It scared me! I have to reverse into a sloped drive way at my work. In order to do that, I have to pull out in front of three lanes of traffic and hurry and reverse. TODAY IT DIED AND THREE LANES OF CARS WERE COMING TOWARD ME! I was like SHIT. Luckily it started up and I smashed the gas. Yesterday this happened too. There are a few things to note :

It has been raining heavily
The last 2 weeks my performance has been a tad weaker and delayed
Sometimes when I barley press the gas it sputters ever so slightly. Might actually be because the gas is fairly punchy and its hard to do slight presses like that.
There was no air filter on the car when I bought it and they didn't notice it until a week later when I brought it back, then they replaced it and its fine.
Mileage 47,000
oil life remaining 50%
Recent modifications : two 10 inch subs and an amp properly wired and grounded and
Car stereo head unit..

1 accident reported before I bought the car. It has been running great so I do not see how that could have had anything to do with it, but I am not sure. Also, the idle was always very still and quiet, which I liked. Now I noticed a very tiny increase in idle shake. But to be honest that could be all in my head.

At first I thought that the sub install could be what caused that. But after calling several audio places and asking a close friend, they all said that it's highly unlikely.

So I want to see what my acurazine friends say. Your opinion is important. Let me know. Do I need to abandon ship and get something else before things start messing up? Is this the beginning of a string of problems, or is this car just like any other Acura, rock solid?

 

I'm leaning towards your battery. It may be exhausted from the stereo.

What rms wattage is your amp? If it's a high wattage amp, let's say over 1000 watts, youre going to be dipping into 12v (battery power) when the subs hit. Starter batteries like you probably have are not meant for this.

What gauge wire did you run? Did you do the big three? The stock terminals that connect to the battery are crap, they like to break and not fit snug on aftermarket batteries.

Regardless I would suggest the following:

0. Connect a multimeter to your amps negative/positive terminals. Monitor the voltage, dial back the gain as it starts getting into the low 13s.
1. Upgrade the battery to a 24f. The stock size is too small.
2. Choose and AGM battery. This is important for car audio.
3. Do the big three or at least replace the battery negative to chassis cable. Use 0/1 gauge.

 

I'm with him^^^. I always look at the last thing you added as the first choice of things failing. As far as the fixes he suggested, no idea.

 

What I suggested is may or may not all need to be done. Big three is never a bad idea, not necessary for lower wattage systems though. I hate the terminals on our cars.

Battery is probably shot or there is a weak connection.

 

 

The multimeter would tell a lot. And quickly help determine the health of the alternator.

And yes, a failing battery can certainly cause a car to die. Also damaged or loose terminalscan cause this too.

Remember that he said he has two 10"s in the back. Assuming they are hooked up to anything that means a damn he could be maxing out the alternator and pulling amps from the battery causing further damage.

 

 

Are you running the stock battery? How old would you estimate it is? What model amp do you have?

AutoZone will do at a battery test as well. Do that.

 

 

 

Since it is a Boss you can scratch everything I said about your car's sound system pulling too much power. It's not.

Another's poster's advice would be more accurate. Your alternator may be failing. Go get your battery checked out and they should be able to test there alternator as well. I would do that asap.

 

OK! The battery is GOOD. The guy at autozone was nice. I felt bad because he was closing the register 10 minutes till and I came in asking him to go out in the cold ass wind and check my battery. He was really cool about it and said that it may be bad wiring from my sub woofer install that is causing the car to do that shit. But it has been riding great since. Hope it isn't the alternator or something.

 

Awesome 12.95v is a good number. Did he mention anything about testing the alternator?

 

Do you have any occasional rough idle? My RDX will get a little rough, especially with the A/C on at a light or parked, or when switching from reverse to drive... It's running lean, but rarely throws a code...

 

that is funny you mention that.. because it seems like i have noticed an ever-so-slight difference in the idling. I like to idle. And i dont like to run my subs off battery power alone.

 

With the subs I'd check the alternator, but my rough idle is caused by something causing it to run lean... I have a turbo RDX so it is mechanically similar to ypur TSX but turboed, and it will shake and then rev up to like 1K rpm then smoothen out.


If you get a CEL look at this too... IDK any idea whats causing it and no one shows much interest in doing intrecet diagnostics... I have bigger mechanical problems to worry about so this is on the back-burner right now...


Have the alternator tested too and check for any impending codes via OBDll port, complementary at AutoZone and competitors.