Im new to the forum, I have a 2001 Honda Civic LX, stock radio, engine, no upgrades whatsoever, my problem is that I noticed the radio Losing power while driving for a few seconds then coming back on, this had been happening for a couple weeks, then while driving home I noticed the radio cutting out about every 5 mins and then all suddenly my engine lost power but didnt die, but had no power, I turned off the ignition and the car restarted right away with no problems... this so far has happened 2x in the couple weeks and both times the car started back up with no problem... i had the ignition checked and it was fine. I have about 75,000 miles on it and no major tune up yet, regular oil changes but no new sparkplugs or distributor cap / cables etc. could that be my problem or does it sound like something else? the battery connectors are pretty nasty too... I was going to disconnect and clean to see if that could be the problem also, alternator seems fine, or at least its recharging the battery. one more thing, someone said that my car smelled like gas when i started it up. so i checked it and it does smell a little like gasoline from tail pipe after starting but after running for about 5 mins it is gone.

 

Bad connections at the battery can definitely cause what you describe. Clean them up fully and loosen the nuts so you can push them all the way down on the battery terminals before tightening.

The gas smell is normal, engine is designed to run rich until it warms up.

 

First Clean the battery connections and that should fix the problem. If its your sparkplugs or wires you would notice misfires and excessive revving so im sure all thats fine but keep up with your car and do tune ups every so often.

 

Mk378, I Appreciate the quick response, I'll clean up the battery cables and see if i can reproduce the problem..or more hopefully it fixes the problem. I recently got my smog test done and it passed with no problems, a few people were saying the smog techs may have messed with my car or exchanged a part they needed for their own car and replaced it with their faulty part.... I doubt that was the case because the radio was cutting out before the smog..but the engine powerloss didnt happen until 2-days after the smog test.

Thanks again mk378. Ill let you know if the problem is fixed

thanks to you too 1995CivicEXBMF... will do

 

one other thing that is happening... before the car loses power I hear an electrical clicking sound from the dashboard. would the bad connection at the battery cause something to make that sound?

 

Yes.

It could also be a bad ignition switch (the key switch). I think there may be a recall on that car for the ignition switch.

 

Thanks again.. I had the ignition checked out and they said everything looks ok with that, this was a garage i trust up the street from me though not the Honda dealership. I will have them replace the battery cables this week when i have my oil changed to see if that fixes the problem... I just cleaned the battery cables myself, but they are pretty corroded and green/white.

 

thanks again everyone for the help.. it was my battery connections causing the problems. not a glitch since the oil change and battery service.