okay so i bought a 1991 honda civic (standard) off of my uncle about a week and a half ago. i got my dad to drive it to my college one night so i could drive it home and not have to pay for parking so he drives up into the parking lot and stops by me, turns the engine off gets out i get in. so i get in and try to start it. it doesnt even make a sound nothing works at all the lights dont turn on stereo doesnt turn on nothing works. battery had to be totallyyy dead. so we try to jump start it by pushing it town the hill there and that didnt work. we waited around and a girl gave us a jump and it started fine with the jump. ever since this its been starting fine every time. i have not taken it anywhere though jsut started it for 10 or so minutes a day. when the car is running it runs fine but when i turn on the headlights or anything that takes a large amount of power the car starts vibrating and i think the engine isnt firing properly because possibly i need a new battery? the batter is a 60 month batter but it looks quite old.

could this be my problem i just need a new battery? i dont think its the alternator because if it was it wouldent have been able to be jumped and run for 10 mins or so?

 

Check for bad connections at the battery. That will cause intermittent total loss of power. Check battery voltage (at the posts) with the car running. If it doesn't go up to 13.5 volts the alternator isn't working properly.

 

thank you for the reply i will try those, so if neither of those are wrong then i need a new battery?

 

bad connections

 

but i checked the connections and they look fine to me?

 

make sure the battery cables are as far down on the +/- nodes as it can be and is FIRM, also that nothing is in the way. And it very well could be the alternator, it would be able to run for the 10 minutes fine, and longer (and could slightly charge the battery assuming no lights/ac/power anything was being used), also the lights being on may cause it to shake like you said, but if it is starting next time without a jump that is very unlikely, although if the drive home from school was long enough it is possible it charged it a little on the drive and the last few starts were remaining power in the battery. Try running the car for a few with the black battery cable loose and then pull the negative(black) off the battery, if the car dies it is likely your alternator. And if that is the case, you might wanna make sure nothing is shorting it before you get another one so you dont blow the new one. It does sound like the battery cable was off. Or stuff just happens sometimes...

 

i will try that pullign the negative off . iv started my car since then about 15 times and ran it from anywhere from 5 mins to 20 mins but il figure this out somehow lol are alternators hard to replace yourself or should i go to my mechanic?

 

that does NOT sound like an alternator problem to me, altho to note it is DIYable, but it takes a lot of moving things out of the way and twisting of the arm, not hard but annoying. I wouldnt worry too much at this point if it isnt happening again, and just pay attention to what you are doing when driving so if it does happen you will have a lot more information on the overall situation.

also try new spark plugs/spark plug cables/battery cables/possibly distributor, all of that would take an hour if even that, and should be done anyway since you just got the car. any of those COULD have something to do, but again i cannot say for sure.

i always forget something and have to edit >_>

 

would you say there is an advantage of having those 150$ 4gauge battery cables? or what gauge would you suggest ?

 

i am not knowledgeable enough to give you a proper answer on that =/
i just have generic ones right now, and personally i assume that anything claiming OEM specs is gonna be fine unless you have excessively modded your car and have LED and xboxs and TVs it would not be necessary