Basic Info:
1992 Accord EX
F22A6 - A/T
96,125 miles

So, yesterday morning, I go out and get in my car. It was right at that point in PA where it's raining, but turning to ice as soon as it hits the ground. So I started the car, let it run for a minute while I ran back inside for my morning caffeine and came back out to start scraping the ice off the windows, which I did. I got in, and went to kick on the wipers on to "INT" to clear the remains of my scraping. The engine instantaneously quit and the wiper didn't even move. No sputtering, no lugging, the engine just stopped as if I'd kicked the key off... So I shut it off, and tried a couple time to get it to start. It would sound like it was running as long as I held the key in the "III - Start" position. As soon as I'd let go and the key returned to "II - Run", the engine would just quit, even after I'd shut the wipers off. Finally after about 4-6 tries, it started and ran fine. Oh, and the wipers worked this time. Last night it failed to start again (3 successful starts between occurances) but fired right up on the second try. This time, the wipers were not involved, hadn't been on when I shut off the car, and weren't on when I tried starting.

I'm really hoping this was just two flukes and that this doesn't happen again any time soon. However, since it was rainy/icy/miserable outside most of yesterday, I have a sneeky suspicion that I'm getting a short because of rain between wires for the Ignition Sw. and Wiper Sw., but short of tearing my dash apart, I've no idea of how to troubleshoot this. Has anyone had a similar problem or know where these wires are near each other outside the cabin where they could have gotten wet?

Thanks so much for any help!

 

Sounds like the ignition switch (a component not uncommon to fail after a long time). Not the barrel (that the key fits into) but the actual switch behind the barrel where the actual electrical contacts are (a short round cylinder made from white plastic with some wires attached that fits to the back of the ignition key barrel). Get it checked by an auto-electrician, but it's not all that hard to replace.

 

So a little further info:

I started the car earlier today. It started and ran just fine..., but as soon as I pulled the shifter out of park, the engine died. Pushed it back into park and the car once again started fine and I was able to drive it around a little bit. Today has been a sunny, and slightly warmer (40degrees F) day with no rain. Thanks for the tip johnlear, I'll look into it.

Majoring in Electrical Engineering, I really just want to tear into this and bring out the volt-meters and oscilloscopes and go at it, but I think it's best that I just hold off until I actually have the time to tear into this and a few other projects (like the LED Gauge Conversion I want to do) over Spring Break (which is only about 10 days away right now...)

Any other ideas would be appreciated, but the more it happens, the more the common denominator seems to be the ignition switch...

Thanks so much!