Electrical Problems....possibly battery going bad?

[Accord Euro-R]

Hey all,
I am hoping this is just the battery slowing crapping out on me and not something more serious but for the past 2 months, when I attempt to turn my car on the whole thing will just die.  Something like this when I turn the key:
1 (Radio only) - Fine
2 (All electrical systems) - Fine
3 (Actual ignition) - Entire car goes dead

When this happens, I simply have to get out, pop my hood, and barely even TOUCH the ground terminal on my battery and everything pops right back on.  Granted my radio needs the code entered and such but any idea what the problem could be? This also happens very rarely when I use my security system.  i hit the button and the entire car goes dead.  Some other information: When the car does start on the first try....all the lights and gauges go very dim or shut off until the car actually starts, and when the car is running in hot weather my Idle RPM is near zero and sometimes it actually feels like the engine could shut off.  It has gotten to the point of a major annoyance and I am just wondering what it could be? Finally time to get my Optima battery or is it something more serious? 

[Mike]

Stupid question but, are your terminals tight and clean. I'd look at the grounds that you negative battery terminal goes to. The fact that barely touching that terminal fixes it all leads me to believe that might be the first place to check.

[CYANiDE]

Check for corrosion, remove the connectors and lube with some battery grease or w/e they call it from the auto store, or you can just use vaseline.

Get your battery tested at your local auto store and report back.

[InFuMoUs]

Ya I agree with what Mike and Eric have said...check ya ground and get ya battery tested at autozone. Also dont forget to check ya alternator too. It might not be fully charging ya battery to provide enough volts for the starter to turn over.

[Mike]

I think the alternator is okay. From the post it sounds like its fine once its running

[cna]

yup just check grounds i had my car turn off and on, on me due to a lose ground while driving  on a bridge scary as hell my main ground got lose from the terminal radio would flicker on and off as well so make sure every thing is tight

[timot_one]

  

Checking the battery terminals and the grounds is a good place to start before you drop the coin on a piece of shit Optima.

[InFuMoUs]

I think the alternator is okay. From the post it sounds like its fine once its running

Ya I realized it couldnt be the alternator unless there was a battery symbol lit on the dash. Most likely culprit would be the grounding cuz I've had that same problem before where my car wouldnt start cuz my battery terminal wasnt on tight enough.

[Accord Euro-R]

UPDATE: It was the ring clip on the end of the grounding wire.  It was bent and therefore constantly loose, which caused to shorts and ground-outs.  So I replaced it and everything was working fine.  Had the battery tested as well and while it is on its way out (OEM battery and 112k on the car) its still running fine for now.

[timot_one]

Technically, you had an intermittent open due to a poor connection.