2007 Civic LX, 60k miles.
Had a battery replaced.

Background:
I had not had any issues with the car or battery up to this point. Battery died the day before. Had it checked, they said yeah, it's dead. Put in a new one.

Left the garage and after about 5 min on side streets and 5 min on the freeway - in the fast lane at 55-60mph - the car just shut down! As if someone turned the key off.

At great risk I got over to the shoulder and then restarted the car. No problem. Started right up.

Pulled off at the next exit, looked under the hood to check that the battery connections were tight, nothing I could see was loose. Seemed fine.

Drove on to work, carefully, with quite a bit of trepidation being the freeway was crowded the whole way.

I took it back to the garage and told them what happened. They checked the alternator and battery, said there is nothing wrong. I asked for any explanation, he could only guess that "maybe the car computer reset itself". I said, "While DRIVING?!" He said it could happen. I said "Why would it happen after just having the battery replaced?" He had no explanation.

That was 3 days ago. I have driven to and from work (22mi) and to and from lunch and a couple other short trips since then, no problem.

I am now not secure in driving my car. I am afraid it will happen again.

What should I do next in terms of diagnosis? Note that I am not rich so don't want to just start buying new this and new that but will I guess if I have to.

I read some old posts on the web about this happening with other models of cars and there seems to be no consensus as to what causes it. In many cases they were told to replace the ignition or distributor etc but that did NOT fix the problem.

I'll accept any theories.
And thanks in advance for all ideas and suggestions!

 

maybe a bad ground wire check all the grounds.

 

I did notice the battery negative terminal wire lacked some taping/cover around it near the point of connection. Could that be the problem?

Where else would I look? I'm not a mechanic. Don't know where else ground wires would be found, sorry.

 

Okay. I called around, talked to Honda Dealer mechanics, talked to Pep Boys who originally changed the battery that seemed to have led to the problem, and etc. and got all different answers. One said "do an engine diagnostic", another said "Do a charging system diagnostic" and others said "We have no idea, we'll have to look at it."

Three different mechanics - including at Pep Boys - did say "It could be that the engine computer reset itself."

Anyway I took it in to a local garage and he hooked it up to a diagnostic tool and said there's nothing giving an error code. He then looked at the battery cables and so on and said everything looks fine. He said it's almost certain that the engine reset itself and now that it has done that I should have no more similar problems. He said if I did, to bring it back in.

So having been told by several people that the computer resetting itself is the problem I do believe it is, especially since Pep Boys also checked the alternator and charging system and found no problem, it starts up easily and readily and has a new battery.

But here's a Bonus Question for anyone who wants to answer:

So let's say I do change a battery myself in the future and that causes the engine computer to need to be reset.

HOW DO I MAKE IT RESET SO IT DOES NOT RESET AT A RANDOM TIME LIKE WHILE I'M DRIVING ON THE FREEWAY AT 55MPH SURROUNDED BY CARS?

Or do I just need to take it to a mechanic who resets it? If so how much does that cost on average?

 

i have never heard of a car shutting itself down to reset the computer. when you disconnect the battery for a certain period of time the computer resets then it slowly re-learns while you drive. you can perform a re-learn procedure but that just helps the ecu to learn everything faster either way the ecu should never shut the car down while driving unless it somehow gets fried and fails completely
.
ecu re-learn procedure as from the honda manual.
1. drive car til its warmed up.
2. turn car off, disconnect battery or pull FI ECU fuse out.
3. put fuse back, start car, close hood
4. make sure all accessories are off, do not press any gas or brake
5. just let the car idle for 10 mins by itself
6. turn car off, then back on, and go for a drive like you normally do. it will take usually one tank of gas to completely relearn the fuel trims.

 

Thanks for the info on how to reset it should I need to at some point!

I had never heard of it either and some other mechanics have never heard of it but SOME HAVE heard of it and 3 told me they are pretty sure that's what happened to me.

Almost has to be, because I had the charging system checked, it's a new battery, no loose wires, and the car has started and run perfectly since that day almost a week ago.

 

This sounds really bizarre. Please let us know if anything happens again. I have trouble believing this could happen because a simply changing the car's battery would mean this would happen more often and we'd hear about it, as people change the battery all the time, and if it does really happen, shouldn't the mechanic have a procedure in check to prevent it from happening on the road in a dangerous situation?

 

Nothing has happened since the engine reset (presumably).
This is exactly what the mechanic told me - that it should be reset by the mechanic before they give the car back to you.
When I had the battery changed this was not an issue as they used a "backup generator" or some such machine to keep the cars electrical system ON while they changed the battery.

However what they did not know is that I had turned the electrical system OFF when I had jumped the battery the night before.

I admit it sounds bizarre and I had trouble believing it but the mechanic who told me about it (and several suggested it could be the case) said that he knew about it and that it does happen. He said it with confidence and he was obviously a veteran mechanic, not a newbie.

Take it with a grain of salt but consider it seems to be true in this case as I have had no further issues with the car since then. I WILL post here and notify you all that it happened again IF it happens again so you'll know this was NOT the case.

Until then I am assuming it IS the case that the engine computer reset itself while I was driving.

 

yeah but like i said before as soon as a battery is hooked back up its already reset and it only resets the throttle and fuel trims associated with the throttle. you only need to reset the ecu when you clean or replace the throttle body.

 

Well nothing has happened since that one time...
Do you have any explanation, since the charging system, grounds and computer error reporting etc were all checked and showed no problem?
I am sending a letter to Honda. My theory is that this is an anomaly and a class action lawsuit waiting to happen based on some kind of bug in the computer.