My ‘99 accord (4 cyl, auto, 120K miles) is showing some strange (scary) symptoms. About 2 times in past 3 months while driving on highway, the car suddenly jerks and the engine seems to just die. Each time I was able to start the car right back up and it continues to drive without any further problem. First time when this happened I was driving in heavy rain, so I thought it was related to moisture and when I got the same checked, my mechanic found that the distributor head (plastic piece) had lost a bolt and that could have been causing the moisture to leak inside the distributor causing the engine to die. That issue was fixed and I did not face the issue till yesterday when I was driving under normal/sunny weather conditions. I was driving at about 60 mph on highway when I felt the jerk (like sudden braking) and saw the “maintenance” and “key” lights turn on. I immediately pulled over and tried to restart, but realized that the engine was already running. I am not sure if the engine had dies at all or not for that fraction of a second. Either ways it seems to be very unsafe to be driving in this situation. Please help.

 

See if you can make it happen by wiggling the key (when traffic allows). Flaky ignition switches are semi-common. (If you can't make it happen, that doesn't PROVE the switch is OK.)

Call your favorite dealer. They should be able to look up your VIN & tell you whether the ignition-switch recall applies to your car and whether it's already been done. Still, if it HAS been done, they just replace the same switch - it hasn't been re-designed.