I was tooling up I-75 at about 75mph with the cruise control on, when suddenly the car slowed, my tach and speedometer needles dropped to zero and the maintenance and TCS lights started flashing.
I carefully started over to the right of the highway and put my flashers on... I'm not really certain if the engine died or not but as I was slowing carefully out of traffic the tach and speed needles jumped back up, and I was able to drove a couple of miles up to the next exit. The maintenance and TCS light stayed on, then the maintenance light went out.
I shut the car down, checked all my fluid levels and battery condition, started it back up--the TCS light was out now, too--and I drove the rest of an 800 mile trip with no trouble. What was that? It's almost as if the entire electrical system just shut down.
-JP

 

Gremlins? *shrugs*

Hopefully the dealership will know what to do.

 

I've had stuff like that in other cars - it was always the alternator. It starts to happen more and more frequently, and it's scary 'cause you lose all power in traffic.

 

Yeah i would not be tottaly OK with that happening to me... How fast did the car start to slow down? like you took your foot off the pedal or worse?

 

It was just like I took my foot off the pedal. I'm really not sure if the engine stopped running. I didn't try to accelerate until after the gauges came back up. I have to drive it 400+ miles again tomorrow, so I may find out the hard way what happened to it.
-JP

 

I had the same type of issue with one of my past Jeep Cherokees - its the alternator.

Get it checked out ASAP, in my instance I had the same type of issue thought it was a glich. About 3 days later the car totally died in the middle of the street (luckily down the street from my house) with no warning. Had to get it towed, the alternator replaced and the computer reset.

George

 

It`s better to make the time to get it checked out by the dealership near you , than getting stranded on the highway!
Good luck, may the force be with you!

 

wasnt the 99 recalled for some starter problems or something? it happened to my brothers 99. he would be driving and he wouldnt even notice when the car turned off... the radio (it was aftermarket) stayed on and when he looked at the needles and they all read zero he noticed. sometime he had to hold the key on the on position so that the car wouldnt turn off.

 

luvmy99:
It is the ignition switch recall that str8acura is talking about. I had mine done last year. Take your TL to the dealer to get this replaced if you haven't had this done already. It will be under warranty, so no cost to you.

 

I had an Audi that would do that about once a month. Shutting it off and restarting always corrected it. Re-booting?

 

Thanks for the advice, guys. I made it 475 miles round trip today with no problems (top speed of 105 on empty stretch of freeway). I'll call the dealership tomorrow about the ignition switch recall--I hope that's the answer!
-JP