2000 HONDA ACCORD HELP please, nowhere else to turn! Car goes through periods of not turning on!

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

Hello!

I hope someone can help me out! I have a 2000 Honda Accord with 131,000 miles on it. i have been having this problem with it not starting and no one seems to know what is wrong. I got this car from a family member about 2 years ago and it has been happening sporadically while I owned it. The car goes through periods of not starting. I will be driving it fine for months at a time and then out of nowhere it wont start and this sets of a chain of weeks where the car won’t work out of nowhere.Then after it won’t run properly for a month or so, it works like fine again and the pattern repeats itself.

So this is exactly what is happening, I will drive the car fine and then I will park for some reason or another. When I return back to the car, it will not start. The key turns and the car turns on, as well as my windows, radio, and lights work, but it doesn’t “turn over” (no sure if that is the correct phrasing). Sometimes if I wait 15-30 minutes and try again it will work but that doesn’t alway help. I have also found that when i rev/press down on the gas I get get the car to start running. However, if I do not start driving it consistently imminently, it will freeze up and die again.When it dies after starting though this method, the steering wheel locks up but the lights and radio still work. Also whenever the car dies, all the lights in my dashboard turn on. I recently started taking the negative and positives of the battery for a few few minutes to reset the car which seems to help sometimes as well. When this problem is happening, the car also doesn’t run as smooth and can begin chugging and all of the 6 cylinders misfire.
Another thing that happens to the car is sometimes the steering wheel locks up and i can’t turn the key to start the car unless I jiggle the steering wheel as I turn the key. i don’t know if this is relative to the problem or not, but I figured I should mention it.
I have taken it to my “family mechanic” and he said he can’t figure out the problem unless it happens while it is with him and guess what, my luck is it never does. Family members who are car enthusiasts and I have looked into problems with the starter, the engine, the battery, and even looking for factory recalls, and they all have led us nowhere and stumped us. So I am hoping on here someone can give a little insight or a different perspective.

Thank you in advance and let me know if you need any more information!

2

If the vehicle has an automatic transmission, and the next time the engine won’t turn over, with the ignition switch on, step on the brake pedal and shift the transmission into neutral.

If the engine turns over and starts there’s a problem with the transmission range switch.

Tester

2 Likes
3

Have you looked into replacing the ignition switch? Honda had problems with them on several models in the late 90’s and early 00’s. https://www.motor.com/magazine-summary/honda-ignition-switch-symptoms-foreign-service-december-2002/

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4

Do you have more than 5 keys on your key chain? Heavy key chains can cause problems as you describe. Try using just one key in the ignition and see if that helps.

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5

This worked exactly! Thank you!

6

Some of the regulars here who’ve worked on Honda shops have stated in the past that Accords of that vintage have a relay (I seem to recall that it’s a fuel pump relay) under the dash that tends to get heat sensitive at times, exhibiting these symptoms.

Perhaps I can entice one of them to elaborate… ???

7

If the PGM-FI relay fails, the engine will turn over, but not start.

Tester