Hi everyone,

I own a Honda Civic 2009 DX-G which has been running great for the past two years. It has 90,000KM on it right now. I have always changed engine oil on time as I do drive it a lot.

In the past few months from time to time a really bad thing keeps happening to the car. If I drive it for a while and then park the car, turn it off, get out of the car and try to lock the car with remote it won't. So, I would go back to the car and try to turn it ON only to notice there is no lights and the car won't start. I doubt it's anything mechanical. It's most likely all electrical.

So, the problem is that the car looses electricity all over the car. I can't walk away from the car because it won't lock. I can't turn it on either. I can't turn on the radio, I can't turn on the lights. There is absolutely no sign of electricity.

Then I wait between 30 mins to 60 minutes and the car turns on. This has left me stranded over 10 times now.

2 months ago I took it to dealer and they told me they can do a diagnostic but they might not be able to tell what is wrong. Come back when it's behaving like that. This morning it happened again and I called a tow truck. It was towed to dealer and the dealer called telling me the car turns ON just fine and there are no engine lights on it. The tell me that even if they run a diagnostic they might not be able to tell the problem and still charge. What kind of crap is that? (excuse the language).

First, I was disappointed but now I am getting pissed off. There is gotta be some way to tell where the problem is or to replicate it. I can't do that because I haven't notice any specific pattern to it.

Has anyone heard of any issue like there here?

I greatly appreciate your feedback.

Thanks,

 

You can check some simple things yourself. You will need a basic voltmeter. Of course you will have to test while the car is dead-- if you test when it is working, you have the same problem the dealer did, the tests won't show anything wrong.

First test the battery itself to see if there is voltage from the battery. Put the probes right on the two lead posts that are part of the battery. It should be about 12.5 volts. If near zero volts, replace battery. Batteries can develop bad connections inside, so they are OK one minute and absolutely dead the next.

Finding the battery OK, next test on the metal terminals that are part of the car. If you have no voltage there, they aren't making good contact with the battery. That is common on all cars. Remove them from the battery, clean up any corrosion, and reconnect.

 

Thank you mk378 for the feedback. I really appreciate it.

I have decided to leave the car with dealer over night and reading TSBs myself right now and few other people noted short batteries from inside. Probably that's it but I am not sure.

So, I will use a voltmeter both on battery and the terminal cables connecting to the battery. If those tests prove to be good what is next? Where else should I test?

Since this is an intermittent issue, I want to cover all future steps I have to take.

Important Note: Last time this was happening I could reproduce something interesting. While the car was in drive, I would change my lights from dim to full and I would notice my radio go off and the audio deck would now asking me for the PIN code - behaving just as if power was lost to the car or as if battery was depleted. So, putting lights in full draws more power and this happened. However, based on a primitive understanding of car electronics that I have, a car in drive does not draw power from battery, am I not right? so this is probably not a battery issue at all? Maybe an alternator issue?

Thanks again.

 

When the battery is faulty or disconnected with the car running, you can get some nasty power surges from the alternator that reset the radio etc.

 

hhhmm.. so no consistency, it just does when it wants.

I would suspect the battery cable, either negative or positive side is faulty.

 

So, is the terminal cable something I can change myself? Or is there any way I can test it without waiting for the problem to happen again because it might leave me stranded in mid-down-town Toronto again.

Because if I am in rush I have to again leave car (with doors open) and hope no one steals items inside the car :-)

P.S. Would an OBD II meter show me what might have happened (read the history) for this morning?

Thanks again guys

 

You can change the cable yourself, many auto parts store will carry this items. Basically just trace the cables (negative & positive) on your car with the new cables.

The scanner will tell you something if your engine light is on.

 

The only way to pinpoint this problem would be to get under the hood with a voltmeter when it happens. An OBD scan will not show anything related to the overall power system. If you want to do something pre-emptive to try to avoid getting stranded, try redoing the connections at the battery terminals. Inspect the wire from battery (-) to the frame and engine grounds to make sure those connections are also clean and tight. The cables and stuff would be under the 3/36 new car warranty but the battery itself has a separate warranty that isn't very good-- if you need a new battery you are probably better off just buying it yourself.

 

Thanks again MK378. I didn't know the wires are under warranty.

When I pick up the car later today I will trace the (-) terminal wire and see where it goes - I guess attaches to a bolt which in turn is attached to the body and also branched to the engine?!

How do I check the ECM/PCM is grounded and that all other components that should be grounded are grounded? I mean using a voltmeter? Just do a continuity test?

Thanks again.

 

Grabbed my car from Honda yesterday after they told me it could be the battery as it's at 350ccal. Paid them $115 and took the car home. They also did an AVR test and apparently it passed.

Today the engine light came ON and I quikcly bought an OBD 2 reader. Just connected it and here is what I get:

P0685
ECM/PCM Power Relay Control Circuit/Open

P.S. Dealer also said I have to clean corroded terminal cables and ground cables. Can someone please tell me where the ground cables are? They told me there is like 5 locations. Also, when I clean them do I need to grease them after?

Thanks