Sparky Jay? your opinion please? ... car starting badly.

Sparky Jay, may I ask?

I’ve noticed about your posts that, you give wise advice with engine diagnosis (among other things). May I ask your opinion (or anybody else’s who knows something)?

I have a 2005 Honda Pilot with 150,000 miles. The car runs good except, it is struggling lately with starting. To me, I thought the battery might be bad again. The car has the original starter and alternator. But the original battery was replaced at about ~80,000 miles.

I took the car to my local Honda dealership, and left it there for a whole day. As a result, the dealership is unsure about the problem. (The dealership graciously charged me only $15 for the effort, which I respect).

On that day, the dealership took the car, charged the battery, and hooked up some piece of equipment that looked like a pipeline detector. After reading the read-out of that device, the dealership said that:-- the battery is good but that the problem might be with the starter or alternator.

The dealership kept the car the rest of the day and (told me that it) drove the car around and stopped and started the car several times. But the starting problem did not reappear. The dealership said it could not confirm that (1) there was any problem, (2) there was indeed a problem, which was with the alternator, or (3) there was indeed a problem, whicht was with the starter.

The dealership discouraged me from paying it to replace either or both of the starter or alternator because the dealership just said that (1) to them the problem did not seem that bad, and (2) the cost was too high just to replace random parts when the diagnosis was not that accurate.

The dealership told me to drive car around until the problem got worse.

Nevertheless, my car continues to struggle to start like it has an under-charged battery.

(I think after my few recent long road trips the car restarts fine. But anymore, I do a lot of in town, short trip, driving.)

What do you think?

Bad cable or connection comes to mind. Might be worth a second opinion from a trusted independant shop. The starting/cranking system is pretty basic in that there are not alot of parts to fail or go bad. Battery, alternator and starter are all easy to check, ignition switch, wiring/relays and battery cables/connections are also on the list to be checked. Not sure why the dealer would say that the problem might be with the alternator or starter when both of those are easy to check out? Was any work done previous to you noticing this happening? The battery should be load tested and the starter tested for amp draw, alternator should be tested for correct voltage output and then go from there.

"The battery should be load tested and the starter tested for amp draw, alternator should be tested for correct voltage output and then go from there."

Thank you. Second opinion it'll be ... and from a trusted independent.

If the battery load tests fine and/or holds a charge, it's most likely that the starter is going out....drawing too many amps. Before pulling the starter to have it tested, make sure you have a good + and - cables and connections.
Another problem that will cause slow/erratic cranking I've seen albeit typically on older/rusted out vehicles is a bad engine to chassis ground. No need to find the OEM ground. Just hook up a new wire from the engine block, bracket, etc to the frame or chassis. Use a decent 10ga + wire. If that's the problem you're done.

Sparky Jay and Thrall are correct. My indedependent .. who I have always known was good but when I moved far away to a new house 2 years ago had not gone to since .. did several checks, and replaced the starter.

He said battery and alternator were good. But he also said something like, during one check, the starter drew 250 amps, when something like 135 might be more normal. Anyway, the problem seems solved.