So heading home from work yesterday I was driving south on 75 and had a weird experience/issue with my car. Wanted to see if anyone may have an idea as to what happened or what's wrong with my car.

 

I was driving along when all of a sudden all the interior dash lights (check engine, battery, oil, E-brake, etc) came on. My A/C and radio were still going strong, but when I pushed on the gas nothing happened. I was in pretty solid traffic so luckily I was able to come to a complete stop, put my car in park and restart. Started right up and everything was fine for about 30 seconds and the same thing happened again. Did the same thing and it restarted and I was able to make it home fine. Ran to the store last night afterwards and had no issues and was able to get to work without incident this morning.

 

Weird thing is my A/C was going strong when it happened, but when I restarted the 2nd time my A/C now is blowing only warm air. This may not be related as I had to put Freon in it about 3 weeks ago, and I'm thinking I may have a small leak in my A/C line.

 

Anyone have any idea what could've happened, or what could be wrong with it?

I'm no car mechanic, but your experience immediately reminded me of the following scene:

 

Those types of things can be caused by a faulty ignition switch.

First thing go online and see if there has been any kind of recall on your vehicle. My son had a similar issue with his SUV right after he bought it. Mechanics checked everything and it kept reoccurring. Went online and found that there was a pending recall that hadn't been issued yet for the exact same issue. Lot where he purchased it got the parts and made the repair within a couple of hours.

Similar thing happened to my buddies Toyota Tundra a while back, all the lights came on at once and wouldn't run correctly. Did it a couple of times then stopped.

 

I would first go to an Auto Zone or similar and have them run a diagnostics check and see if they can pull a fault code. They will do this for free but it's a simple check and they don't always have an answer. If they can't help next stop is to do the same at an authorized dealership at whatever car make you have (Ford, Chevy, etc.) Their check will be more detailed but probably cost you too, unless as JD said there might be a recall on something.

 

As for your ac, sounds like the compressor might not be kicking on. After you start your car, switch it and see if you can hear/feel it kick in, which you should be able to do as it puts a load on the engine. If you can't hear/feel it, it's not kicking on for whatever reason and possibly related to your issue.

Aliens

I has this happen years ago on a Firebird. Scared the doo doo out of me when a car shuts down on the highway. I'm thinking it was the ignition switch as well.

My brother had this issue a month or so ago where his car would stall out in traffic while he was going. I believe it was a faulty ignition switch.

Interesting, my silverado did something similar a few weeks ago. It was hot and I was in the parking garage at work. I had the AC on high idling. It started idling rough so I backed out and started for home. It had no power, idled very bad, and wouldn't hardly move. I pulled into a parking spot, restarted truck, and everything worked fine except now my AC doesn't work.

Probably wouldn't hurt to check fuses too.