Request: how to move car with dead battery?

[sniper]

Battery died on me around Black Friday, the gf went to get something and (somehow turned/left something on, I'm guessing she put it in ON for whatever reason - could hear a faint hiss from the speakers when I tried to start the next morning). I ended up running to Costco (in different car) to buy a jump starter and jumped it. I have a messy garage and park front in, thankfully I had enough room to get the hood up and connect the jumper, but there must be a way to disengage the parking break and shift to neutral so I could roll back?

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[Mishka]

I'm not sure about the parking break but, to shift into neutral, look inside the center console a couple inches above the USB plug there will be a little plastic piece sticking out. If you take it out and shove a flat head screw driver in, you will be able to put the car into neutral.

 

[dc2turbo]

probably going to be easier to take the battery out of a car and jump the civic

 

[sniper]

probably going to be easier to take the battery out of a car and jump the civic

My concern is what if I can't access the hood/battery? or jumper cables wouldn't reach?

Luckily I didn't park too far up that I had some room to open hood and reach the bar to prop it open, but jumper cables definitely wouldn't have worked. I guess I could have called for roadside, but didn't think of it at the time, and now have a battery for future issues.

 

[dc2turbo]

My concern is what if I can't access the hood/battery? or jumper cables wouldn't reach?

Luckily I didn't park too far up that I had some room to open hood and reach the bar to prop it open, but jumper cables definitely wouldn't have worked. I guess I could have called for roadside, but didn't think of it at the time, and now have a battery for future issues.

take the battery out of your other car and place it in front of the civic. put the jumper cable on that battery and your civic to jump it

 

[tacthecat]

You can purchase extra long (and thicker gauge wire) jumper cables - I believe mine are 16 ft (5 m).
If you can't access hood or battery you're in trouble, unless you didn't use the parking brake, or have it in automatic.

 

[sniper]

You can purchase extra long (and thicker gauge wire) jumper cables - I believe mine are 16 ft (5 m).
If you can't access hood or battery you're in trouble, unless you didn't use the parking brake, or have it in automatic.

I always use the parking brake

I wonder if the jumper packs that plug into 12v would work, I feel it'll blow a fuse before jumping the vehicle.

 

[tacthecat]

12 volt Power Plug in dash is only active when ignition is in I or II. Guess you could hook up thru the under dash fuse-box but not sure which slot to use (VSA/ABS?) - to just release the Parking Brake - You'd fry lots of stuff if you tried to start it other than via the battery cables.

 

[dc2turbo]

I always use the parking brake

I wonder if the jumper packs that plug into 12v would work, I feel it'll blow a fuse before jumping the vehicle.

dude just take the battery out of your other car and use it to jump the civic.

 

[josby]

there must be a way to disengage the parking break and shift to neutral so I could roll back?

You can shift to neutral with no battery, but I don't think there's a way to release the brake. The owner's manual addresses this (page 451 in mine). If you need to release the parking brake and the battery is dead, it directs you to the page on jump starting the car.

I assume they didn't consider having a dead battery and also needing to move the car to jump it to be a common enough problem to bother designing a solution for it.

I wonder if the jumper packs that plug into 12v would work, I feel it'll blow a fuse before jumping the vehicle.

Yes, and if the fuse wasn't there to blow, the amount of current flowing through those little wires on the 12V socket would melt them into little puddles of liquid metal

The only solution I can think would be to call a towing company - particularly one that does residential parking lot monitoring. Those guys have to tow cars out of tight spots in parking garages and such, so they have wheel dolleys and such that will let them move a car anywhere they want without disengaging its parking brake.

 

[dc2turbo]

Luckily I didn't park too far up that I had some room to open hood and reach the bar to prop it open, but jumper cables definitely wouldn't have worked. I guess I could have called for roadside, but didn't think of it at the time, and now have a battery for future issues.

The only solution I can think would be to call a towing company - particularly one that does residential parking lot monitoring. Those guys have to tow cars out of tight spots in parking garages and such, so they have wheel dolleys and such that will let them move a car anywhere they want without disengaging its parking brake.

he doesnt need to call anyone since he said the hood is accessible. he just needs to take the battery out of another car and use it to jump it with the jumper cables. he could also just buy a jump pack at walmart or whatever they have in canada. jump the car with the jumppack then return it

heres a video on how to do it. the video has the ground on the chasis but you can just hook it up to the battery ground and be fine

 

[sniper]

he doesnt need to call anyone since he said the hood is accessible. he just needs to take the battery out of another car and use it to jump it with the jumper cables. he could also just buy a jump pack at walmart or whatever they have in canada. jump the car with the jumppack then return it

heres a video on how to do it. the video has the ground on the chasis but you can just hook it up to the battery ground and be fine

I guess I'll keep the lithium jumper pack I got from Costco. Weird there is no way to manually disengage the parking brake.

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