On 8/31/07 2:24 PM, in article 46d86b01$0$16517$4c368faf@roadrunner.com,
"Mike" <hlshadow@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Good afternoon all. I did a search of the archives, and read through
> Teggers FAQ, but wasn't able to find any details for this specific issue.
> Thanks for your time.
>
> My wife has a '99 Honda Accord sedan, 4-cylinder 5 speed with 115K miles.
> About once every few months for a year or more, she has complained that it
> "loses power." This has now escalated to three times in a week, and is a
> pretty significant issue for us - if we can't figure it out we're going to
> have to sell the car for safety reasons. Unfortunately I haven't
> experienced this yet as it's not my daily driver, so some of the details
> that she offers aren't exactly complete and I recognize that. Nonetheless,
> here are the symptoms, and I'm hoping these ring a bell with someone.
>
> Yesterday when making a left turn into a parking lot at about 20MPH, she
> states the steering wheel "locked up" while making the turn, and she nearly
> ran into a telephone pole. Sounds to me based on her explanation that she
> lost power steering as she said it was incredibly difficult to turn. She
> said that when it happened, all the lights on the dash came on, but the
> radio was still on and the engine was still running. She stopped/restarted
> the car, problem resolved. I'm not 100% sure why the power steering would
> be affected if the engine was still running, but my job is in IT not fixing
> Hondas unfortunately. :-)
>
> When this has happened in the past it was just the dash-lights turning on
> and a loss of power briefly so this wasn't an urgent of a problem. It's
> only happened before while sitting at an intersection stopped (dash lights
> turn on/car may or may not stop running) or driving straight (loss of power,
> dash lights on), so in the past she just restarted the car and off she went.
> I didn't know about the loss of power steering until recently. Besides this
> little hiccup, the car is flawless (and paid for), so we'd love to resolve
> it if possible. If it's relevant, we live in NC and the weather has been
> VERY hot as of late, but previous problems have been throughout the year.
>
> I had the alternator checked this morning at an Advance Auto for grins, it
> tested out fine. Any other ideas regarding things to check/repairs/tests?
>
> Much appreciated.
>
> - Mike

This sounds like the old ignition switch problem (there was a recall for
it), except for your assertion that the engine keeps running.

If all the dash lights came on and the power steering stopped working, I
find it really hard to believe the engine was still running, especially
since the fix has been to restart the engine. Maybe you ought to quiz her
some more and see if "loses power" doesn't really mean the engine died.

If it is a failing ignition switch, replacing it is fairly simple and might
even be free if yours was one of the ones recalled.