civic_driver

Hey,

I was driving down the street and the car suddenly died. The dash lights went off and the motor died. The radio kept working though. I thought it might be the alternator but the radio was working while the dash lights and the motor died. What do you think caused this? Could it be the ignition switch?

I turned off the car with the key and then when I turned it on everything lighted up again and the car started right up.

This is a 99 Civic DX-V.

Pothole987

I would say that has to be a bad ignition

civic_driver

Anyone else with more ideas?

Former User

I would also guess a faulty ignition switch.

civic_driver

Yeah, I was thinking it might be the ignition switch; the weird thing is that the radio continued working while the dash lights went off. It's weird because if it was the ignition switch, the radio should've stopped working as well, right?

r1lsr

my rsx has the same problem, the on switch wasn't working for some reason. Dealer couldn't find the problem, so I replaced the switch and problem went away for about a few weeks, then it happened again. So, I'm thinking you got a power surge that is buring out your switches somewhere. I heard on the Acura TL's, they got a massive recall on the ignition switch. So, I'm just guessing Honda has been making bad switches.

civic_driver

I think I had a similar problem when I had my first 95 Civic long time ago and the ignition switch was the problem. Just can't remember if my radio kept working or everything was out when it happened.

civic_driver

I just searched and found a recall on the ignition switch on this particular car. I guess I will have it replaced under the recall and see if the car still stalls.

r1lsr

yeah, my rsx is still crappin out on me, it is really frequent when my turning signals are on. It even dies when the car isn't started. I would leave it on the on position with the wipers, turn signals, lights, etc. on and it would die for maybe 5 minutes then power back up. Do you guys think it could be the fuse box?

civic_driver

It's possible. Sounds like an intermittent connection, most likely one of the main cables (power/ground). It could also be a problem with the ignition switch itself--a loose wire somewhere.

r1lsr

I'm gonna go through and recheck and reconnect every single wire this weekend. I'll let you guys know what happens because just recently my girls dad's friend came and looked at and said that the stereo was hooked up wrong. So he rewired that and said that the car is fine now, but I still don't believe it because the stereo cannot burn out the signals or ignition switch, can it?

r1lsr

The car hasn't died since, I don't know who hooked up the stereo because I am the 3rd owner, but whoever they are needs to quit wiring stereos.

civic_driver

Good to hear it's fixed now