I have a 2007 Honda Civic coupe I changed the battery and the starter but now the car will not start as soon as I crank it it dims down I’ve took down the starter 3 times now I even changed out the connector since I thought it was not making full contact on starter any suggestions or people who have had this problem?
Can you manually turn the crankshaft with a socket and breaker bar? If not you might have to consider the motor is locked up.
No I have not tried that but how would the motor lock up if it was working whenever I drove it one last time to check the new starter that was installed and yes the starter was a bit loose so I tightened the bolts up and it was still running until one day it would not crank I moved the wires a bit with a rod for the hydraulic lift and it started running again but had to keep doing the same thing until I decided to remove starter and noticed the connector was broke where it needs to be locked In so I bought a new connector thinking it would help but no I replaced the starter back in and nothing
Was just a suggestion based on the info given.
Lets back up a bit, why did you replace the starter and battery? How many miles on the car? What other maintenance was recently done, is the CEL on? The more you tell us the better picture we have to help you
I changed the starter because it was a bad starter so I got a new then found out I had to change the battery because when I bought it three years ago it was needing to be jump started about maybe 2 months ago so I bought a new battery 3 weeks ago I just started to have problems with starter keep in mind I just bought it about 6 months ago now before my car had this problem and it finally gave out I just tap on wires and it started again drove it around turned it off and again same problem tapped on wires and turned on again
And the car has 91,000 miles
No I don’t think the motor is locked I hope not anyways
Good idea as mentioned above to verifythat the motor will turn using a socket on the crank pulley bolt. If it won’t, this test avoids your wasting time checking other stuff.
ever posts back what they measure. I think after they do that measurement they’ve already figured out the problem.
btw, Faulty aftermarket replacement starters failing right out of the box are a pretty common report here. I’ve had that happen to me twice in fact in the past 5-6 years on my Corolla. So don’t assume your replacement starter is good. You might need to buy another oem replacement starter from Honda.
For fails to crank, measure the voltage at both starter terminals, probing from terminal to starter case. Both should measure at least 10.5 volts when the key is in start. What are you measuring?
I should point out that I mention this suggestion all the time here for fails to crank, and hardly anyone ever reports back what they measure. I think once they make that measurement they have enough clues to know what’s wrong, so no need to report back. .
On the bright side, you’ve become a world-class expert at Civic starter install & removal 
Another bright side, at least your starter is staying wth the car. One of my friends has a Civic and that car has had its starter motor stolen, not once, but several times. I think the strategy is to steal the starter, then wait for a new on to be installed, then steal the new one. That way the thieves get a new starter.
You don’t give a very detailed description of things. You talk about tapping on some wires and the starter works. Whatever wires you are referring to should be checked over for a connection problem. That is mostly likely where the problem is at.
Okay so I had switch out the starter on June cause the starter was bad already went to autozone to get it checked out they put it to the test and confirmed needed new starter installed new starter everything was working correctly fast forward to November I started to get battery issues due to the fact I’ve haven’t changed the battery the day I got the car 3 years ago did not know how long the battery was on there for. so battery kept on giving me problems every morning I would have to jump start it and yes it has been cold so I go buy another battery everything was working fine until one day my car would not start at all I was like okay what’s going on lucky I had another vehicle so I did not pay to much attention to it when I got back from work I was puzzled why my car did not start so I lifted the car saw the starter was kind of loose I tighten the bolts up and cranked it and worked so I was like okay I got it to work this is mid November a week before thanks giving I had the same problem all I did was move the wires a bit that go to the starter and it worked again so I decided to take the starter out again and I noticed the connector that goes to the starter was broke so I bought another connector thinking that was problem but no I take starter of and go to autzone to get it checked out and they tell me that the starter is fine I placed the starter back in and nothing my car has now 3 weeks sitting there I took the starter off have not put it back in
I assume that the wire you tapped on was the main cable going to the starter and the starter then worked. If that is the case then you may have internal wire corrosion causing the problem. Battery acid usually leaches into the wire at the battery post connection and corrosion sets in damaging the wire. You would need to replace the cable if that is the case. Unless there is enough wire length to re-terminate the end beyond the damage.
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OP mentioned the starter at one point of this scenario was loose, wasn’t firmly mounted on the engine. The starter’s mount to the engine provides the starter’s ground. Without a good ground the starter won’t work. It’s possible that tapping on the starter temporarily got the ground connected again.
Found the problem the starter had a bad connection on it fixed it went back to autozone and they replaced the starter installed it and boom worked
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Good to hear you found the trouble and thanks for the feedback.