Dear Scotty
I have a 2012 Honda CRV with 159,350 miles and an automatic transmission. The scanner does not provide any diagnostic codes. The only maintenance the vehicle has required so far is replacement of the alternator approximately 5,000 miles ago. It's a great car but while driving the power steering suddenly goes out, the radio lights begin to flash on and off, and all the dash lights. Nothing notable appears to be happening with the engine. During these episodes there is also no loss of power until the car is switched off. I pull over and shut it off hoping it would fix it but when I try to start it back up nothing happens. It acts as if it needs a jump off. After I let it sit for 15 minutes or so it starts right up as if nothing was wrong with it and continues to run great besides the traction control light staying on for 5 minutes and then proceeding to turn off. This has happened on two occasions and no one can explain what's wrong. Please help me with this mystery. Thank you so much for your time!
Sounds like you have an intermittent short or bad connection somewhere. Start looking at connectors, make sure they are plugged in good, look for corrosion, brown burnt spots. Look at your fuses and relays, pull them one at a time, look at the pins they plug into. If they are green looking or burnt looking they need to be cleaned/replaced. Start with the Alternator, it could be dropping out intermittently. Especially if you got a rebuilt one instead of new. Then check and clean your battery connections. Your power steering is an electric motor and it pulls some amps. I would not be surprised to find it is related to your Alternator swap.
The Blue Driver scan tool has both Enhanced Diagnostics/Mode 6 data and Live Data capabilities for many common vehicles. If the Live Data generates a Freeze Frame, that info would be undoubtedly useful.
I would get a really detailed OBD analysis. You may have fried something in the ECU with the new alternator.
