New to the board and am requesting help to determine the issue on my Prelude. I have owned (3) of the 5th gen now and they all were mechanically flawless except this one. It has had multiple issues, but the one that is annoying is it dies randomly! There is no pattern to how it dies. Sometimes I am just driving at any speed and it completely dies. It has happened on the freeway, in my driveway just trying to start it. It will go sometimes several weeks without dying once and then all of a sudden several more dying multiple times per drive. The battery terminals are clean. I was thinking about checking ground wires through the wiring harness because one could be loose. What else should I be checking or replacing in order to correct this issue? I am writing because today it stranded me at numerous stoplights and I am just tired of being "that annoying guy", lol. Any help, advice, direction is greatly appreciated! Could it be as simple as a distributor?
New to the board and am requesting help to determine the issue on my Prelude. I have owned (3) of the 5th gen now and they all were mechanically flawless except this one. It has had multiple issues, but the one that is annoying is it dies randomly! There is no pattern to how it dies. Sometimes I am just driving at any speed and it completely dies. It has happened on the freeway, in my driveway just trying to start it. It will go sometimes several weeks without dying once and then all of a sudden several more dying multiple times per drive. The battery terminals are clean. I was thinking about checking ground wires through the wiring harness because one could be loose. What else should I be checking or replacing in order to correct this issue? I am writing because today it stranded me at numerous stoplights and I am just tired of being "that annoying guy", lol. Any help, advice, direction is greatly appreciated! Could it be as simple as a distributor?
wow dyeing on highway
that sound electrical check grounds
how did it die when driving just stopped or hesitated/missing?
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Yeah you really have to supply more information on the exact events of how it dies and how you get going again and how long it takes.
Details, but in a clear and precise manner.
Hi All,
Sorry, I suppose I was rather vague. Mechanically the car seems sound so when it dies, no hesitation, no stutter just an all out electrical cease. I have some mechanical inclination and have ruled out fuel related accessories to be the problem. It dies at all speeds, all gears. I should have informed: after it dies there seems to be a pattern for how long I must wait until it can be restarted. e.g. If I try and crank immediately after it will not work. I can crank it multiple times and it still wont work until something I guess resets it self. This "reset" session usually follows a duration of about 10-15 seconds, and then it can be restarted, but can die again within a mile if it wants too. Finally, you should be aware that the problem initially began following a bad snow where I traveled to a parking lot to perform brodies for like 2hours. I essentially fed the entire front end (under engine) a bunch of snow- and this is when it started. It is definitely what caused it because It never happened before this incident. Finally, Finally, sometimes (rare) the atts light will illuminate 8 seconds prior to it dying. This is my warning that it will die soon, but this only happens 2% of the time overall.
You can waste a bunch of time here reading someones best guess on what it could be or you could go get the HELM service manual and properly diagnose the problem so you aren't wasting time and money on parts you wont need.
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Yeah unfortunately it sounds as if all that snow instantly melted once it hit your hot engine and got water in bad places, causing a major short. I would guess something has pretty bad corrosion on it, and will only get worst. But that's just my shot in the dark theory.
At this point you either need to do your own electrical diagnoses, or take it to a professional.
check the ignition switch......whats your key look like? id also check the condiditon of the wireing on the underside. beyond that your prolly gonna have to use the manual.
Dealt with the same issue, didn't always want to start and when it did it would die on me driving down the road.
My best advice as this will NEED to happen eventually, replace the ignition switch. Do this now and don't regret it later.
The soldier burns up as they didn't use enough and the damn car died. Ran me like 50 bucks to replace and took me all of ten minutes. Hardest part after removing the steering wheel column plastic was reaching the rear phillips screw to remove the old ignition switch.
Trust me, do this first then see what happens. If it runs fine then just randomly dies on you without a sputter or choke, just *poof* shuts off, then this is it.
This happened to me once in a while especially on the rough/bumpy roads. One of most scary occasion was, I was on a high way going 75 mph w/ the full size truck behind me. Out of sudden, all the lights on the dash board blinking and the power was off as if I had turned off the key.
I learned later that, I had so many keys hanging on/attaching to my key chain, included the security remote control unit. And, as the car hit the bumpy road, the key chain was bouncing causing the faulty ignition switch to act as if the key was turned off...
As other forum members have suggested, for safety purpose, you should have the ignition switch replaced. And, while you are thinking about it, don't put any weight on your keychain, if you have any.
Dealt with the same issue, didn't always want to start and when it did it would die on me driving down the road.
My best advice as this will NEED to happen eventually, replace the ignition switch. Do this now and don't regret it later.
The soldier burns up as they didn't use enough and the damn car died. Ran me like 50 bucks to replace and took me all of ten minutes. Hardest part after removing the steering wheel column plastic was reaching the rear phillips screw to remove the old ignition switch.
Trust me, do this first then see what happens. If it runs fine then just randomly dies on you without a sputter or choke, just *poof* shuts off, then this is it.
Collective word seems to be leading towards ignition switch. Yours and other posters have described what is happening with my car. Really annoying and kinda embarrassing for the wife when she is in the car, lol. Thanks all, for the contribution, I will be replacing the ignition switch!
My girlfriends lude is doing the exact same thing, 97 SH 5spd...its starting to be a real pain in the a$$ ive bypassed the nuetral safety switch, same deal with the ATTS light coming on a few seconds before the car shuts down. I replaced the ignition switch tonight, drove it around for a few hours, still finicky about starting but it hasn't died yet
Thank you all for the input. I dealt with the issue for months and have finally replaced the ignition switch tonight after becoming stranded on highways. It appears this issue grows progressively worse (as a previous board member mentioned). It was $63 from the dealer and took 40 mins to install. Definitely worth a try and you guys are all great for helping me diagnose. Cheers.
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