Bareback

TORRANCE, Calif., February 1, 2005 -- American Honda Motor Co., Inc. today announced a voluntary recall of certain Honda and Acura models to repair ignition switch interlocks. The interlock is intended to prevent removal of the ignition key unless the shift lever is placed in the "Park" position. Some interlock levers may be improperly dimensioned, which could allow the operator to switch the ignition off and remove the key without putting the shift lever in the "Park" position.

The recall involves approximately 486,000 automatic transmission equipped vehicles - manual transmission equipped vehicles are not affected. Included in the recall are certain 1999 to 2002 Honda Accord models and all 1997 to 2001 Prelude models. Also included in the recall are certain 1999 to 2000 Acura TL sedans.

American Honda will contact owners of affected vehicles when parts are available and ask them to take their vehicle to an authorized dealer to be repaired free of charge. Prior to the vehicle being repaired, drivers should follow the parking procedure in the owner's manual: apply the parking brake and shift the transmission to the "Park" position before exiting the vehicle.

Details regarding mailing dates and affected vehicles will be available on the Honda and Acura Web sites on February 4, 2005. Owners will be able to access this information by registering at the "Owner Link" section of www.honda.com or www.acura.com and entering the 17-digit vehicle identification number.

Customers may also contact their local Honda or Acura dealer, or call Honda customer service at (800) 999-1009 or Acura customer service at (800) 382-2238.

There have been eleven incidents resulting in minor property damage related to this issue. No injuries have been reported.

Please click the Recalls link to the right of your vehicle to see if it is impacted.

sabar3

Acura Dealer evaluated my concern that my key could be removed in any gear setting in Oct of 2014. The record on my vehicle showed that this recall had been preformed on my vehicle in 2005. The Service manager agreed that the recall fix had failed and got the OK from Acura headquarters to apply new fix which was preformed for free. This really is a dangerous situation when you have habit of not setting the parking brake!!

3.2TLc

Thanks for sharing this info......good to know Acura stands behind older issues.

ErickUa5

Coincidence that I looked this up yesterday and I guess the recall has not been performed on mines since I can turn the key back take the key out while the trans is in D5.
My seat belt is also worn out and tearing I guess they can take care of both at no charge.

Thanks for confirming, I post my experience soon as I go to them.

Skirmich

Mine is fine yay!

murky

They do not. I have the same problem and have been living with it for years, they don't care. Galling that there is a recall that lists my model year and exact symptoms, but for arbitrary reasons, my VIN is not included in the recall.

musiclevelz5

The ignition switch recall is only good for 1999 model years I believe.

The dealer will still acknowledge the recall ONLY if the vehicle has not been brought in before for the recall. I would assume most or all of them have?

If your vehicle is shutting off while driving then fix your ignition switch before you kill yourself or someone else!!!!

This part is 37 dollars on Amazon and takes 15 minutes to put on! No excuse not to do it even if your not mechanically inclined.

Side note, if you can pull your key out while key is in accessory or run positions, then the ignition switch is not the culprit here, the actual ignition key port is bad and you have to order a new one and get your new key programmed to the immobilizer.

murky

I have the interlock failure, key can be pulled out.

I bought the recall repair kit 2 years ago and sat on it (its less than $10). I'll see if I can fix it tomorrow.

murky

I'm a bad man! At least exceedingly proud of myself.

Ignition interlock is fixed, key can't be turned to off with the transmission out of Park now.

Follow directions in Service Bulletin 05-009 which starts on page 17 of this document: http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/acms/cs...5V025-3392.PDF

Use Repair Kit B: P/N 06352-S84-000 which is less than $10. It contains a whole bunch of parts that are they have you replace even though most of the the originals were probably fine (every screw for instance).

If you can pull the key out when you aren't supposed to you want Repair procedure B.

While I was at it, I removed one of the wafers that was making me need to jiggle my key sometimes to get it to turn.

You'll need a supply of appropriate grease, a phillips screwdriver, a 10mm wrench for the negative battery terminal, an 8mm wrench for the steering bracket break-away screws, a roll pin punch or something to drive out a small roll pin (I used a really small flathead screwdriver), a pick or something to pull out an even smaller roll pin (I used a push pin).

I bought the slide-hammer but it probably wasn't necessery. I probably could have pulled the piece with vice grips and installed the new one with a real hammer.

You also need something to remove the steering column screws that have smooth heads. They are soft and I used a center punch and a hammer to bite around the perimeter (there are Youtube videos on how to remove a Honda ignition tumbler). I've seen suggestions that the easiest way is to use a spring loaded center punch. You can also use (a very small) dremel with a cuttoff wheel to cut a slot in them and use a flathead screwdriver.

Curious3GTL

According to that link it looks like only 63 of the 2000 models are affected.

hfuhruhurr

Awesome find, murky!

Just to let others know: Procedure B, as detailed in the Service Bulletin, isn't sufficient. For instance, no step in Procedure B tells you to actually remove the existing Interlock Lever and its pin yet Step 30 instructs you to install the new lever and pin. Whoops. And it's not always sensible either. eg, Step 28 cautions you to not punch the pin down too far or it will damage the Lock Cylinder Shaft. There is no way that can happen. That pin bottoms out in a floored recess before it could ever damage the Lock Cylinder Shaft.

The first time I assembled and reinstalled everything, the key didn't turn smoothly at all. (And all the tumblers were functioning and aligned correctly.) The key would be stuck upon insertion until I wiggled it back and forth and in and out just right. The interlock issue was remedied (ie, I could NOT remove the key from the ignition unless the car was in Park for the first time in forever.) but it was maddeningly irritating to get the key out of the LOCK (0) position. I could always eventually do it. But it would take a while.

I didn't realize a solution until I watched , entitled "Honda Ignition Lock Repair." It shows some dude disassembling and reassembling the ignition body interjecting great tips along the way. From watching that, I think I made one, if not two, mistakes:

1. I assumed all parts would only fit one way. So if I could assemble two parts together then that was THE way. However, it seems the Lock Cylinder Body can accept the Lock Cylinder Shaft in mutliple ways:
   • (A) as pictured in Step 25, or
   • (B) rotating the Lock Cylinder Shaft 180 degrees.
   I think I did (B) on the first attempt. I know I did (A) on the second--and successful--attempt.
2. The service bulletin does not instruct to manually press the lock on the Ignition Switch Body while you insert the Lock Cylinder Body in Step 27. The video emphasized exactly that. I did not do that on the first unsuccessful attempt but I did it on the second successful attempt.

I can't be sure which one fixed my issue. Actually, I can't be convinced either one was truly the reason.

This whole experience was super weird. I have no idea why my interlock issue was fixed as:

• I did NOT use all the new parts in the kit. The new parts I used were the two pins, the Lock Cylinder Body, the Inner Collar, Slider Key, and after-market Steering Column Bolts.
• The parts are not that complex mechanically. I couldn't see or feel a difference in function between the old and the new parts. So why did it work??? I don't know.
• I did not even reinstall all the parts. The Solenoid Cover and the Interlock Switch Pin were mindlessly omitted in the successful re-install. Again, so why the frick does it now work?!

And what's with headless Steering Column Bolts??? I replaced those headless bastards with socket head bolts: M8-1.25x16mm. 16mm is a wee bit longer than the OEM bolts but it works. However, I would not go longer as there doesn't seem to be that much more room before it would bottom out. A 6mm round head hex key would be ideal for the new bolts. (Bicycle mechanics unite!)

Pin Extraction: The original pins were super easy to remove. One of them literally fell out on its own and the other one was trivial. However, the new pin mating the Ignition Switch Body to the Lock Cylinder Body was a bear to remove. I didn't have--nor could I find--a pin or wire extractor. The pin was wedged in there super well so it resisted all attempts to have a sharp point dig in to try to scrape it. And I couldn't find small enough needle nose pliers. I even tried filing down a small locking clamp but I could never get enough gripping force to overcome the tight fit. I eventually realized I could take advantage of the fact that the pin isn't solid; it's hollow with a non-continuous exterior. I discovered a 5/64" slotted screwdriver would fit in the slot created by the non-continuous exterior and by twisting, the pin can be extracted.

Oh yeah! Step 4 instructs you to test the Solenoid Plunger for motion. If the plunger does not move then you're instructed to do some other stuff. Well, my plunger didn't move and I couldn't figure out how to do that other stuff so I obviously didn't do it. But my interlock issue was fixed. Go figure.

Executive Summary: None of the Service Bulletin's special tools were required. You can likely fix your interlock issue just by removing, regreasing, and reinstalling your existing parts. If that doesn't work, watch the video to see if any of his tips will fix the issue. If not, cough up the $10 for the parts kit and install the new parts. For sanity's sake, no matter what happens, replace the headless bolts with after-market socket head M8-1.25x16mm bolts (cost = $1.40 + tax).

murky

If your plunger didn't move, you had an electrical problem. You probably re-seated an electrical connection or scraped through some corrosion or something and got your solenoid working again.

The mechanical stuff was a red herring for you.

hfuhruhurr

That makes sense. But I'm still a bit flummoxed about what I did EXACTLY to fix the issue. There was no corrosion evident and I didn't scrape or otherwise address any electrical connections aside from removing and reinstalling the two electrical clips (Immobilizer Receiver Unit and the Illumination Ring). Maybe just fiddling with the connections like that was enough to re-establish a solid connection? Nevertheless, the mechanical stuff was fun and I learned the inner workings of how a key starts a car. Best of all, I will no longer roll on the slightest of inclines when I accidentally remove the key when not in PARK because I can't remove the key at all now unless I am in PARK!

btw, I would love to know where the PCM is and what it looks like so I could have tracked down the electrical problem as described in the Service Manual p. 14-150. I kept seeing a diagram showing it where the radio is but it wasn't obvious to me when I removed the radio. And I wasn't gutsy enough to dig deeper.