Hard Start Condition
 

I just bought a 2004 Honda Accord a month ago that was babied by an older lady who took it to the dealership every 3 months for check ups. The only thing bad on the carfax was a no start/hard start condition. I noticed that the alternator was replaced so I assumed it was fixed. Just recently, though, it started giving me trouble while cranking. The starter would turn the engine, but it would just keep turning and eventually stall. Sometimes it takes two or more tries to start it, and sometimes it starts normally so it's pretty erratic. I checked the battery and its fully charged, I put some Sea Foam engine cleaner to try and clear the intake valves to see if that was the problem, and I changed out the air filter but it still has a hard time starting sometimes. The only other things I can think of are the spark plugs or maybe even a faulty starter. If anyone knows of this problem happening before and what it could possibly be, please help.

If car runs fine when started, then spark plugs are not likely to fix hard start.

Suggest having fuel pressure checked and cleaning the throttle body.

Does car emit lots of black smoke when it starts? If yes, then leaking fuel injector may be flooding the engine causing hard start.

good luck

from your description it doesn't sound like a faulty starter to me.
Usually start problems are either fuel or spark related.

Does the green immobilizer light flash when it stalls?

Thanks everyone, my car hasn't had this problem since I last posted, so I'm not sure if the green immobilizer light flashes. I changed the air filter, which really needed changing, and poured sea foam directly into my engine to clean out any gunk potentially blocking the intake valves and such. It seems to have worked, but the odd thing about all this is that sometimes it would start up fine and others times it would take two or more tries to get it going. I hope this is fixed but I'll keep an eye out for that immobilizer light if it happens again.

Going on with the immobilizer idea, here's a couple thoughts...

Do you have keys for other cars together on the same keychain? Especially another Honda?

The immobilizer uses an RFID chip inside the key, and the antenna is right there around the key cylinder. If you happen to have another key RIGHT UP AGAINST the key, then the RFID system might get confused.

For example your keychain gets folded over funny, and the OTHER key is resting against the plastic shroud around the ignition key cylinder. Now that OTHER key is closer to the RFID antenna...??

I think I finally figured out the problem. When I have the parking break on and the car is resting on it instead of the park gear, it has trouble starting, but when I let the parking break off and it rests on the gear, it starts perfectly normally. I'm thinking this may have something to do with the electronic starter system being optimized for the car resting on the gears when it's being started. If anyone knows why this would happen, I'm curious. Thanks everyone for the help

To: JimBlake
I don't own another car, so that couldn't be the problem, thanks.

Sounds like you could be close. I'm not familiar with what all inputs are needed on your year car to enable the starting. If everything were working properly, I wouldn't think it would matter if the brake or the transmission were loaded by the weight of the car. But, maybe if there's some kind of faulty transmission or gear position switch, it could be the reason why. On my Accord, I think only the selector position matters and I think the computer assumes that if the selector is in the correct position, then the transmission is in the correct position. Your '04 may be smarter than my '97 and also look at actual transmission gear position. Having weight on the drivetrain could take out slack and actuate the switch. Just a guess.

If you have a shop manual, see if there's some kind of transmission gear/selector position sensor/switch and check that/those out. I know certain year Subarus have a gear position sensor and when it goes out, the engine runs like crap. It's a fairly common problem for them.

Good luck and keep us posted on the progress.

I'm real curious to hear about this peculiar problem. Please keep us posted, I'd like to hear the resolution.
Thanks :)

Real confusing. I can't think of any reason why the handbrake would interfere with starting.

But going with what basket_case said, watch the PRNDL lamps in the instrument cluster. I think those are feedback from the transmission itself, not from the selector lever.