'07 Acura RDX stalls when you step on the brake?

Yeah, like the title says. :lol: Customer says he'll start the car, step on the brake, and instant stall. At some point it happened so consistently that it got towed in.

That was last week. Other tech couldn't reproduce it, vehicle left. Towed in again yesterday, and it drove off the flat bed like nothing happened. :silly: Now it's my problem. To be clear, I don't know if the driver is shifting into reverse/drive when the stall happens, or if it's strictly related to the brake pedal. Just getting an accurate symptom description was tough enough.

Slow day today, so I'll have time to experiment and check back. Hit me with your wildest theories!

Weird one, is there any faults stored?
Wonder if there is some damaged wiring somewhere that is being shorted to battery + by the brake light circuit

Sheesh, I'm not paying attention today. :silly: No codes anywhere.

It's interesting you mentioned the brake circuit, 'cause I was digging in the SI for... anything? And found this:



Why would the brake switch factor in? :huh: For the lights, sure. The ABS would care. It's not a push button start.

I thought about that, so I watched fuel trims when applying the brakes, no issue.

Got more details from the customer. Turns out that before the vehicle stalls, the charging system message comes up on the dash. Occasionally the charging system message comes up without the engine stalling. But when it stalls, the charging system message is involved.

Is the charging system the problem, or a symptom? I did notice that the alternator is never commanded to low charge rate like most Honda/Acura vehicles will do under cruise conditions.

Oh, the Joy of Intermittents. My first thought was the brake booster, as well.

I thought about that, so I watched fuel trims when applying the brakes, no issue.

Were you able to reproduce the fault?

The first post says -

Customer says he'll start the car, step on the brake, and instant stall.

Then,

Turns out that before the vehicle stalls, the charging system message comes up on the dash. Occasionally the charging system message comes up without the engine stalling.

This makes me question the "instant".

My second thought was a momentum change. This is assuming that the stall comes from hitting the brake while driving, of course. Something shorting out as weight shifts. Bad motor mount causing a harness to be pinched?

Hopefully, you'll be able to reproduce the fault and get some better direction.

Good Luck!

Yeah, I was getting conflicting reports about the symptoms. Multiple service writers are involved at this point, so that kind of thing is bound to happen.

I like the idea of something shifting or getting pinched. I hadn't tried power braking the engine yet, so I'll do that tomorrow.

No fault has happened to me so far. 30ish miles today.

No luck before I left work, had to hand it over before leaving for a long weekend. I'll report back next week when I go back to work.

Finally got the afterward on this one. :blush: Nothing ever came of my boss driving it around, eventually gave it back to the customer. Haven't seen it back since.

Intermittent issues are my worst enemy.