van runs fine, then the engine will just shut off. took it into a local
mechanic and they found nothing. then today it did it again, after sitting a
while it started right up. my wife drove it home, now in the driveway it
won't start again. can anyone help with a troubleshooting direction? thx...
It sounds like the failing ignition switch problem. The contacts in the
ignition switch heat up and everything stops. Honda recalled some cars for
it. I don't know if yours was one of them, but it should have been. The
symptom on my Odyssey was it would occasionally stall. After a few minutes
it would restart and run again.
When it stalls, does everything in the dash go dark (speedometer to zero,
transmission gear light off, etc.? When you try to restart it, do the
warning lights come on while you are cranking it, but then go dark as soon
as you let go of the starter? That seemed to be the conclusive symptom.
The part is about $30. It is screwed into the back of the ignition key
cylinder with two little phillips screws and the wire runs directly to the
fuse box in the left kick panel. You can change it out yourself in about 15
minutes. All you have to remove is the panel under the steering column to
get to it.
