MORE CLUES!

I interviewed my daughter this am about what and how this is happening:

1. It only happens when she is turning the car so far. She turns, applies the accelerator, and the car then shuts off.
2. The wheel indeed locks up completely. As if she has turned the car off.
3. The entire car shuts off - radio, A/C, all electronics are shut off suddenly.
4. Sometimes there is a delay in restarting of 2-3 minutes. Most often the car starts right back up.

Maybe this helps someone! Does any of this definitely, positively RULE OUT anything?

 

As suggest, sounds like a bad ground/connection.

 

Only electrical issue I've ever heard of causing the engine to shutoff is a dead alternator. Why would the battery or connection thereto cause the engine to die?

@Husker have you experienced this behavior yourself?

 

Its actually a fairly common issue. I had it with my Benz once. Certainly a bad alt or bad battery can cause the issue too. In most of those cases it the sudden draw on the alternator that can cause a stall and the ground fails then reconnects. If in a turn, there is additional stress from the PS pump. It can all add up.

 

I have not. I drove it for several days and couldn't get it to act up. The mechanics haven't been able to, either. It doesn't happen that often in terms of miles driven, but if you drive 300 miles a week and it's doing that once a week, it is still once too many and is very unsafe. I've thought about just trading it in and moving on, yet I wonder why this could be so darn difficult just to diagnose and fix.

 

Can the integrity of the battery and/or alternator be tested in some way by a capable mechanic?

 

Battery can be tested for voltage and if he has any type of battery charging system usually it will do a test while charging and give results.

To test an alternator I turn on every electrical item in the vehicle while running, lights, defroster, seat heater, flashers, Radio, etc.

Have someone rev to 2K RPMs and check the voltage if 12(approx) or lower, bad alternator.

Ground cable at the battery can get corroded internally or be loose.

Im thinking that your mechanic does not have the diagnostic capability to figure this issue out and thats why he is trying to throw a part at it(new remote), plus he has not been able to experience the issue, so that does not help him to diagnose.

I would suggest you trade cars with your daughter. No offense to her, but you or the mechanic need to experience this issue first hand to make sure the information about the fault is correct.

 

A NEW THEORY???

So I started thinking back...my daughter had some very large "sub woofer" box speakers installed in the rear of her car. I am wondering if these pull so much from either the battery or alternator at times that is shuts the car down? It seems like this timeframe roughly coincides when the stalling issues.

The reason i wonder about this is because I never have the radio on in the car and it's never died on me.

Is this plausible?

 

I'd bet more on your daughter incorrectly describing the behavior.

 

I really don't think is the battery or alternator. If battery you would have trouble starting it.

If Alternator it would be a constant issue.

Sounds like something is loose. Maybe when they installed those woofers they did not tighten something electrical properly. Really hard to diagnose over the internet with the information we have currently.