bizarre things happened today to my car.

driving along on the highway, 50ish mph, started getting alerts on the dash saying "Engine off button pressed" (even though it wasnt being pressed).

My first thought was "oh ok, so i guess thats what happens if u ever press the button while driving, but it shouldnt actually turn off the car".........until the car turned off, at 50mph. Thankfully i was in the right lane and was able to get on the shoulder. restarted the car, "Engine System Failure" message.

Thankfully i was right next to the exit to get to my house. on the way i had to stop at a red light, car turned off again. still saying Engine System Failure. I plugged my cheap $20 OBD scanner, but it showed no codes.

im gunna let it sleep tonight, probably have it towed tomorrow. the battery was just replaced less than a month ago. MAF sensor cleaned and oil changed last week. Also threw in some techron

any ideas?

 

That screams electrical gremlin even though the battery was just replaced. Whenever random crap happens like that I turn off the car, get out and lock it, wait 30 seconds and re-enter.

If it gives you the same error tomorrow, then yeah there's probably a problem.

 

an additional symptom, the alarm goes crazy after locking the car.

its happened twice so far, once when i locked it after arriving at home from the engine fault.........and then a second time (an hour later) when I was grabbing something from the car.

I will try again tomorrow, see what happens. maybe disconnect the battery for 10 minutes

 

i had some similar issues (though not as serious as total shut off) and it ended up being a loose negative terminal on my battery. *shrug*

 

I suppose the new battery may well not have been fully charged or isn't now - or may even be faulty (does happen) - be sure to test it. If not OK, I'd next for a power drain.

 

i just drove around the block a few times, and no warnings or errors. strange. its a good thing, but strange.

im feeling a little courageous, i have an errand I need to run that requires going on the highway. lets see what happens =X

 

You might want to double check the battery connections - I recently replaced a battery and started to get odd things happening and it turned out that the battery posts on the new battery seemed a little slimmer than before so even though the clamps were down as far as they could without stripping the bolts, it seems there could still be some movement. Once that was addressed the problems went away....

 

Sounds like the battery is the culprit - I hope so because it will be the cheapest cause to fix probably!

 

Hi. Did you fix it? Im having the same problem

 

Try disconnecting the battery for an hour and then put it back on