I have a 2004 Accord EX, automatic 4 cyl. On my way home from work tonight, I started getting some strange behavior. It started with my radio turning off, then immediately back on. Then I noticed occasionally the guages would turn off (as if the car were off) and immediately back on. Then suddenly the car actually braked automatically, and fairly forcefully. The cruise control is off (in fact the cruise control switch failed about a month ago...I can press it and hold it down, but it won't stay engaged when I release). I had an oil change a couple week ago, and changed the front brake pads a month ago.

Any ideas what would explain all this bizarre behavior? Seems electrical in nature...

Thanks!
waterstw

 

A bad battery, alternator, or a problem with loose battery cables or the wiring to the alternator would be at the top of my list.

 

Thanks - I ended up getting a obd2 reader, code P0685. It lead me to some other forums and I found the problem. My positive battery terminal is badly corroded. I removed the clamp, cleaned it off real well and re-attached. The corrosion is bad enough I may need to replace the cable and clamp, but for now it has done the trick.

Thanks!

 

Make sure you put up a 100% battery charge on that battery and take it to say AutoZone and have them check out all the cells..

WheelBrokerAng

 

ok, so what's accounting for the "automatic" braking????

 

Corrosion leading to flaky voltages in the system, and (I'm GUESSING) that leads to your traction-control system applying the brakes. With more & more computer control in the cars, it becomes more & more important to have solid correct voltage in the system.

I never used to replace car batteries pro-actively. I would always wait until they fail, then make a run to the store to buy a new one. I'm getting more worried about that, so in the future I'll probably keep a better eye on batteries. The Saab boards (for newer Saabs) are full of stories about really strange behavior that (in the end) is fixed by replacing the battery.

 

that's true, bad connections and low system voltages can wreak all kinds of havoc on these systems...cars braking themselves, talk about unsafe.