I have a 99 accord V6 with 194***miles on it. I've just lately had an issue with it starting up.
I'll drive the car for a distance, stop and park and go back to the car say an hour later only to start it up again and have the car shake and make an odd noise. The shaking and noise stop a minute or so after starting the car and then it runs fine.
I'm doubtful that this is connected but my key also gets stuck in the ignition fairly often. I know I'm going to have the tumbler or the ignition lock replaced soon but I'm more concerned with the saftey of the vehicle.
It's at a honda dealer right now but they can't figure out what's wrong with it since it's not shaking for them at all. (figures right?)
any advice?

BTW, I've just had the battery and oil replaced within the past week.

 

What type of noise does it make? Does the car have horse power loss while the symptom is present? I am suspecting a failing PGMFI Main Relay as the cause.

 

It's sort of a mid range rumble, nothing overly loud but I havn't looked to see about horse power. It usually calms down about the time I gather my wits to check the dash. I have just asked the dealer to check the main relay but he told me that couldn't be the problem if I was just sitting in park.
Sorry, I'm not that familiar with the accords and this amount of horse power. I used to own a 92 civic and it never really had any issues.

 

If I were trying to duplicate your symptom I would let the car idle with the heater blowing on the floor and the windows up. Get the inside of the car nice and hot. Then I would restart the car multiple times if necessary until the symptom occured. I would then observe the symptom and decide if it felt like a misfire or something else.

From your description I would probably try a voltage drop on the main relay when the symptom was present.

Does the car ever not start at all?

 

It has started everytime so far (just bought it recently from private seller) but I did start it once only to find it died imediately. (again new battery so I doubt it's that) I thought about the sound it made and it was a rumble but also kind of a sputter sounded like it was working something out and then a minute later was fine.
I'll ask the mechanic to try the heater trick, he seems less than motivated to figure it out but insistant to try and get me to replace my ingnition switch/tumbler for an outrageous amount.

Thanks for your help too, you've been way more helpful than even the dealer!

 

aaww man the dealer =.( "ok sir we found the problem but we also noticed you need this, that, this, that and oh ya one of these!" your total $1868.00 ...not including labor lol

 

but actually when the key goes in the ignition it sends a signal to the computer. maybe since it gets stuck it isn't sending the proper signal

 

I am a Master Technician at a dealer. Thank you.