On Tue, 03 Aug 2004 04:27:59 GMT, Chris Garcia <chris@evangar.com>
wrote:

>My wife went to start her car today.. she only drives it to/from work..
>monday through friday, so it gets the weekend off..
>
>annnyways, she goes to start it today.. NOTHING.. no (starter) click, no
>lights, nothin...
>
>So, we took my car to Wal-Mart to get a set of jumper cables (shame on me
>for never having them before) and tried to jump off of mine.. It would
>crank (sounded like a "weak" crank.. which i dunno if that's normal or
>not w/ a jump start) but would not start.
>
>So, I'm clueless.. My only ideas are:
>
>* Battery is completely dead? Seems like it'd start when jumped if that
>was the case
>* Alternator is bad (which would explain not being able to start, but can
>crank when jumped)
>
>Other than that I really have no clue what it could be. Any fuses I
>should look out for?
>
>BTW, it's a 91 Civic LX with 160k miles on it.. We planned on retiring
>the poor thing in December when our first child is born. Wife figures
>she'll be home with the kid and can go do what she needs when I'm home
>and not using the car.

When you jump a car with a completely dead battery, the juice from the
jumping car at first goes mostly to charge the dead battery. There
isn't much left for the starter. Give the battery several minutes to
build up some charge, with the second car idling briskly. Then try
starting it.

If the old car has seen a lot of highway miles, there's a possibility
that varnish has built up inside the engine, increasing internal
friction. That would somewhat increase the current necessary to start
it.