Ok I have a good one... My daughters 98 Accord EX 4cyl AT has a ghost. The problem has been happening intermittently for last 2 months.

What's happening is weird. When the car is parked with the factory alarm set (no other alarm in car) the alarm will trip. The alarm remote will not disarm or unlock the doors, I have to use the key to manually unlock to get in. The horn will stop in approximately 2 minutes. Once inside the car the instrument cluster is all lit up as if the key was in the ignition in the ON position. Put the key in and turn on and off has no effect. Alarm remote still has no effect. Lights are still lit. Car will not start either, engine just turns over. Then out of the blue lights go out and everything is back to normal. Car starts, alarm remote works. It has even killed the battery. I think it stayed "ON" till the battery died.

It gets worse. My daughter drove it to school and when she parked and turned the key off and remove the key the car was still running. She put the key back in and turned to the On position and the off, car still running. She turned the key to the ACC position and after a few minutes the car shut off. This has happened a couple of time now. It even happened to me last night. After bowling I got to the car and the dash lights were on. Remote would not work, car will not start. I disconnected the battery and reconnected, no effect dash lights still lit. However, I was able to start the car, but I turned the key off and removed it, car still running. Turned it on/off a few times, still running. So I turned it to the On position and drove home. Once home it shut off as normal.

I did some research and found that it could be the ignition switch. Replaced it and still no change. So I took it too Honda to see if they could find the problem. Of course the car worked fine for them. They did perform the recall on ignition cylinder lock just because it had not been done. If it happens again to bring it back. Have not taken it back to them yet.

What I figure is happening is that some module is faulting causing the car to think the ignition is in the ON position. Thus causing the alarm to trip since it was not disarmed first with the remote or door lock. And the car running after the key is removed would tell me that again some module is telling the brain the ignition is ON.

Could it be one of the Multiplex units or PCM? Any ideas would be great.

I have also posted two pictures of the dash. One is when it trips the alarm showing what is lit. The other is when the key is out of the ignition and car still running.

Thanks in advance for the help and sorry for the long post. It a weird problem and hard to explain without some detail.

Karl

 

The alarm is technically an accessory, because it was not installed at the factory. The dealership probably installed it.

I would focus on the alarm. You may be able to disable the alarm. You will have to find the alarm control unit. Hopefully you still have the owner's manual for the alarm to see how to do this.

 

Many Honda alarm malfunctions are due to corrosion or something at the hood switch. If your car has the hood switch option, you can just unplug the connector for the hood switch and see if that fixes it.

This first link are install instruction for the hood switch:
http://www.handa-accessories.com/acc...ecurityopt.pdf

If you want to turn off the whole alarm system, these are install instructions for the alarm system:
http://www.handa-accessories.com/acc...rdsecurity.pdf

I also agree with PAhonda to start with the alarm system.

 

Thank you PAhonda and Redbull-1 for your quick replies. The thing is it does not explain the dash lights coming on as if the ignition is in the ON position. I know the hood switch if faulty would trip the alarm but would not cause the dash lights to be on. (When I say dash lights I'm not talking about illumination lights. See pics above) To me something is powering the ignition up causing the alarm to think its being tampered with and going into full alarm. I really think the problem could be the one of the multiplex units or maybe the PCM? Is there any white papers on what they control? Wiring diagrams for the 98 accord?

As for the keyless entry being a dealer item, according to my 98 Accord user manual it is a stock item on the EX and EX-6 models. Maybe it is a dealer item on the DX and LX models.

Again that you for your quick responses.

 

Keyless entry is different than an alarm. An alarm will go off if someone tries to open the door, or break into the car. The horn will go off, etc... The 98 accord had keyless entry as an option, so it would not have been installed as an accessory.

So do you have keyless entry or an alarm system?

 

Keyless entry / security. It will sound the horn if the door, hood, or trunk is opened when the system is locked/armed.

 

I still think you will have to start at the alarm control unit. See if there is a way to either reset the alarm, or disable the alarm.