Q: My mom's 2004 Acura TL doesn't start quite often. She has had the battery replaced many times. Finally, last week when it happened again, she called AAA. The gentleman told her this was a common problem with her car and it is a factory defect. He said he's run into this problem countless times. However, Acura completely denies this and I have not been able to find anything on the web about it. Does anyone know anything about this and or how she should handle this? She only has 24,000 miles on the car and it is definitely not the battery.
A: I'd say it was a lot more likely a connection problem. Battery posts and connectors build up oxide which inhibits the flow of current. This can happen even though they are NOT corroded and look clean. Removing the cables, negative first, and using a wire brush on both the connectors and the battery posts will clear the problem. If you don't have a wire brush scrape them with a knife blade. The idea is to get them shiny bright. Replace the positive cable first then the negative and tighten securely. I have cleared more intermittent starting problems with this method than I even care to think about. This needs to be done as a preventive maintenance item once or twice a year.