gah.

[mandolin]

My car's doing it again.

Hiccuped several times on the way home from work, then when I stopped at the light outside my apartment complex the engine shut off. I was prepared this time, and managed to put the car in park and restart the engine, but dammit, this isn't fair!

This is the same behavior that the guys at O'Donnell tried and failed to duplicate all day the last time it did this. The error codes it gives me when it hiccups do not come up on the records at all. I suppose I should be glad it didn't do it when I went and fetched Death from the airport this afternoon, but at least then I'd have a witness to corroborate this!

And I am not looking forward to being told "We can't find anything" again tomorrow. I know they're looking, I know they took it out for several diagnostic drives and checked everything they could think of the last time this happened. I wouldn't be so pissed off if a) I had a witness to this behavior and b) it wasn't doing this to me now, of all times, when I'm trying to work out the details of a mortgage.

The only common factors I can think of?

1) The hiccuping, at least, may have been triggered when I had to accelerate to get onto the expressway and get to the speed limit to avoid getting hit. But you know, I have a four-year-old Civic, it should be able to HANDLE getting up to 4000 rpm on rare occasions.
2) The heat. First time it did this, we were experiencing a heat wave. Second time, it was damn hot and I didn't have the AC on. Third time, the car had been sitting out unshaded in the 80-degree heat of the Celtic Festival that morning. Fourth time (Sunday), it was back up to the mid-eighties. Fifth time, I'd forgotten to put the sun shield on the windshield (which shouldn't be relevant here, but it was very warm and the car was out facing the sun all afternoon. This is not good, either, considering what Maryland summers tend to be like.

I got a Honda to avoid having to deal with inexplicable shit like this. And the car is only 4 years old and gets regular tune-ups, it's not like I just abuse it. This should not be happening.

*sigh*

Oh, and to whoever caused the fire department to have to come to our building yesterday AND today: Stop trying to burn the place down, we have enough to deal with as it is.

Comments

My car did this

[tptigger.livejournal.com]

They could never find it either. Though usually it did it when I was trying to park.

IIRC, it finally quit doing it after they fixed a loose throttle connection and replaced the air filter.

Not sure it'll help, but it's a place to start, no? :)

And *hugs*. I hate stuff like that. Annoying as all get out.

[marielogan.livejournal.com]

HmmmHmmmHmmm.... the heat. I have always driven a garbage can, and have had this trouble. Thus, the root of the cause might not be the same, but I suspect I can find a clue. Joe, the telecommunications technician whom I work with is also a very talented auto mechanic. He works on ALL our company vehicles when they need servicing. I'll ask him, and I'll ask Vern too. I'll get back to you with any tips I can muster.

[athersgeo.livejournal.com]

My mother's car did this for a time; turned out she had a cracked engine manifold (and it took her mechanics ages to find it, too). Now, whether that would be remotely relevant on an automatic, I don't know, but it might be a place to start.

Of course, so might the heat - could you have a problem with the cooling system?

*hugs*

[violetbloom.livejournal.com]

I hope they find it soon so this hiccuping doesn't effect you more seriously.

[jennies.livejournal.com]

Yikes and yowza.

Still, the heat may be a clue.

How old is your battery? Batteries sometimes get wonky in high heat, especially as they age, though that doesn't really account for the stalls while the engine is actually running. (Then again...isn't there a feedback loop or something that peps up the battery while the engine's running? Isn't that why, after a jump-start, you can just leave your engine running/drive around a bit, and not need to replace the battery b/c it'll have rebuilt its charge? And aren't there things that always run off the battery, even on non-hybrids?)

Changing modes of attack: might it be the electrical system overheating? I know engines stall when they get overheated, and computers blip in self-defense when their cooling fans/heat sinks don't keep things cool enough to avoid damaging the processor. As Kermie proved, radiators can develop microscopic holes and gradually lose coolant/oil without leaving puddles - then again, if there's a crack/loose/rotting hose in the ventilation system, a part of your car's highly computerized brain might be overheating. (A damaged hose/thingie doesn't have to be old; years of acidic road salt build-up, fender-benders, and/or mice chewing on things beneath the hood can all contribute to that. Or, sometimes mice chew on wires, which in turn develop shorts, which then lead to computer signals failing to reach monitoring/regulating systems. Though one would hope a diagnostic would reveal wire trouble, I'm fairly certain that wasn't the case when a mouse gnawed through Dad's Prelude's wires. Nothing but a tiny charred husk and an engine that sputtered and failed to start clued us in to trouble there...)

Then again, it could just be wires. Kermie's stereo likes to go completely and utterly dead for seconds/minutes during trips on exceptionally cold days, and I've noticed it tends to do this when a lot of my engine/battery's power is going to things like heat, lights, and wiper blades. (Like I'm tripping a circuit, only just the stereo fails, and usually only for a few beats...)

Ah well. Good luck getting it diagnosed. If you want, I can hit up the Honda message boards and see if anyone else has run into this sorta thing...

[marielogan.livejournal.com]

Yeppers. I talked to Joe... in different words, he's said pretty much the same thing as you. One thing I didn't ask him was the validity of taking the car to one of those computerized diagnosis centres (don't ask me the correct terminology, I've always driven crap). The centre where your car is basically given an MRI by a computer. Might be a good idea no?

[jennies.livejournal.com]

The centre where your car is basically given an MRI by a computer.

*has mental image of cars in hospital gowns sitting in a waiting room and being pushed around on gurneys*

...don't mind me, it's the fever talking...