Car dies while driving 95 Accord

[ngiovas]

I have a 95 Accord EX V6. Yesterday while backing out of the drive the car began to stall and all power was lost for about 1/2 a second. It didn't completely stall and the rpm's jumped back up, but the radio and clock needed to be reset. I ran it for a while and checked all of the battery cables, grounds and electrical cables (thinking there may be a short). Nothing appeared to be wrong, so I drove to work.

Today while driving down the freeway in heavy traffic (slow speed) it died again, but this time it was enough for the engine to stall. The dash lights came back on right away and I was able to put it in park and restart it, but I once again lost the clock and radio.

I immediately took it to the dealer (they were close by) and left it with them. They assumed it was the ignition switch. They called me this afternoon and said they have no idea - they couldn't recreate it, but for $250 they could put in a new ignition switch and see if that helped. I opted not to have them do it since they didn't know if it would even help.

I know that there was a recall on the 98 and newer accord for ignition switch problems, but don't know if this is likely on the 95. I'm also wondering if these are the symptoms of a failing master relay?

The local auto parts store said the relays run from $8 to $17 and the ignition switch could be ordered for $31. I'm assuming the master relay is easy to change, but I don't know how hard the ignition switch is to change. Is it in the steering column or under the dash? Does anyone have any other ideas or advice?

Thanks,
Nick

****UPDATE****

Since I originally posted, I have determined that it is not the main relay. I disconnected it and reconnected it and the clock and radio had not lost power like during the failure. I also noticed that all of the lights, including the dash lights stayed on when the relay was not connected.

Because of this - I doubt that the main relay is the cause. I am starting to strongly suspect the ignition switch, but wonder if the clock would reset if the ignition switch failed?

[lorunner]

no the clock wont reset if the ignition switch lost power either.