For starters, I'm at work. I don't have the ability to contact a mechanic or get my car towed to one right now, so I figured I'd ask up here. I drive an 01 Honda Civic. I had just got gas and was heading back to work when my car sputtered and died. No weird sounds, no nothing. It just died. The battery's charge is fine. I'm about 300 miles over for an oil change, and all the levels are just fine. If I try to restart my car, it loses power quickly. The engine will stop moving, but all other power is on. Anyone have any ideas? I'll be checking this again in an hour or two and hopefully be leaving to fix it/get it fixed a few after. Thanks y'all!
Any more details? Has this been happening to you a lot or did it just start? Let me ask you this as well, when you turned on your car did it stay on a few seconds and perhaps idle between 250-750 RPM? By any chance did it start working normal again after a few minutes?
Don't know -- I got it into a parking lot and ran back to work. I was on my lunch break at the time. This is the first time it's just happened. It stopped a couple of times -- it never started working normally again, but I'll try again in a few hours. I pumped regular unleaded gas at a shell station -- there's no diesel at the station in which I refueled.
I'm no expert with cars.. but doesn't an alternator have to do with charging the battery? He said no problems with power... so it can't really be that.
I been doing a lot of research on my car. My problem is a lot more random. I have some days that my car won't want to give me a normal start a few times in a row, but then it starts working again like normal for a few more months until the problem happens again. Mines would get good crank power as well so I knew it had nothing to do with Alternator nor the Battery. I recently called Honda (I have a 99 Accord) since I knew they had ignition switch recalls but that has already been done by the previous owner. I think mine has to do with the Main Relay (Fuel Pump Relay) and I'm going to switch that out. http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/mainrelayoperation/index.html That's how the main relay works. Try researching a bit and maybe you might be having the same problem as I am. The part is cheap (mines cost $30) but it seems a lot of Honda's do this during the summer due to the hot weather. The main relay is located under the dash on the driver side I believe. Just keep checking it out, maybe it isn't this but I'll go ahead and put a suggestion out there for you.
Could be a failing fuel pump, or other part of the fuel delivery system. Ignition, starter, battery, alternator all sound like they're working.
check the wires that are connected to your alternator. bad wiring (due to oil leakage or just old age in general) can cause a malfunction like that.
First thing that came to mind when I read the original post was fuel pump and I see a few members came to a similar conclusion. Fuel pump it is.
Possibly not. We got it home. We definitely think it's a fuel system issue, but my dad and I have a couple of different thoughts on that. He thinks it might be my fuel filter -- it may have sucked some sludge from the gas tank. We dumped some fuel injector clearner in it and got it all the way home. The car is still quite weak, and when I tried to drive it around a parking lot later, I couldn't top 30. I'm thinking it could (but God forbid) be the catalytic converter. It was glowing red when we were revving the engine. I looked it up, and apparently it means it was smitten by an angry Zeus. That's bad. Of course, it has a heat shield around it. And it could be distressed due to other things. I'll let y'all know what the problem is when I figure it out Monday or Tuesday. Thanks for all the help, y'all.
