I too have a 2005 Santro Xing, and few months ago I was facing exactly same behavior. In the morning, it used to crank very slowly but would start for sure. But after driving for a few kilometers, if I'd try to crank her up, simply it wouldn't crank. It would only start after waiting for another 8-10 seconds.

For this, the mechanic asked me to replace my age-old battery and things went normal for a couple of months. Later the issue cropped up again.
This time the issue was with the starter motor. I can't recall the name exactly but they changed the brushes and the solenoid. The total cost of repair was around 1500 Rs.

In your case I'd suggest to check the battery first as it's quite old now.

Hope this helps!

Thanks guys for the quick responses! The Santro has done 85,000 km & the current battery was installed in October 2013. Started the car after 4-5 days today and she started with the first crank itself!

Got the battery checked today. The guy checked the water levels in the cells and checked the voltage also - all is well! No signs of leak either.

My car doesn't run too much - probably 6-7 k km yearly. I get her serviced once in 9-12 months. I've never had to top up oil in between services and never has the car given me any problems. Took her on a 1280 km round trip last week and she behaved extremely well!

Will get the starter motor checked if the problem persists. Scared to go to the A$S with this - they'll in all probability ask me to change the whole motor!

Try and locate an independent Car/Truck electrical mechanic/shop. They will check the starter and advise you of further action required. In general cleaning the commutator and the starter contacts does the job. In extreme cases the commutator may be changed if it is worn out beyond repair.

Facing a strange issue with 3rd gen Honda Jazz

About the car:
- Honda Jazz - ivtec S variant
- Less than 1.5 year old
- 15k km done
- Single owner
- Serviced on time and well maintained

Accessories / Modifications:
- Tire upsize (195/60R15 Michelin Primacy 3ST)
- Steel wheels swapped with Honda City Alloys
- Foot well lamp

Problem:
Car was behaving normal till this morning. After driving for about 10km, stopped at fuel station to refill the gas tank. Vehicle refused to crank (Meter lamps went off) when tried. Never faced any electrical issues in past and engine used to get life in a single crank earlier (till this morning)

We were in an assumption alternator should be the culprit and the entire electrical system (including the electronics part) was powered by battery and it drained now. Switched on the head lamps and meter lamps went off.

Push started the vehicle and engine got life in the very first try. Now switched on the headlamps, AC, power windows and everything worked fine. This confirms the alternator is working fine.

Next doubt was on battery. Checked for the water level and terminals, everything was perfect. Driven the vehicle for about 20 mins and everything seemed to be perfect. While parking we found the steering getting hard and EPS warning lamp flashing for a couple of seconds and disappeared, then EPS behaving normal and after few seconds the same issue cropped up.

Observation:
- At high speeds, everything is normal
- At slow speeds (or at idle) when we use EPS, it doesn't work intermittently and drains the battery (completely dead, even the central lock doesn't work)

Called the Road side assistance and they reached the location with a flat-bed in less than an hour. Vehicle is lifter to Capital Honda right now.

What could be the issue? Battery or something related to EPS?

Mods,
I couldn't find any dedicated thread on this subject, please merge with existing threads if any. Thanks

It may not be just an EPS fault. It could be flashing a warning light either due to low voltage or a fault in the motor. Get that checked.

My first suspicion is a faulty alternator rectifier/regulator which in turn does not deliver the power required by the car's electrical & charging systems.
Have the rectifier and regulator checked.

If the alternator checks out OK please have the battery bench charged and then load tested.

First step on a modern car, get it hooked up to a (Honda) specific OBD analyser. It looks like some sort of electrical or electronic problem. If the battery is ok, it good be as simple as some corroded terminals/connectors somewhere in all the electrics.

Good luck,

Jeroen

It could be the Alternator. However, something pretty similar happened in my last car - Swift VXi, and problem came out to be due to some ECU failure. Other than random Power steering failure, AC used to shut down intermediately and transmission + some other lights were going on and off randomly on the dashboard. It failed to crank twice, and both times I had to remove and reconnect battery terminals after which it started in single crank.

Sorry for the noob suggestion, have you checked the fuse box? There would be one in the engine compartment and one in the passenger compartment.

See if any of them have fuse off. I have my doubts on the fuses that control the instrumentation console, EPS and dome light.

PS: I may be wrong, please do correct me in case I'm.

Something related to wiring? Rat, maybe?

At high speeds you don't need much assistance from EPS anyway, so will be difficult to gauge whether it was working or not.

Keep us posted on the progress.

Thanks for the response and suggestions guys. We are yet to receive the feedback from A.S.S

Terminals were perfect and no corrosion or lose connections as well.

Tried this trick, but couldn't succeed

If it is a blown fuse, the symptoms / warnings should remain even when the engine is running. But we don't have any such issues when the engine is running. Cluster lamps go off only when we try to crank it (due to insufficient voltage from battery)

That's our biggest worry point. Keeping the fingers crossed until we get the diagnosis report from A.S.S

Just to be precise, it’s not just the battery connections. Although that’s where you would start. It’s really down to checking every electrical connection, connector, earth point, fuse, relais etc.

But again, if it’s something like that it will show up on a good OBD scanner

Good luck

Jeroen

With no doubts the so called experts figured out the footwell lamp installation being the cause of failure . Funny part is that they are still unable to find what actually is failed

Every part (battery, starter motor, harness, alternator, EPS, etc) when tested separately works like a charm and there is no error code on OBD. They claim this is the first weird case and trying to sort out with their experts team.

Guys, need urgent help.

Capital Honda claim engine ECU failed "MAY BE" because of rat bite (we are yet to see the actual vehicle / harness) and ECU failure is not covered under warranty. Got a quote of 30k (around 22k for ECU, 4.8k for battery and rest is unsure)

Can someone confirm if ECU is covered under warranty? (If we could able to prove there is no such rat bite)

As quoted earlier.

Warranty for ECU is manufacturer dependent. MS told me its and electrical part so warranty is only of one year (when it failed in my swift, although it was out of both the warranties - extended and default). A rat bite on harness, should actually lead to only harness cost, i don't understand why ECU will fail in this case.

On a side-note: A fellow Ecosport Owner's group member's car behaved same, and cause was rat bite, and ford charged only for wiring as ECU was completely intact. So you can perhaps, ask them to show rat bites, and first get only the wiring changed.

Rats are much more likely to chew the wiring so hopefully your ecu hasn't shorted out.

If it's actually gone rather than just the wiring and if your car is out of warranty though one way to go would be to source the ecu from a scrapped vehicle through some trusted source