My car (one owner, 254k miles) in the past 7 months has totally and randomly lost electrical power three times without warning. Then it does not want to start for several minutes. After the third time, I safely pulled over, got out and locked the doors and unlocked it with the key in the door. Hoped back in and it fired right up and off I went directly to the Honda dealer. They kept it for a week and could not find a problem or recreate it. At least hey didn’t charge me anything! I’m suspecting the immobilizer or ignition switch, but I hate throwing parts at it without knowing the root cause. I’m torn between parting it out due to the safety issue of it stopping in traffic or fixing it. Its not like I haven’t got my moneys worth out of it.
How do the terminals on your battery look? Are the connections to the Positive and Negative terminals tight at the battery (and is the ground connection to chassis also secure)?
Yes, all are clean and tight. Battery is about 4 years old. I even pulled the battery cables off while it was idling to see if the alternator kept up, which it did.
Don’t do that (again)!! The battery helps protect the rest of the electronics from voltage spikes from the alternator!! You’re lucky you didn’t fry something expensive…I’m glad the dealership didn’t charge you for a weeks worth of work. I would take it to a well recommended local independent mechanic and let them run a full diagnosis on it and see if they can figure it out before you part ways with it. I think that that’s going to be a better use of your money than just throwing parts at it
Never thought about the spikes. Thanks for the advise.