Today driving to work my civic died several times, it drove my bonkers! I went home switched cars and got to work.



So i did a search and eric the car guy says that you should be able to wiggle the key and that may turn off the car. Well I asked my wife to try and she was not able to replicate the symptoms.


Lots of searches say to replace the ignition module, and Oreilly auto says it's 48 dollars for the part. I would like to know if there is a proper way to diagnose this so that if it is indeed the part I can fix it and be done with it. Sometimes the car fires up right away and sometimes I have to monkey around with it. It doesn't happen often but when it does... it does at the wrong time.


I've been spending a lot of money on this car lately and it's very frustrating.

 

Is the CEL on? Does it work? When the car dies, does it completely die (no dash or headlights), or does the engine die while everything else stays on? When it dies, will it restart immediately, or do you have to wait?

 

The CEL just came on 2 days ago. I have to get that scanned. When the car dies, it completely dies. It's like I'm driving and all the gauges drop to 0, Temp, MPH all of it. Almost like if you turned the key into the off position. It has never happened to me at night time so I cannot confirm the headlight remark.

I do not have to wait. I just have to crank it a few times, sometimes once, today was the worst. I literally cranked it around 10 times. Totally unacceptable.

 

You don't have to "get it scanned", you just need a paperclip. Do it yourself, and post the blink codes. If you aren't sure about the flashes, record it with a smartphone, upload it to youtube, and post it here.

https://honda-tech.com/honda-civic-d...lists-1901557/

 

This happened prior to the CEL coming on in the past.

I will work till the early hours and tomorrow there will be a shift change. I will attempt to take a good crack at it tomorrow.

Last time I don't know if you remember but I bought a sending unit to attempt to fix my broken fuel gauge and it never worked.

That's why I'm asking if there is a procedure to go through to validate the ignition switch.

I assume that's the key cylinder and all the other fun business??? If it is which wouldn't be horrible, I'm going to knock those stupid factory bolts out and install a bolt with a head that I can use a socket on to tighten.

 

Yes I agree diagnostics help to stop you from throwing money at the problem. But I have to add that back in 98, the civic WAS recalled for faulty ignition switches. They would cause your exact issue. BOOM! Nothing.. dead.. silence. Everything would just turn off. You're on the correct path in believing it is the ignition switch, it was a common issue.

 

Let me shed some light also. I have a thread somewhere explaining the exact same problem you were having. Under suggestion I replaced the ignition wiring with the OEM part straight from Honda and it hasn't happened once since. Now this has only been a week but my car was so bad it starting doing it multiple times everyday so it definitely seems like that solved the problem. I did mine in under an hour start to finish. It is not a hard job. Only pain is having to pull some of the old wires out of the plug and move it over to the new one. I would look up and see if the recall has been done cause they will still perform it for free or at least the local dealership here said they would but mine was already done.