,000km's on it and a few months ago it began having trouble starting. I would turn the key and it would struggle for a second and then stop turning over, or just make a ping noise and not turn over at all. After 4 or 5 tries it would usually get going. After about 4 weeks of this it got worse and worse to the point where it would take 10-15 tries before it would start. So I replaced the starter and this seemed to fix the problem.

I've had the new starter for about 3 weeks, and Monday morning I went out to start the car after driving it all day on Sunday and it turned over a little but didn't start, and then died. I tried again and this time it didn't turn over at all, and now when I try the key I just hear a rapid clicking noise from under the dash.

The car had new plugs/wires/distributor a year ago.

I'm thinking the problem is electrical... but I'm not sure. Any idea's?

Thanks,
Jon

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-trucks/faq-how-troubleshoot-repair-maintain-honda-civics-46563-3.html#post235560

Thanks for the idea's they were basically dead on,

I was talking to a friend about it this morning and he suggested that the battery might just be dead. I didn't think this was the case since all the lights on the dash still came on, etc... but we gave boosting it a try anyway... and it worked.

The only issue is that now I have to figure out what is draining my battery. If there is a short somewhere in the electrical, what's the best way to figure out where it might be.

https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/cars-trucks/faq-how-troubleshoot-repair-maintain-honda-civics-46563-3.html#post241804

After driving the car for about 10 minutes, I let it sit in the parking lot for about 2 1/2 hours and now it won't start again.

I'm going to check/clean the battery contacts and drive it for a little longer to see if it manages to hold a charge.

Try putting the battery on a charger for several hours. Remove caps, top off with distilled water, hook battery charger to terminals (red to +, black to -), and plug charger into wall outlet.

What needs to be done in a case like this is to check the entire starting/charging circuit and this is how I did it when working in a shop.

I checked the condition of the batterys specific gravity electrolyte level. One never knows how topped up the cells are or the specific battery gravity is. I then load check the battery with a load tester for 10 seconds to make sure it does not drop below 10 volts. If it does then I replace the battery or at least put it on a charger. I load test the alternator up to or close to its rates output. I check for a battery drain when all the cars electrical systems are off. Seen a case where the BMW's Blankput radio had a short and drew close to 1 amp of current from it. Replaced the radio and fixed the issue. Car should not draw no more then I think 20 ma to keep the computer and radio memory alive. I check for voltage drop across the ground and positive wire. This verifies the internal integregy of the wires to the starter. Lastly but one I never checked and never had to was to check for total Current drawn from starter with starter engaged. If a starters berrings were failing then the stator would rub inside the housing causing more current draw then nessesary.

Sounds like it's your battery that's not holding the charge you can take it to a auto part store like autozone or advance auto parts they will check it for free. Well most of them do make sure you ask before if it is free.