P1259 Car electricals shutting off! HELP!

I swear bad stuff always happens to me!

Anyways hello everyone my name is Dave. Im pretty new here as a i just sold my DC4 and baught my 99 accord ulev vtec 4 door and figure i would join this great community. My car motor wise is all stock and oem.

oil change done with 5w 30 oil at a quick lube 2 months ago. I need to find where there is a leak as i had to add oil in it about a week ago and used quaker state 10w30. i did a quick tune up a month ago consisting of cap, rotor, spark plugs, spark plug wires.

New oil change is to be done this weekend and all oil and fluid levels are in good working order.

When i first turned my car on this afternoon i drove to the bank and shoprite and noticed my radio kept turning on and off. I just said thats wierd and paid no mind to it. Later while i was driving to work with my A.C. on for the first time this year i noticed my car started running really crappy like it was losing power. i drove it real slow and decided i have to go to a local parts store to check it out. As i was driving there the check engine light came on.... FML... Then as i drove my dash started losing power and turning of as well as my radio and climate controls. My RPM and speedometer would try to drop to 0 as if the car were turned off but the motor never turned off. It did that about 5 or 6 times in a matter of about 2 miles till i got to an autozone. The motor sounded perfectly fine and i heard no wierd noisesto it at all. Just these wierd power hickups. I had the autozone staff read my check engine light and they pulled up the code 'P1259' We went inside and he printed me up a paper that stated some possible problems with which that code could have come from.

1. Open or short circuit condition
2. VTEC Solenoid valve fault
3. Vtec Pressure switch fault
4. Block oil passage

The rep. at the store told me to start from the easiest first and have my motor flushed. I really have no idea what to do or if flushing the motor is a good idea or not and am planning on taking it to do a flush and then to the mechanics tomorrow first thing. I hope maybe one of you have had some experience with this and have some tips before i waste what little money i have on having a professional look the whole thing over. Any possible suggestions or tips would greatly be appreciated. Thanks you.

Edit: p.m. 4-26-11 Battery checked at Autozone and eveyrthing is fine. Oil change is done and Castrol 5w 30 is added and the problem corrected itself. I will keep u updated

plans for the rest of this week is to clean vtec solenoid, locate small oil leak, check alternator, change Cat. Hopefully it was an oil problem as i believe on Honda Tech i read 2 people had this problem because of the oil. Sounds wierd to me but if it is this then hopefully ill be good to go from now on.

i am wanting to change my oil every 2 months which is about 2k miles or so. Is it fine to do this or not? Thanks

Also i had a mechanic quote me for a vtec solenoid running for somewhere in the ballpark of 400 dollars and a alternator at about 150? is this true? i honestly have no idea and am kind of freaking out right now with this whole situation. Thanks guys!

your solenoid takes no time to check, just google which one's the solenoid, pop it off, its pretty much jsut a plug deal. apparently, a common electrical imp in our cars is the multiplexor... hopefully one of the more mechanically inclined can answer if thats the problem or not. anywhom, 5w-20 is pretty thin... see how your car runs after changing, and change to 5w-30 (thin oil may mean better "efficiency" but your engine life plummets)" and check your battery output. if your alternator was dead you would've stopped running a long time ago.

Your dash lights going on and off, losing power, etc. sounds like it could be the battery or alternator. In my old car that's how it told me my alternator was going, random lights and things in my car would lose power/come back on/flicker. Have Autozone check both of them (they do it for free). Also make sure you battery terminals/cables are corrosion free.

As for the CEL light, I had that same code a month or so back, the car would go into limp mode but nothing with my electrical system was wrong. Checked my vtec solenoid and it was clean, would get regular oil changes. After I got my new catalytic converter put in it never came back and my car drives fine. Hope this helps.

What i did today was check my battery at autozone and everything was fine. then i changed my oil to 5w 30. When i got in my car and drove to the autozone it happened again and my electricals shut off and on.. After i did the oil change everything was fine. I even drove home from work which is a 15 min drive 75% highway at night with lights on and radio on low. Very wierd but i am going to have my vtec solenoid cleaned out and inspected tomorrow by my friend.

kwak123 said:

your solenoid takes no time to check, just google which one's the solenoid, pop it off, its pretty much jsut a plug deal. apparently, a common electrical imp in our cars is the multiplexor... hopefully one of the more mechanically inclined can answer if thats the problem or not. anywhom, 5w-20 is pretty thin... see how your car runs after changing, and change to 5w-30 (thin oil may mean better "efficiency" but your engine life plummets)" and check your battery output. if your alternator was dead you would've stopped running a long time ago.

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The solenoid i am going to have checked and cleaned tomorrow afternoon. I have no idea what a multiplexor is nor i have a heard of it but i will give it some research. i know i said 5w20 and i dont know why. i meant i put 10w30 in it before which was about a week ago because i just saw that i have asmall oil leak which i have to now fix as well. I did my oil change and had my battery checked and its like the problem fixed itself but i will keep this updated as the week goes by if i notice anything.

cirsurvive711 said:

Your dash lights going on and off, losing power, etc. sounds like it could be the battery or alternator. In my old car that's how it told me my alternator was going, random lights and things in my car would lose power/come back on/flicker. Have Autozone check both of them (they do it for free). Also make sure you battery terminals/cables are corrosion free.

As for the CEL light, I had that same code a month or so back, the car would go into limp mode but nothing with my electrical system was wrong. Checked my vtec solenoid and it was clean, would get regular oil changes. After I got my new catalytic converter put in it never came back and my car drives fine. Hope this helps.

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I had them check the battery and it was fine. do they check the alternator on the car or do i have to take it off?
I am also in need of a new cat as when im in park and i rev it a little i here a little rattling noise same as in my integra so that will be replaced possibly this weekend. The car is pretty new to me as i baught it 3 months ago with 92000 miles on it driven by a female mother of 2 for 4 years so it cant be nothing too major i think.

Thanks for all the help guys and i will keep u all posted!

clean all the battery terminal connections, all of the grounds and all of the main electrical distribution connections.

then see if you still have a problem.

PaNdAmOnIuM said:

I had them check the battery and it was fine. do they check the alternator on the car or do i have to take it off?
I am also in need of a new cat as when im in park and i rev it a little i here a little rattling noise same as in my integra so that will be replaced possibly this weekend. The car is pretty new to me as i baught it 3 months ago with 92000 miles on it driven by a female mother of 2 for 4 years so it cant be nothing too major i think.

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Get the cat replaced and I can almost guarantee you won't see that code anymore

cirsurvive711 said:

Get the cat replaced and I can almost guarantee you won't see that code anymore

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Seems like one of the main sources of your problem. Your O2 sensors are probably reading incorrect readings which would explain your tachometer and car going crazy. It's good that you changed your oil already. Also, I would repair that leak asap so you don't have to deal with anymore issues. Seems like your alternator is on it's way out too so get that checked/replaced. Overall, sounds like the previous owner didn't take good care of the car so I would start putting a name brand oil in there such as Mobil 1 or Valvoline Synthetic so that you don't have to deal with the motor going bad or anything. I would check your spark plugs too and all your belts since the previous owner didn't do proper maintenance, it would explain a lot of the issues. I would try cleaning your Vtec solenoid first as it's not too hard to remove it and it would be extremely expensive to replace.

a damaged cat wouldnt be that drastic... O2 sensors would read the error, but it doesnt adjust the fuel-air ratio so drastically that it would halt your engine.. think why a straight pipe keeps popping.

unless the cat is clogged, but even then, his motor runs fine and thats one of the first things that a clogged cat would hit... and hit hard

issue: car randomly dying and hesitating
solution: alternator

issue: p1259
solution: check oil level, clean vtec solenoid filter screen, replace vtec solenoid if the solenoid itself is bad (you can search for the continuity between the two terminals inside the solenoid on yahoo, i can't remember them off the top of my head)

ps: and no the solenoid should not run $400, you can find and use the ones off of the f22 vtec and the h22s <-- can't remember for sure 100% if the h22 will work

as far as the alternator, idk since i never had to replace mine