Strange electrical problem.

I had a very un Honda like minor electrical problem last Sunday.

I was going for a run with the car club. I drove 25Km to town, & stopped at a service station to fill up. When I went to start after this the engine barely turned over. It was far too slow to even think about starting. It felt like a flat battery.

A friendly driver in a ute offered me a jump start & the thing started instantly. I drove about half a kilometer to the meeting point, & parked on a hill to enable a clutch start if necessary, planning to skip the run. I expected no more battery than at the petrol stop after only 1/2 a kilometer.

When I hit the starter the engine spun quite quickly as usual & started as usual. The engine has started as usual at least a dozen times since, & the battery is showing 12.59V each time I have checked it.

Any suggestions of anything I should check? It really does feel familiar. I have 2 old Triumph TRs, with Lucas electrical systems. They behave like this on a regular basis. I really did not expect a Honda to do this.

Sounds like what happened to my s, sometimes it started then other times I'd push the start button and I got nothing except for a sound like a pump, turned out it was my starter motor

Could be the starter motor. Before you get that checked clean the battery terminals with a wire brush and grease them. Fasten the terminal connectors back on tight. Check that the alternator wiring is connected well and that there's no damage to it.

Thanks for the answers.
Yes Faithless, have done. I did not see any sign of corrosion or anything else. I do realise you can't always see something interfering with good connection.

What was the problem with your starter Ryanswhites? or did you just replace it without finding the trouble?

After cleaning everything Monday morning, I put the thing in the shed in disgrace, only going down a couple of times to check the battery. No loss of reserve, & she fired up this morning in the cold, as quickly as usual.

I was thinking of replacing the battery, as I can't find a receipt for it, but it is holding charge perfectly.

The car is a 2001, has only done 33,000Km, but has been serviced every 6 months, so it should only be age related things, rather than wear, causing problems.

I guess I'll have to wait for her to stick me up properly to find out what's playing up.

I wanted to get mine reconditioned but mine was beyond it, opening up the starter motor showed it was just black dust left from the brushes

My problem started when I had about 50000kms on the clock and it went from not starting once every couple of months to progressively worse as time went on, mine made no ticking sound like I was told it would if the starter motor was stuffed when the car wouldn't start, it was just nothing when I pushed start, is yours the same problem

Most likely just need a new battery
Its started quickly the 2nd time as your alternator wouldve charged it while driving.
Get your battery properly check under load (load tester)
To prove this theory, when ur cars left for a long time it should lose charge and wont start. Roll start and then leave on for a bit, then turn off and should crank over the second time like nothings wrong

1.mile, that was my first thought, but please read again the circumstances. As the way the battery has behaved does not make sense.

I had just driven 25 Km when it would not turn over fast enough to start.

I had only driven another 1/2 Km after jump starting to where it started normally. I don't think 1/2 Km would put more charge into the battery,
than the previous 25 Km. That is why I referred to it as a strange problem.

I did wonder if it was a hot start thing, as I had only been stopped for a few of minutes, while getting fuel, & the next few starts were after a longer stop.
However at a later stop, we were asked to move to a different area of the car park, after a couple of minutes, & the car started instantly, as usual.

So i think its a hot thing. The starter motor uses one of those squirrel cage motors. When it heats up the cage bit (spinning one) expands. Not much of a problem unless the bearings are on their way out. If they are, the cage scrapes the stator, causing friction and short circuits it. So it will slow down cause of scraping, and then no push is given when it short circuits until the fly rolls it over again, and then the MOTOR (not engine) acts as it should turns it over abit, then starts scraping again and so on. Will definantly slow it down. I say take the starter motor out and give the bearings a check. If the bearings are gone youve most probably found your problem.

This happened to me too, I didn't drive my car for a month or so and the battery died so I clutch started it and it turned on fine after that but there were some days where the battery was acting weird and the car wouldnt turn on but if I waited a bit and tried to start it again it started. So I decided to change the battery and has been fine ever since. Hope this helps!

In the last month there have been 2 more occasions when the starter turned the engine very slowly, but just fast enough to catch.
Both times it was immediately after a 30+Km drive, having started happily at home before leaving. A couple of sessions at the auto electricians were fruitless, as with every thing working OK, it tested OK

Today it did it again, fortunately just 70 meters from the auto electricians. With the fault obvious they quickly diagnosed a battery cell collapsing.

I have fitted a new battery, & hope this is the end of the problem.

Thanks for the replies.

Let us know how it goes. It sounds pretty strange. I had to do a starter motor in one of my old cars once, but it was a bit different to what you said because it was turning over quite happily and just not starting (unlike how you said yours turned over very slowly) I was thinking alternator at first, but if it is holding charge okay I don't think it would be that. Hope the battery is all it was!