Hello all. 2000 SSEi owner here. I was recently ill and out of commission for a solid 2 weeks so I didn't drive or start up my car at all in that period. When I was fine, I experienced an issue that I never ran into in 13 years of owning my SSEi.

Upon key insertion I get dim lights and a weird gridnig/gear noise behind the gauges, along with a hi-beam indicator blue light. Nothing appears on the DIC. Nothing happens when I try to start the car. No clicking or anything. I figured the battery must have gone down. IIRC I replaced it around March 2015.

I figured it was a low battery. Usually when I've had a low battery the lights wouldn't come on, but I never had an issue where the lights were barely dimmed with the noise behind the gauge panel etc. I disconnected the battery and left it over night just for measure.

Anyway I tried boosting the battery via under hood with the positive terminal near the fusebox, but nothing was happening. Took a multimeter and there was no voltage at all from the terminal. I had to jump by tapping the battery directly which I know is not suggested but I had no choice. The car cranked over and I drove it for a good while. DIC reported battery voltage around 14.5-14.8v when driving about. For a few weeks the car ran ok. I have been getting lots of Service Theft System errors but that's common when its cold this time of year.

Went to start it up tonight and the issue came back. Slightly dim lights, grinding noise behind the gauge panel that lasts for a few seconds, hi-beam indicator on etc. Radio worked, I can unlock/open trunk with the key fob. But nothing happens when I turn the key all the way to crank it over. Just don't know what the deal is. Checked the fuse box and nothing seems out of ordinary as far as I would know. The car ran fine 2 days ago and now its practically dead again.

It could be just a wonky battery that needs replacing. But before I spend $150 on a new one is there something obvious I am missing that I can look into. Im not that familiar with working on cars so perhaps Im just missing out on something obvious. Thanks for any suggestions.

Sounds like a bad battery.

I never have a ton of luck getting jumps/charging to occur correctly using the under hood battery hookups. Your best bet is just popping the rear seat and working directly there. A slow charge of the battery overnight would be your best bet to see if you can restore power. If it doesn't charge or if it doesn't hold a charge; replace it.

Welcome.

I believe you can remove the battery and take it to a local AutoZone, Advance, etc to have it bench tested. If all else fails, it kinda sounds like you may have a loose battery lead or ground somewhere. I'd double check under the rear seat cushion as Peter mentioned.

_________________
-Car Guy Carl
"Penelope" - 2003 SLE - 247k Miles
"Sydney" - 2000 Honda S2000 - 98k miles

So I jumped it again direct to battery and it started right up. It has been a solid 3 years since I replaced it so Im thinking its the battery. Given the holidays I'll take her in tomorrow to our battery shop and have it tested. Hopefully it'll still be covered under warranty but if not hopefully it'll only be battery issue and not something else. The The cables seem nice and well connected (it actually looks very clean when the back seat is removed).

Took it into the local battery place. It was indeed a defective battery. Bought it new back March 2016 so it was still well under warranty, so I'll be paying around $72 for a new one, but its on order so I have a loaner battery for now.