I drive a 2005 Honda Civic. Earlier this year (January or so) it started randomly completely dying either in traffic or right after I parked and shut the car off. The sequence of events are any mixture of the following:
-Heater/Airconditioner noticeably looses power then shuts off.
-Blinker will speed up then eventually shut off.
-Headlights will dim significantly then shut off.
-Radio/Clock completely shuts off.
-Wiper blades shut off.
At this point it I can normally make it to my destination or pull over (if I’m lucky), but once I turn the car off I can’t turn it back on. Occasionally, It’ll die in traffic, but before this happens I’ll notice a significant decrease in the ability to accelerate. If I try to turn the car back on, generally, the dials will sputter/shake, the dashboard lights will light up, and sometimes the the radio will work, but I can’t start the engine and sometimes it’s just dead. At this point I can wait anywhere from half an hour to several hours and it’ll generally restart, but will suffer the same issues. I can give it a lengthy jump and it’s generally good for another 200-400 miles or so.
It stopped doing this as the weather warmed up so I either figured it was somehow tied to my heater, colder weather, or it just fixed itself. Well, today it did it again (first time in probably 8-10 months). I haven’t been able to jump it yet to see what that might do, but I left it in the parking lot for about 45 minutes after it died and it started up when I returned. I was able to make it home before it died again and now it sits, in my garage, dead (save for sputtering dials, etc. when I try to start it up).
I have become quite familiar with the mechanic over this issue and he’s not been able to figure out the issue; mostly because when it’s jumped it runs fine and you can’t tell anything is wrong. We’ve ruled out the alternator and battery. I’m at a loss and beyond frustrated. Any help is appreciated.