i have a honda 98 civic lx, and recently it has developed a troublesome problem. I will be driving down the road, and suddenly the engine turns itself off, along with no turn signals, no radio, everything shuts off. when i return the key in the ignition, everything is back on and working fine. It happened about 4 months ago, and then maybe 3 or 4 other times during that 4 months. However, this past week or two, it has become more frequent, with only one new noticable symptom. The radio started acting strange turning itself on and off randomly. The second time the radio did this, the car shut down, the first time the radio acted up, nothing else occured. Any ideas? It doesnt seem to matter if the car is cold or hot, it has mostly only happened in town, but a few days ago, it happened on the freeway, and that freaked me out. I am a new member of your forum, and any help you can give me is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

When it shuts down don't touch the key before checking the headlights, dome light, horn, etc-- stuff that does not depend on the key being on.

If everything electric is dead, it's probably a bad connection at the battery or in the underhood fuse box. If only the key operated stuff it's probably the ignition switch (the main switch that the key turns). There was a recall on the switches for doing what you describe.

 

Thank you so much for the info. I will definitely check it out, and let you know the out come. Fortunately it did not do it to me today while driving to work.

 

so my car finally shut down today while driving down the road. I checked the horn before touching the key and yes the horn still worked, even though the motor had shut off.
So does this mean that it is probably the ignition switch? If so, how do i go about getting that repaired?
Thanks again for your help

 

If it shuts down and takes awhile to start back up its the main relay. It's a common problem with Hondas. Cheap and easy to fix.

 

so i did this, and the horn works fine so that means it is the ignition switch? How do i go about getting that repaired/replaced? U had said there was a recall on the switch?