My 1995 honda passport ran great until a couple of weeks ago. I moved to North Carolina, and it sat for a few days as I was unpacking. When I started it back up, sometimes when I hit the brake, the lights on the middle dash come on for a split second, then go off. Also, my winter and power drive buttons don’t work (anymore). As of yesterday, the lights didn’t come on when I hit the brake, but it started hesitating when I started to drive. I just started a job so I don’t have the money to get it fixed right away. Luckily, I don’t have to drive to work. Any ideas?
The weird combination of things acting up suggests to me a grounding problem someplace. You don’t really give any idea of how mechanically inclined or experienced you are so its hard to say whether you need a shop or not. Problems like this can turn out to be really simple or a complete PITA.
At the very least, you can easily clean your own battery terminals. I’ll bet Youtube probably has about 100 videos on it for doing this. Find a couple & then make a stop at an auto parts store for supplies. This is unlikely to clear things up but it surely can’t hurt.
Of course, the hesitation could be any number of unrelated things like old spark plugs/wires, filters, distributor/ignition coil problem, fuel pump issue… But any of those can also act up from an iffy ground connection.
I was told that some of the problem might be a bad battery cell. the battery has a 12/09 sticker on it (assuming thats the year it was put in) i’ve already had the starter replaced, and I’ve cleaned my battery connections. Oh old, old cars…
Most auto parts stores will load test your battery & alternator for free.
I don’t know a whole lot, definitely not enough to fix it myself. I just hope that if i drive it somewhere, it’ll make it back ;/