Rep Power: 0

Here's the backstory - My girlfriend and I just did a road trip. We had no problems with the car, until on the way back, the stereo died out and then my gauges were no existent - when they did turn back on, I had a check engine light on. At this point, I didn't have a tonne of data, but since I've been home, here's what I've been able to figure out...

I figured out that if I go above a certain RPM/speed, the stereo/gauges would die out - I never took it there, so I just remained below 100kph. At some point, the car started to bog at around 3800 RPM. When I got home, I disconnected the battery and cleaned the terminals, and fired the engine up - everything seemed fine - no bogging, no instrumental or stereo power outages.

I took her out for a test drive and had my scan tool connected. After about 45 minutes of driving on the highway, the previous symptoms arose (bogging, cluster/stereo outages) and I got the P1259 error code.

In conclusion, after an uncertain amount of time, the car will begin to get the P1259 symptoms, but it only happens after the car has been warmed up after "x" amount of time.

There are a few other things I'd like to mention: A week or so ago, I cleaned my engine bay with spray and water - covered the battery, fuse box and alternator. Could this have contributed to the P1259?

Also, in this picture, I have highlighted an area under the hood that appears to be missing a bolt - does the missing bolt have an correlation to the P1259 error message?

I have yet to replace the VTEC Solenoid, but if any of the other symptoms or info helps diagnosing this problem, the help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

 
Rep Power: 518

Missing bolt is where the big black intake chamber bolted on. Ignore it. Move on.
Check oil level and condition.
Post FF data if you have it.
Erase code for now.
Don't bother buying expensive parts yet.

Figure out why this happens on the road. Fix this first.
Sounds like it quits charging and battery is being drained.
Alternator failing?
Loose alternator bolts?
Bad block/trans/body/battery grounds?

 
Rep Power: 0

Issue Resolved:

Bogging was dirty oil - changed oil filter and put in new oil.
Electrical problem was the alternator - got a new belt and a new alternator.

My mistake was not realising there were two issues at once.

Thanks everyone.