I had another Odyssey battery crap out on me. I had a new diesel truck Interstate battery in my garage that I've had for a few years now just sitting on the shelf. I managed to get it to fit.
I took the car out on a very cold night, headed to a DSM meet. I get off the freeway and the after a few minutes the car shuts off on me and won't start. It cranks and cranks but it just won't start. I tried checking all connections under the hood and everything appeared to be well connected. I removed the negative battery cable to reset and connected it back and nothing. I was able to push it into a parking spot at the mall where the meet was being held a bit away. I left the car there and walked to the meet location. After about 2 hours I went back to the car and it started right up. I drove it the 1/4 mile to the meet location and I turned it off. 45 minutes later I get into the car and it starts right back up and gets me home after the 20 mile drive.

This past Sunday I went to the store about 2 miles away and shut the car off for about 5 minutes. I get back in start it up and as I am leaving the complex it shuts off on me. Same thing. It won't start and just cranks and cranks. It was late at night and I gave it about an hour to see if I could get it to start and it did not start. I did not want to wait any longer so I towed it home.

Last night I went into my garage to give it a shot and I knew it would was going to start and sure enough it started right up. Turned it off and back on 3 more times.

I don't have a check engine light. I will check my DSMlink over the weekend to see if there is a stored code.
If there is not, I don't want to dive it and wait for it to shut off on me someone randomly so I can trouble shoot it. It appears to happen when the car warms up and after a while. Car gets cold and it will start again. Something appears to be going out. Ignition coil? What could be the possible issues?

The coil control, referred to often as the power transistor, can fail to work when hot. Just one suggestion.

Maybe crispy wiring going to the coolant temp sensor causing intermittent outages. Easy way to check is have DSMlink running in the car during one of the no start periods. As soon as the car acts up, verify the ECU is seeing coolant temp.

+1 on the power transistor. I've had a couple of them fail on me intermittently.

how bout ignition coil/s?
Im not DSM expert but had similar situation on a ford where bad coil would heat up and couse stalling and misfire

Log with link, and drive it until it stops again. I know you said you don't want to do that, but the only other option is to blindly throw parts/money at it. The only time I've had a symptom similar to that before, my log/connection stopped when the car died. It turned out to be caused by link popping out of the socket because I didn't install the recommended socket. I fixed it by placing a piece of a wooden stir stick inside the case to firmly hold link into the socket.

Barring that, your log should be able to provide all the answers you seek.

Thank you for the suggestions. I tried to pull the codes and there were none.. I will try to have it sit and idle to see if it shuts off on me so I can try to better diagnose it.

How does your ECU smell? Had the same issues with mine when my ecu was going bad

^^
x2

Had the same problems with my 1G when the Ecu was going bad

Update: Unfortunately I have not had much time to tinker with the car.
I hooked up ECMlink to see if there were any stored codes and I could not connect with it. It kept saying no answer received. I started the car up and link was then able to monitor it. I kept it on and connected. The car eventually shut off and did not throw a code. Link disconnected again and has not been able to connect again since. The car will also not start at all any longer. I thought it might then be an ECU issue. I pulled it out and it looks to be in good shape still. It was re-manufactured in the past and I had sent it a couple year back (3k miles ago or so) to ECM link and they verified it was in good shape when I was trying to find out what was causing my high idle in the past.

So i had a friend come by and it appears that I am getting fuel but no spark.
I ended up changing the CAS to a spare that I had and the car still will not start.

I was checking the fuses and relays on Saturday night just to make sure that they were all snug and I realized that the ALT fuse was hot. The only thing I had done that night was just try to connect to link with the ignition on and of course the car off. It is possible that the ALT fuse is bad if its hot with the car off? I don't know how to check it. Would a bad ALT fuse would keep my car from starting? Any connection in why link won't connect to the ECU if it were bad?

I'm going to try and see if I can source out a good ALT fuse to try and see if that could be my issue.

When you say "hot" do you mean temp or hot as in has voltage present? If the fuse is getting hot temp-wise when the car is off that means a pretty significant current draw going somewhere, possibly a short to ground.

Yes, it is warm to the touch.

^^^ As Iceman said. Also, resistance across a connection point can cause heat to build up.

What voltage do you get if you check at the alternator post and the bypass the fuse, to the end it connects to ultimately?
If you have a voltage drop across the fuse, that could indicate corrosion or looseness, generally looseness does this.. Heck, with the system turned off, you can also check that same circuit and see what the resistance is, with a DVOM light load anyways.

Is the fuse hot to the touch only when the ignition is turned on, without engaging the starter/starting the motor?

Quote:
Is the fuse hot to the touch only when the ignition is turned on, without engaging the starter/starting the motor?


Yes, as the car won't start. I did not try to start it and the fuse was hot to the touch.

Possible short to ground through the alternator? Disconnect the wire from the fuse to the alternator. See if it stops getting hot.

The car will no longer start.

I realized that when I would connect my dsmlink cable, I was no longer able to get it to connect with the engine off and the ignition on. Once I started the car, it would connect. Before having this issue was always able to connect to link with the engine off. A few weeks ago, I just turned the car on and let it sit in the garage for about 10-15 idling and I am monitoring link to see if it throws a code. I wanted to see if it was a temp thing so I didn't allow my primary fan to turn on. It hit 220 and the car shut off with no cel. The car will no longer start.

I had a buddy come over and we determined that the car appeared to not be getting spark when cranking. We had fuel. I changed the CAS, Igniter and coil pack and the car will not start and it appears there is still no spark.

I opened the ECU and it appears to be in good shape. I may end up sending to ECMtuning to have it checked to verify that it is no faulty. When my Odyssey battery died the last time, I did have to do multiple kick starts when the car would shut off while driving. I wonder if that damaged something.

The car starts and stays on! A buddy came over last night and helped me re-diagnose the car. Long story short after a while, he narrowed it down to pin 10 of the MPI not getting power. We unbolted fuse box and verified that the car was getting power at the link....then....... we realized that the connected coming from the fuse box that leads to the firewall had become unconnected /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
This connector is apparently not found on 1g's so we had no idea. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
I then tried to start it and no go! The MPI relay that I purchased from a fellow GVR4 owner on FB turned out to be bad. I swapped in my MPI relay and the car fired up!
I had already replaced the CAS, Coilpack, Igniter and had sent the ECU to ECMtuning to have it checked /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

I am happy that it was that connecter but I can't believe I never realized or saw that connector

Thank you everyone for the help and hints.