Hi all,

I've seen a couple of threads about this general issue, but not specific to my situation. Several times a week my 2008 Fit Sport has an electrical dropout. The radio will go off, the headlights will dim or go completely off, the dash lights will go off, and anything connected to the lighter socket will glitch. It only drops out for about 1/2 a second, does not appear to cause any change in the engine, and everything comes back up just fine. This happens in either hot or cold weather. It happens when I am running headlights, radio, and AC or heater. Sometimes it will happen a number of times over a period of 30 minutes, sometimes it will happen only once. If I turn off the AC/heater, or turn off the headlights then the issue does not happen again for that drive. One time when it happened and I turned off the AC, and a few minutes later turned it back on, and the issue did not occur again that drive. Other times I've turned off the AC and when I turned it back on, the issue continued. Sometimes it will happen as soon as I turn on the lights or AC/heater when I've been driving for a bit. I have yet to have this issue when I turn on lights and AC/heater right after I start the engine.

I've seen a number of ideas...alternator, fuse, grounding, battery, etc. If I take it somewhere then they may not be able to diagnose it since it is so intermittent, and the conditions under which it occurs are varied. Any thoughts as to what I might look for, how to go about troubleshooting this without spending an arm and a leg?

Thanks!

 

Does it happen shortly after you started the vehicle? The battery needs to charge and if too many accessories are going at once...radio, fan, AC, wipers, brake pedal also due to brake lights. While it is trying to recharge the battery there is too much electricity needed to run the car.

 

Get it to a shop that have a charging system analizer.... For what you are telling us, I think the voltage regulator could be going bad......

 

I believe all of the things you mentioned get their power from the main 80 amp fuse connected to the battery. All of the connections can be removed and cleaned. Test the fuse as well. You'll then need to trace that wire back into the firewall into the interior fuse panel. Finding the OEM service manual will be most helpful. If you can find the entire wiring manual for the car, not sure if they make these anymore, you can find all of the connector locations and pinouts of the connectors. My guess is the 80 amp fuse first, corrosion eating the mounting terminals and bus bar.
We replaced the entire assembly on my son's 2007 about 1.5 years ago with a marine amp circuit breaker. He didn't have any of the issues you mentioned, the terminal broke off the fuse connector. If you trip the breaker manually, all the items you mentioned lose power, which is why I would start here.

 

There is a shop manual somewhere on this site ready to be downloaded...