My setup:
AEM 1052 (bought used)
new 255 intank pump
new ID 1000's
Used rsx typs S coils

So my car was tuned by miller on wednesday. When I first got there the radiator fan relay went bad along with the heater blower motor relay (they got water in them from when I relocated my fusebox) I replaced the heater blower relay, and hot wired the radiator fan to ingition + so it runs all the time.... and they work fine now.

Anyway while driving up my street the next day, the car lost all power, bogged, like someone turned the key off. (It was not turned off, and no my knee didn't hit it). I turned the ignition off, back on and the car started up.
Okay wierd freak problem. No biggie.

Went to drive the car again later, and after about 15-20 mins of cruising, the car starts breaking up really badly, as soon as i tap the gas it bogs, backfires and misses.

But that went away a few seconds later.

Later on in that drive, about 10 mins, the car lost all power again, this time the rpm display went blank, the car was still in gear and driving, but the engine was not running. I turned the key, popped the clutch while rolling and it started back up and continued driving.

So the engine cutting out has not happened again, but the bogging has. I noticed that while driving, at no specific load or rpm, when it does cut out, it seems like the EMS is losing power.
I noticed this because the serial gauges freeze at whatever point they are displaying, until i guess the EMS re-gains power and sends the signal back to the gauges, then it is fine.

My fusebox is relocated along with my battery, but I don't think that is the problem, because when the ems does go "offline" none of the other accessories cut out. The radio still works, my serial gauges still have power, etc etc. I figured it may be another bad relay in the main fusebox, but there is no relay for the ECM. Only a fuse.

Also, when I did relocated the fusebox, I did not splice any of the connectors that go directly from the harness into the box. I only spliced the ones after that, which go to the rad fan, a/c fan, abs sensor etc.

I checked all grounds to the engine, they seem fine. I removed G101 on the back of the head and sanded the contact points. I also added another ground directly from the battery to the front of the head.


Could this be an AEM problem? Or alternator possibly? I tested output with a voltmeter, and it reads 12.9 volts while not running, and while running 14.3.

 

^^ sounds like an ignition problem i had a few years back.

Honda had to replace my ignition

 

sounds like you got a handful of electrical gremlins since you relocated the fusebox and got water in it.

good luck.. my sti did the same thing with the hydra.. but it was just some parameters that had to be adjusted.

 

what ignition? The main relay, the ignition switch? Coil packs, what did they replace?

 

dang bro, your just having some serious bad luck..

Hope it works out for ya

 

they had to swap out the switch

 

any other insight? how did they determine that the switch was bad? Because like i said it does not happen at any given time, only randomly. Any way to test this stuff myself?

 

Honda had a recall on some year accords and civics on the ignition switch. The contacts go bad from the high current that passes tru it. It's the same system s2000's have with the old style keys. It could be something to look at.

 

It sounds like that could very well be the problem. Like I said it seems that there is a power supply issue. But I do not want to, nor do I have the money to, start replacing every single electrical component on the car to diagnose this.

 

One way to pin point the issue is to bypass the switch and drive it around to see I it happens again.