Hoping for a point in the right direction.

My 2004 2.0l petrol Accord isn’t cranking over.

The dash lights up, except for the battery light. No clicking from the starter, lights just dip went I turn the key.

Car has started fine until this, which seems strange that the fault has came on quickly.

Wonders over, sucks air through teeth, wonders off.

I’ve not been any help, sorry.

I did see a good film the other day, the name of which escapes me.

Do you have a multi-meter?

How old is the battery?

Hopefully it’s just a flat/dud battery although could be a fuse or relay in the starter circuit.

I do have a multimeter, but not the knowledge in how to use it! 😳

The battery doesn’t look very new. I’ve had the car a couple of years now and it’s not had a battery in that time.

Sounds like the same symptoms that various cars of mine have had with a flat battery. Now the cause of that flat battery…

You could try putting the car in gear and rocking it backwards amd forwards to clear a jammed starter motor but as you say normally you’d hear a click. Jump start, if it does them definitely battery imo.

If the lights are dipping I’d assume it’s trying to send power to the starter, but doesn’t have enough to turn it over, so hopefully just a dead battery rather than a problem in the chain.

I had a similar issue with an old car which came on suddenly and turned out to be a dead cell, came with a lovely smell of rotten eggs from under the bonnet.

Alternator on the blink, so your battery has discharged.

if the lights come on full but the starter wont then the two most likely causes are
1. Earth lead not properly connected so the battery cannot dump the cranking amps required for starter
2. Battery is flat so wont turn over battery

For one check the black lead on battery

for two put a volt meter with red to + and black to – whilst set to DC volts and read current – should be about 12.7

if 2 a number of causes ranging from dud battery, faulty alternator, short somewhere draining power etc

Battery is showing 7.5v

Hopefully it’s just a sudden failure rather than something else has drained it.

One of the central locking actuators is a bit dodgy but it’s been like that for ages.

Thanks for all the help guys.

Well it turns out that if you leave the rear interior light on for around 30 hours it’s enough to flatten the battery 😳

But at least I’m a little wiser in the use of a multimeter now.

It will,
or the glove box light!

My car’s fag lighter only works when the ignition is on. When we camp at our favourite place in Wales the mobile reception is so patchy that our phones lose their battery in no time at all because there’s no bigger drain than searching for a signal. So we switch on the car to give a bit of charge. And forget. Bump starting a BMW down a grassy slope to the cliff edge is not the wisest thing.
I got a little rechargeable mobile booster battery from Lidl for a fiver last week. I wonder if it works.