I've been having intermittent power interruptions in the Civic. It's happened twice. I'll go to start it, and it will crank for half a second, then lose all electrical power. A jiggle of the battery connection fixes it. Also, the battery felt weak when starting the car. I figured it was a combination of poor connection, and a weak battery. So, on Friday I went and bought a new battery. I replaced it in the parking lot of the battery store, and wire brushed the cable connections at the same time. I figured that would solve the problem, but then it went and did it again that afternoon. Sh!t!!
Yesterday I took the cable connections completely apart and went at them with my wire brush and some sand paper. I got all the corrosion off, and got it down to bare copper. That fixed it. The car starts nice and strong now. I guess it turns out I didn't need a new battery. That's $89.50 wasted, doh! Oh well, I'm reasoning it might have needed a battery in a year or two anyway, so I guess I'm ahead of that now.
The trials and tribulations of an older car. Up next, once it warms up, will be to deep clean the interior of the car. A deep vacuum and shampoo to get rid of all the grot from 12 years of people and pets.