So we were up in NJ this weekend, and my wife's aunt has a 2013 Honda CRV. The battery was dead, they had jumped it several times but it always died again and would need to be jumped again. Battery is original, so I went to AutoZone and bought a new battery and changed it, but afterwards the car would turn over, and rev up once and die. It would do that 2-3 times until it of course discharged the battery and needed to be jumped again. Jumped the new battery, same thing.

So, I called the roadside through my AMEX card and they came with a jump box, and it fired right up, no problem. I drove it around some, drove fine. Brought it back to the house and shut it down and started it again, fired up just fine. Let it idle for 15 minutes and shut it off for the night.

Next morning, I went out and started it again and it did the same thing, turned over, reved up once and immediately died. Tried another time and same thing. So, I called AMEX back and had them send a tow truck for it. When the tow truck driver got there about an hour later, it fired right up with no jump box. When we got to the dealership, it fired up again on the truck and he backed it right off. Very odd.

Any thoughts? My first thought was the ECM lost the idle settings and when it sat there it rebooted from some failsafe or something, but now I don't know what to think. I'd say alternator, but typically in my experience they don't just start and die like that. All the lights and instruments and accessories are on good and strong, no fading. Fuel pump maybe?