My 2007 cr-v has done the following three times in the last four months. After driving somewhere like a store or restaurant. When we come back out to start the car it behaves like the battery is going bad and barely turns the engine over, try it again same thing or doesn’t turn over at all. Then again it turns over and starts. Replaced the battery after the first occurrence. Still has done it twice more. Start just fine after that for a month or more between incidents. The Honda folks don’t know what to do since they can’t recreate it. New starter would be around $650, and that might not be the problem. Any ideas out there on what’s wrong. Car has about 133,000 miles on it. Thanks.
Did someone check the connections and cables from the battery to the starter and to ground? You could have corrosion in the connectors or inside the cable itself.
Although I would think the dealer would have checked that, but there are lots of incompetent mechanics around.
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Agree to check connections, and consider possibility of a heavy cable that is corroded inside. It does happen.
If the battery and its connections are good, and the starter motor is moving slowly, the problem is inside the starter motor. If you have some DIY interest and time, you could take the starter motor to an auto electric shop where they can bench test it, advise you, and fix it or suggest alternatives. Most repair shops will put in a new OEM (very expensive) or a new aftermarket or rebuilt OEM (spotty quality) starter motor. This is the speediest repair and gets your car in and out of their service bay within an hour or so.
Ask them to do an amp draw test of the starter when attempting to start the engine.
That will indicate if there’s a problem with the starter.
Tester
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