Hey, I just bought a 04 5AT Coupe about a month ago and I'm loving it, but recently I've been having trouble starting the car.

When I turn the key to ACC, everything comes up as normal (dash lights come up, radio turns on, etc.) but when I try to start it sometimes it will give me a clicking noise and not start. But if I leave it in long enough, eventually after a bunch of clicks it starts up and runs perfectly.

After searching around for awhile, I think I have a weak battery. Can someone confirm that my battery is the issue here?

 

I think if you take if you take it to Autozone or O'Reiley's, they can test your battery for you. That's the only way to know for sure. We can only make an educated guess over the interwebs.

 

Yea get your battery tested. If not get your car scanned for error codes. you could have the infamous cam shaft sensors issues. How many miles do you have on the car?

 

It's the battery.

 

Okay thanks, I'll get it checked when I have the chance. The car's got about 68k on it right now, drove it for about 1k.

 

It's either the battery or the starter. If it's making a bunch of clicks though, it's probably the battery not providing enough power to the starter. If you turn the key and it makes one loud click and nothing... but starts perfectly normal a little while later (plenty of cranking power), it's probably the starter solenoid.

 

Battery.

 

So I went to Autozone today to get a front license bracket for my stupid fix-it ticket, and I asked them to check my battery. He checked the battery and the alternator and they were both okay, but he still thinks the problem should be the battery. My car actually started up perfectly today aside from the first start in the morning.

Do you guys think I should still replace the battery? And if so, should I get the Duralast Gold he recommended for $116 or should I opt for a Optima Yellow Top off Amazon for $144?

 

Oftentimes the battery can read as good, but isn't putting enough amps to crank the motor as the G needs a lot of crank amps.

 

Yeah the battery tests aren't very useful. I work in parts and we have a load tester and a handheld, even after a slow charge a bad battery can read 12.5+V and over 600CCA and still have a bad cell or be a weak battery.

On the other hand, I can charge a previously dead battery and have it read 200CCA, let it cool off overnight and it'll jump to ~12.8V and 700CCA.

You can always use a specific gravity tester and see if any of the cells are bad, that's a more accurate test if you're unsure. But definitely give it a slow charge at ~1 amp and leave it to cool off for a few hours before you test it.