Hi guys,

My car has been experiencing random electrical outages while driving. At first I thought it happened with bumps, but further observation leads me to believe it is just random.

There are several "levels" of outages. In the most serious case, everything blinks off, including the dash gauges, the navigation, and the radio. It blinks out for less than a second, and then comes back. The car does not lose power (I've been going at highway speeds before when this happens). Sometimes I wouldn't even know it happened except the radio cuts off and I look down the the gauges are dead.

The less serious outage happens only to the radio. The radio display panel bar will completely "reboot" and the music comes back after 3-5 seconds. It happens on both CD and XM.

The least serious outage is a quick interruption in the music only. The radio display does not turn off. It is just a quick half second cut in the sound.

The least serious outage can happen several times in a row.

All of the outages seem to have a spike where they happen in succession and then nothing for the rest of the trip. I drive a combined 1-2 hours a day and it does not happen that often although it does seem to happen at least once per day.


I can see this has the potential to become a pretty annoying problem to diagnose. I haven't taken it to the dealer yet. I will have to take in at some point, but I wanted to get some ideas first. I haven't checked the fuses yet.

Also, I have a 2005 RL with 102,xxx miles.

 

I would test the battery and make sure its good. If not, replace it. I would also check the battery connections. One could be loose and causing all these issues.

 

^^^^^Sounds like a battery issue. By the way, when did you last replace your battery?

 

Thanks for the response guys.

I suspected battery, but my battery is from April 2009. It is an Acura brand 100 month battery.

It did get fully discharged several months ago when a valet didn't know how to operate the key knob. But I jumped it, went home and hooked it up to a trickle charger, and haven't had a problem.



But I will go ahead and get the battery checked out soon. Couldn't hurt.