Weird problem for my '06 TSX that developed this summer and has gotten worse as winter approaches:

So, you know the startup sequence of the instrument gauge cluster when you start your car? Switch key to the 'ON' position, and you get "Welcome" on the info screen and every gauge (oil temperature, tachometer, speedometer, and fuel) all go from minimum to the maximum position then back to the minimum, and settle on their current reading (e.g. the tach goes from 0 RPM to 8000 RPM to 0 RPM, and finally to idle at ~1250 RPM). Every modern car does, Acura or otherwise.

Well, my 2006 TSX does this when you start up the car, and then keeps doing it, randomly and frequently. It'll do it 5 times in a row. Then nothing for X minutes. Then does it 3 times. Then nothing for Y minutes. Then just once. It goes on and on until I've been driving the car for a significant amount of time (30-60 minutes) and then it does it very rarely, if at all. And now, as the temperature drops as winter sets in the Northeast US, its gotten quite a bit more frequent and seems to be correlated to the ambient temperature.

Its not that I lose power – if I'm playing music through the AUX, the stereo does not cut out – but rather the gauges somehow think I've started the car again. I replaced the negative battery cable because of the recall associated with more severe electrical malfunctions, but if there was any difference, it only seemed to happen more frequently with the new cable. The battery was replaced this spring; all the usual suspects have been investigated and ruled out.

So... help? Anybody else ever hear of such a thing?

 

have you replaced the positive cable? the one that goes to the fuse box?

 

There was a recall on the negative battery wiring? I'm not aware of this

 

my acuras do not do this at all.

my gauges do NOT go from 0-800 rpm or 0-160mph when first starting the car.