The major components of the charging system are the: battery, starter, alternator/regulator. But a “no start” condition could come from dirty or bad battery cables or a short.
Shorts will need to be traced, but aren’t really common. Nowadays, it’s not all that uncommon, in terms of a short, for a rat to sneak up there looking for warmth and proceed to eat through some wires or wire insulation and that could cause a “no start” issue.
The battery being replaced after 4 years appears normal to me. They basically last about 5 years +/- 1-2 years. The more the car is used, the more battery life you’ll get. If the car isn’t used very often, then the life of the battery tends to be less. I would be more concerned, if the battery had been replaced after 1 year. Also, there are different quality batteries being sold, so no one knows the quality of the previous battery.
Personally, I never ever skimp on battery and tire purchases. They’re maintenance items that are very important to me.
This is a yellow flag to me. Does the car have a current registration? In CA, the seller is required to smog the car prior to sale (and every 2 years), so always make sure the emission system is operating normally and the car meets or exceeds (by being way below) emissions limits. Some sellers want to avoid the emissions check at registration, because emissions equipment may have been removed. That’s bad. Very expensive to fix.
Often unregistered car “dealers,” “curb stoners” or “flippers” don’t register the car in order to avoid sales taxes at time of purchase. And the cars they sell are usually salvage or trash.
Use the impending timing belt replacement as a negotiating tool, if you get that far. You should call a local Honda dealer and ask what the replacement cost is and what other items are “might as well replace that too, since the front of the engine is exposed” such as a water pump. They tend to be replaced together on many cars.
We have a 2013 Honda Accord (original owner)with approximately 140,000 miles and about 1.5 years ago our D who drives it at college started having problems getting it to start. Replaced the battery and it seemed to help for a bit. Then the problem started again, we replaced the starter at a Honda dealership (big $), seemed fine until it wasn’t. Same problem, we had her take it to a Honda dealership where she goes to college. They said it was a bad starter and they can’t fix it for free since it was fixed somewhere else (4.5 hours aways at our location). The service guy tells her “she isn’t starting the car right”, haha. It’s a push button start, how hard is that? Anyway to make a long story short, I spent hours researching and found a Honda service bulletin that states when the starter is replaced they need to rotate the torque converter one hole. Took it back to original dealer who did that. The car started fine for about 7 months. Now she is having the problem again. She can get it started, it just takes some patience. We are taking it back to the dealer tomorrow but hey can’t do anything unless they can recreate the problem and unfortunately it doesn’t happen every time she starts the car.
SO buyer beware on the Honda Accord, it is well documented on many internet car message boards that many of the Accords have a starter issue.
Now I will highly recommend an older model Acura. Our older D had a 1998 Acura CL 3.0 for years and it was the BEST car ever, We bought it in 2007ish with 135,000 miles on it and she drove it until 2015. Then we gave it to a friend who needed a car and he is still driving it.
Good luck! And I am not bashing Hondas altogether, I drive a 2009 Honda Pilot with almost 100,000 miles on it and I love it!
I would extensively question any gaps in the chain of title and registration. Big yellow flag to me. The fact that the car was traded in at a high value is not per se a red flag. It is sometimes done to lower the sales tax paid on new wheels (as a percent of the difference in the prices of the new car and the trade in). It also allows the dealer to keep their new car sale stats up (this model is so popular we rarely discount it). Not exactly a fair game, but it is being played sometimes.
I drive a Honda accord that is 19 years old. It is not my beater car, not my college car, not my extra car. It is just my car. I bought it new and I’ve put pretty much every one of the 170k miles on it. Manual transmission. Drives just fine. I don’t think I’d drive it cross country anymore (although I’ve done it many times). Aircon not doing that well these days.
My daughter bought my mother’s 2001 Honda Accord last year. Paid Nana $2000 (which I think was too much but they worked it out) and the other grandchildren are jealous that THEY didn’t get to buy it.
Kind of insulted that you are calling our cars ‘beaters.’
I haven’t read the whole thread, but my similar experience was buying S a 2001 F150 with 230000. Replaced engine within 10,000 miles. Not fun or economical.
That is why you have to look up the year, model etc and see that issues were present. Tons of stuff online for like every car and unhappy users. Gotta look past some of that and see if a certain year had electrical problems or gasket leaks etc. Just Google and it’s there on every me
Model /year car our there. Many user forums etc
My Toyota van was a 1999 and in pretty good shape with only 130,000 miles on it when I sold it to my mechanic’s niece When I bought my new hybrid Prius prime.
We had very few problems with the van, which I had bought new and highly recommend. On the other hand, we never liked the Honda Accord which we had for a few years.
H had/has a Volvo. It really was costly to maintain and get parts. The lightbulbs for the rear lights are frequently burning out (many times/yr). Still H loves it and we gave a good mechanic who keeps his 1998 Volvo S70 running well with under 140,000 miles on it.
I’d stick with Toyota or Honda for reliable, inexpensive cars and he sure to have it checked over. Sounds like Midas or a mechanic you trust could do that.
March 2020 is when the car shows up as listed for sale (in PA). That’s the start of the lockdown. My guess is the dealer was unloading cars for cheap or went out of business. They seller probably bought the car but then couldn’t sell it until lockdown was lifted. S will meet the guy tomorrow and test drive and get the story. I wish I could go with him and get a “read” on the situation myself. The CarFax reports shows the car getting regular maintenance and no gaps in registration or emissions testing.
@CMB625@sushiritto Thanks! I’ll do some more research on starter issues for this year and model.
@twoinanddone This car is not a “beater”. Originally the goal was “beater” car and S might still end up with beater, but right now he’s going to check out a newer Honda Accord with some oddities in its record. My original post has the list of (mostly) beater cars that were available and he was considering.
The search started on craigslist with me sending S links to review and then we picked out two top cars and he attempted to contact the owners. With him traveling and slow or zero response times by the owners, that just wasn’t working out. I also noticed a lot of ‘flippers’ selling cars. I decided to take over the initial search and contact the owners. I looked at OfferUp, but that was full of scammers and it took too much work to figure out who were regular private sellers. At that point I switched to Facebook Marketplace. At least there I could look at someone’s FB (public) and see if they were really locals selling their private car.
At this point, I decided to double the car budget in order to get S a better car. We (parents) would help him out so he could afford more. I quickly found two Subaru Outbacks that looked promising. As a long-time Outback owner, I knew a lot about these cars, their problems, and how they handle on rough roads and on snow. The top choice car was being sold by the original owner, a retired engineer. It had low miles and very good maintenance records. This car had been inspected by someone else who looked at it but who decided to get a new Subaru instead of used. The owner provided this inspection report.
I did the initial calls with the owner and talked with him over the car history and issues. Then I had S call to set up a test drive. S then called back, negotiated the price and bought the car! The seller spent the afternoon with S going over how to maintain the car (as I mentioned, retired engineer).
That turned out to be the easy part. With DMVs only doing appointments and having a big backlog, getting plates and registering is taking S a long time. But he’s slowly getting everything done and got himself set-up work to do at home while he waits for his temporary plates.
Thanks to all the parents who weighed in with advice and suggestions. I never imagined S would have to buy a car without me being there to help, and being able to bounce thoughts off parents from the NE was definitely helpful during the process.
YAY! So glad your S got a car that you and he are confident will get him around properly! It is such a relief when our kids have reliable transportation! I’m glad you weren’t scammed and didn’t have to deal with folks trying to rip you off–who needs the extra aggravation!!!
Details!!!.. What year, model, etc
I almost bought my daughter a used Suburu Outback from my mechanic. I drove it and it looked new but was a 2008. He fixed things like oil gaskets and other known Suburu issues and said it would outlast me
LOL. Plus I trust him. But my daughter came in from school too late and it sold the day before. Great leather and dashboard.
@Knowsstuff 2008 Subaru Outback 102k automatic, very clean and body in great shape. No rust (New England so that an issue). The 2001-2009 Subaru have head gasket issues and this one does not have any head gasket issues, yet. It will almost certainly as they all seem to by about 150k. We own a 2001 (269k) and 2017 (101k) Subaru Outbacks so I know this model well. They have their share of issues, but the handling in snow is so secure that they remain very popular among skiers.
My BIL had a 2005 Outback and loved it. Loved it to 250k miles, and then gave it to his son and bought…a 2005 Outback. It is a different color. I think this one is going on 250k and it might be time to upgrade to a 2008 or even a 2010. I don’t think he’ll ever buy a new one.
And my nephew graduated and though he should buy a new car. Nope. Moved 2000 miles away and is happy having his old car. He commutes about 10 miles per day (or did) and it is fine for that.
Nice. The one my mechanic had, had 160,000 for like $3500. Which is actually a few thousand below the going rate in Chicago.He told me it would go another 200,000 if I did basic upkeep. It looked like it was brand new and drove extremely well. I only hear good things about later model Suburu and can’t tell you how many of these are in my area both old and new. My area is lots of college kids becoming young professionals and they seem to never get rid of these cars… Lol.
@Knowsstuff S picked up his new/used Outback for $2500! It was listed for quite a bit more, but the seller was a very gregarious retired engineer who happened to have done the same sport as S (I did the initial contact so had talked with the seller on the phone). S is also considering majoring in engineering. When S (who can be shy) went to look at the car, I prepped him to open up a bit with the fellow and tell him about himself. S: “Mom, come on. He just wants to sell the car. He doesn’t want to hear about ME!!” Me: “You take my advice and he’ll give you a deal on that car.” And I was right! And he showed him how to do maintenance on it.
S also would have been tempted to get car insurance just online and not work with a local agent. But we have been with State Farm for 30 years so I got on the phone with a local agent and saved S a bit of money there too. His insurance is completely separate, but since he’s been on our insurance, all his discounts (good student, safe driver, driver’s ed, etc. etc) were moved over to his new State Farm insurance.
Sometimes us parents have to show the youngsters how it’s done… Lol… ?. Sounds like he got a great deal… Heh, maybe this guy has some connections for an internship next year… Never hurts to ask.
@liska21 - yay! Insurance agents, the good ones, know their s*. Happy driving to your son. Personal touch always helps. Mr. B sold our low miles, perfectly maintained Toyota Corolla to a young man… Mr. said he liked the guy, and therefore the guy got a good deal.