My '03 developed an odd habit over the weekend and I was wondering if anyone has run across this before or knows about it.
I was driving around town and had the a/c running. When I came to a stop light, the RPM's dropped the car shuddered a little and the center control (radio, a/c controls etc.) shut off for half a second (along with the blower fan for the a/c) and then just came back on, which for whatever reason, caused my ABS light on the tach. to come on. The car itself never shut off, only what is running off the center control panlel cut out. This happened several times and only when I come to a stop.
Can anyone help?

 

Something similar happens to my car. Ill be driving (ac or no ac doesnt matter) and when im at a stop light sometimes the idle will become very rough and breaks up and then the rpms will drop like it almost stalls but it doesnt.

 

Just to let ya know, you should have posted this in the "stock problems" but I have been having similar problems with my 03' you can follow my thread if you want to for a couple helpful hints! I am still diagnosing the problem though!

https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ever-stop.html

 

I would run over to Autozone and check for some codes thru your OBD II port .....could be a bunch of things and doing that would narrow it down some for ya.

 

Thanks for the info everyone! At least this will give me a place to start.
FWIW, I was on my way home from the gym tonight, didn't put on the a/c, but I did need to run the defrost to clear the windshield. Same damn thing happened! After I shut if off car ran fine.
I decided to try the a/c again (by this time, I had put on my headlights) and sure enough, came to a stop, my wife pointed out that the headlights were dimming, returning to normal, dimming, etc. and then right on cue, a/c blower shut off , tach. and center control shut off, and then came back on.
It almost seems that its when the compressor comes on, it causes this fault to happen. ASK-MINI was no help whatsoever ("I'm sorry sir, we aren't showing any type of issues like that ever with that year), so I think I may be making a call over to my local dealer. Hopefully they'll be more helpful.

 

Perhaps your alternator is going and the AC is putting too much strain on the electrical system.

 

Slipping belt or Alternator issue sounds like a good place to start. The studder suggests bad pulley or alternator though.

 

Could also just be a loose ground wire. Might also want to check that the cables at the battery terminals are tight plus the engine compartment terminal.

 

True, but then wouldn't it be doing it all the time and not just when I had the A/C running?
Something else to think about, I was pulling back into the parking lot where I work yesterday afternoon (A/C was on) and it did what I described just as I was shutting it off. My hazard lights started blinking and before I completely turned the car off I noticed that my trip-meter and my avg. mpg read-out had reset themselves to 0. WTF?! Who knows, maybe this is related to the alternator.
I just have a feeling its gonna be one of these situations where I take it into the shop (it goes in tonight), they run the diagnostics and don't come up with anything. My CEL has not come on once since all of this has started happening.

 

There are reports of weirdness (sorry to get technical) occuring when the battery is shot. Car still starts/runs, but odd things happen. Could be possible. Best thing would be to have the alternator and battery tested and see where you are. Batteries are cheaper and easy, so you can always hope.