Even with scanners, manuals, and internet forums, some car repair mysteries are just that: mysteries. And this is one odd case. An owner takes their six-year-old Honda CR-V to a shop, reporting that the SUV’s battery dies every night.

To make things worse, the owner tells the techs that he thinks someone tried to steal it in the night. The SUV simply turned its lights on and started blaring its alarm with no thief in sight. 

A 2019 Honda CR-V had these pro mechanics scratching their heads 

If this were a mystery story, it would be called “The Tale of the Haunted Honda,” or something to that effect. A customer decides to bring a 2019 Honda CR-V to the mechanics at Royalty Automotive Service in Georgia, citing mysterious symptoms. 

“The client says it dies overnight, every single night,” Sherwood, a senior mechanic, says. “We put a new battery in it, put a new maintainer on it.” It’s a quick way to fix battery issues, but not always. 

That’s when things got weird. No, the CR-V hadn’t defied the new battery and died. Quite the opposite. Instead, the CR-V “turned on” Lights, alarm, dash, the whole thing. And the shop caught it all on camera. 

“It went on at about 7 o’clock, went off about three minutes later, and came back on at about 7:30,” Sherwood said. At that point, the Poltergeisted Honda remained on, refusing to shut down. 

The team then set to work solving the ‘weird problem’ 

“All the research we did pointed to the body control module.” The BCM acts as something of a nerve center, controlling operations from air conditioning to anti-theft systems.

Sure enough, he reached down to show off the find. A module dangled after he removed the panel and unclipped it from its bracket. 

Sherwood also hypothesized that the culprit could be a signal sent from the push-button ignition system. However, simply unclipping and moving the module was enough to prompt four days of good behavior from the Honda SUV. 

The owner couldn’t rule out attempted theft

The owner told the mechanics at Royalty Automotive Service that he originally believed someone was trying to steal his SUV. According to the owner, the Honda CR-V would light up and its alarm would go off, not unlike a failed break-in attempt.

The truth, however, is that a CR-V from this age range might have electrical issues just like this. And more frequently than you might think. 

It’s a common issue

Unfortunately for this Honda CR-V owner and many others, the 2017 to 2019 models have a documented history of electrical problems. According to Car Complaints, the NHTSA has received nearly 130 complaints of electrical issues for the 2019 model.

In some cases, like this one, CR-Vs exhibited some of the ghostly quirks. “The lights turn on regardless of having a new battery,” one complaint read. Other complaints confirm the CR-V’s appetite for draining its battery overnight. 

“We’ve got to take the information we’ve got,” Sherwood echoed. “We’ve got to know that it’s a very common issue. It will cause these exact symptoms.”

“This is more for informational purposes,” Sherwood’s son said from behind the camera. “People are going to run into this. People had issues with the 2017 through 2019 Civics as well. And the CR-Vs and Odyseys.”

Sherwood then reminded owners what sort of symptoms they can expect. “The car will come on, the dash will light up, and the battery will go dead. Sadly, what you’ll probably find when you come out the next morning is that the battery will be dead.”

MotorBiscuit reached out to @royaltyautoservice for comment via TikTok. As new details become available, we’ll update this article.