Hi everyone,
On my 97 Prelude (base) the Heater Control Panel will shut off completely for days. Then suddenly while I'm driving it will come on. When I say shut off, I mean the lights in vent control buttons do not light up and the fan does not work as the fan switch does not work. When the panel turns itself back on, everything works great. The A/C blows very cold and the entire system works perfectly. One day I hit a speed bump and it turned on so I thought it was a loose connection or something. I've checked the fuses under the dash and under the hood. I've pulled the panel out of the dash and checked the connections to the panel which seem tight and normal. With the engine running, I wiggled fuses and the wiring harness behind the panel to see if it helped, but it didn't make a difference. One other thing that may be important to the experts is that when the key is off, the light in the defrost button seems to illuminate. I've never noticed that before, but is that a key to the problem? The car has about 140K miles and everything works fine on the car. I just can't figure this thing out. Thanks in advance for your help.

PS: I've searched on this forum and cannot find a similar issue. Thanks.