if you look at my post (#10 above) you'll see the instructions that I followed which included no soldering or cutting of wires.

Either you are not talking about a 96-00 North American model civic or someone else messed with your ignition switch. Regardless, if yours had soldered wires, I cannot be of help.

 

I have a '99 Civic EX that was part of the original ignition switch recall. When I received the notice (maybe 2000 or 2001), I received the replacement at the dealership.

In the past year, my Civic has experienced:
1) key gets stuck in ignition
2) engine has been stopping, with no warning lights turning on.

My dad is a retired mechanic, with his diagnostic tools, he was able to isolate the problem to an ignition switch problem.

Today, I brought my Civic to the dealership, and they have replaced the ignition switch again, free of charge. (second time since I've owned it)!

So...if your car has been experiencing weird issues, this just might be the culprit.

 

They will only replace the switch once under the recall. If a previous owner already had it done, your car will not qualify for another one.

It could also be something else, such as bad connections at the battery or the fuse box causing the whole car to lose electric power. After it happens, does the radio reset to defaults? If it's a bad ignition switch, the radio will not be affected, but if it's a power loss under the hood, everything will reset.

 

@trf,

I experienced the same things with American Honda. But others here have apparently gotten the dealer to replace it free of charge. I could not afford to be away from my vehicle that long. My problem was also intermittent which made diagnosing it difficult.