Hello everyone. Happy New Year!

I'm having a weird issue with my 05 TSX. About two or three months ago, I was having trouble starting the car. When I tried starting the car, I would hear clicking sounds as if the battery was dead. Prior to this issue, I had the car battery replaced by Advanced Auto Parts with one of their Auto Craft Gold batteries.

I thought it was the battery so when I went back to Advanced Auto parts, they tested everything and claim the battery/alternator is fine. During their testing, the car was starting up each and every time. It was so weird because the starting issue was intermittent. All of a sudden, the problem went away. It has now started up again! I'm trying to determine if I should just try getting a new battery or if it's the starter. I will try to describe symptoms below.

1. Clicking or rapid clicking with dashboard/acc lights dimming (like if the battery was dead).

2. When I put the key to II, lights work but the NAVI code has to be reentered. There was an instance when I had to reenter both radio code and navi code.

 

Well, I think the problem is fixed. I ended up just replacing the battery with an Optima Yellow top. The car started right up with no clicking.

How do I go about getting restitution from Advanced Auto Parts? When I went there to try to get the battery exchanged, they refused to exchange because based on their tests, the battery was fine. However, it looks like the battery was bad after all. It was their auto craft gold model.

 

Load tests only give a snapshot of the state of the battery. When you drove to AutoZone, perhaps you charged the battery along the way, and thus they could not duplicate the problem.

I am guessing you heard the clicking sound mostly when you tried starting first thing in the morning?

Explain your situation to autozone, and see if you can get a pro-rated refund, or at least store credit.

 

They won't offer exchange or restitution because most likely the battery is good. The problems sounds to me more like either a cable issue or a bad starter. My guess is the problem will re-appear (and you should have researched the many horror stories here in regards to the yellow top Optima).

 

I have rapid clicking too, but my battery is older, so I'm probably taking it in tomorrow for a new battery. How can i tell if it's a cable issue or a bad starter? What does a new starter run?

 

With the weather we've having, it could certainly be the battery. You're right to replace it first no matter what else you do and/or find. Assuming it's the OE battery, it's at least 8 years old and needs to be replaced (generally, car batteries are good for around 5 years, after that it's a crap shoot). You could try removing and cleaning both ends of the negative cable (the black one), and remove and clean the battery end of the positive (the red) cable (you can't access the starter end). Much of that can be done when the battery is replaced. Once all the other things are in order, if you still have the problem, I'd suspect the starter. There are a couple of good threads on here that deal with replacing the starter.

 

to get to the starter is a bit of work
intake manifold has to come out to gain most access to it
make sure your battery clamps are clean and tight

 

I'm 90% sure it was your battery. My 09 had the same symptoms.


I replaced the OEM battery with a Yellow Top as well and the problem has never reoccurred.