A few nights ago, my kids returned from a mini road trip in my daughter’s Honda Element. It was dark and raining. My son started backing the car into the driveway, couldn’t see where the edges of the driveway were, got misplaced, my daughter got out to spot him, the car died, and I was summoned.
The car took a long time cranking to start and then died quickly. I shrugged and we pushed the car ten feet to a parking space on the curb and called that good. Hey it was late and pouring rain.
A few days later I got around to scanning the car - hmm, no codes - and starting it - took a bit of cranking but started and ran fine. Hmm, a fault that emerges when the engine is hot? A couple more days and I drove the car to work - started right up, ran no problem.
Tonight, I took my flashlight and a hunch, and inspected the driveway. In the grass parking strip hump to the side of the driveway, I found this.
Then I inspected the car.
See what I think happened?