I am having a strange electrical system problem on my 2001 Honda Accord EX. 2 weeks ago I plugged an inverter to the power outlet and did a stupid thing. I ran my wife's hair dryer. In a few seconds, the fuse blew and so did the hair dryer. I traced the fuse to the right side front door. I replaced the original 20A fuse with a spare 15A fuse. Everything worked fine after that.

THen the strange problem started. While I am driving, all the lights on instrument panel light up and all the power even engine power is lost. I brake and come to a standstill. Ignition off, open the driver door and after a few seconds close the door and ignition on again. It starts and drives like usual. It happened first on the Memorial day long weekend. I thought it would be a one time exception. I drove about 400 to 500 miles after this incident.

It happened today again. When i was driving at about 20 to 30mph. I did the same procedure (ignition off & on and it works). I want to get this resolved for safety and peace of mind.

I still have the 15A fuse in place of 20A in the power outlet fuse.

Apart from this incident, my car has never given me any problem. I always service it at the dealer and have 87K miles on it.

Any ideas? or possible solutions? All help is greatly appreciated.

 

I'd start by looking at the connectors around the fuse and make sure everything is hooked up solid. Also in the engine bay is your main relay, make sure that those wires have a good connection... try swapping out that fuse just to be sure....

Also, is there any consitency when it happens? I.E. the car is always warm, hot day etc... A/C on things like that

 

could be the ignition switch..........

due to the possible severity of a potential accident i would have this issue checked out ASAP..

 

there is absolutely no consistency in when this happens.

after it occured the second time, i tried to trigger it when I was driving. I switched on the ac with fan on 3 switch. I also swithced on the seat massager which is plugged to the power outlet.

I am really a novice with car stuff. I was thinking that if the car starts and run 500miles+ after that it should be OK. But now I am concerned.

Also, if i go to the dealer, i am afraid that he will end up charging me for inspection but not be able to find the problem.

I noticed that I started getting the 6 beeps after you turn the key to acc before ignition on.

I still have the battery that came with the vehicle. I have not changed it. It is more that 5 1/2 years old but the car starts first shot even in dead winter. Do you think the battery could have something to do with it?

 

it might be your alternator... you mentioned that the dashboard lights went off and then the engine bogged down? Is that correct? take the car down to like autozone and have them test the alternator/battery (for starters)..

 

does car have a non factory anti theft system ??

 

The ELD will cause this problem if you are drawing too much current. Do you have aftermarket blue lights installed?

 

btw, i appreciate all the help & feedback i am getting from fellow accord lovers..

I have NOT installed ANY third party accessories. NO aftermarket blue lights. NO non factory anti theft system. The only thing I have is the seat massager which i rarely use.

one clarification to sir_nasty's comment "you mentioned that the dashboard lights went off and then the engine bogged down?"

Under normal conditions, if i am going at 20 to 30 mph, the engine revs at about 1500 rpm. When that specific condition occurs, all the lights on the instrument panel LIGHT UP. The rpm indicator drops to 0 and also the speedometer to 0. I feel no power when I press the gas pedal. The engine stops running at this point. I always can put my hazard lights on.

Some time back (few months ago), I had the dealer perform the recall on the ignition switch.

 

i just now replaced the 15A with the original 20A fuse.

i also had been to autozone. they wanted me to take the battery and alternator out for testing. i could have managed the battery but i don't know anything about the alternator.

 

I am happy to report that the problem has not reoccured in the last 30 days. I have put more than 1000+ miles on the car. I hope it will not reoccur and am going to leave it at that.

Thanks a lot guys for all the help in this matter. This has been a very informative and general knowledge building event.