3 days ago: Car sat in parking lot for 12 days. Try to start car & engine won't go (i.e. I turn the key and it revs "rrrrr" - but if I let off the key it just dies and if I keep on the key it just keeps "rrrr"-ing... I get waay farther than a clicking problem). A couple times it sounds like it is going to kick in, but no.

I change spark plugs. Had put 15k miles on since buying car used - it has 175K total, previous owner was from Mongolia and new nothing about cars, so I figure this is probably needed anyway. Besides the car had been idling weird for a couple weeks, RPMs strangely kicking up to a little over 2 and back down about every second before car warmed up. And the old spark plugs looked pretty beat up anyway.

This didn't work, so I go read up for 2 hours and develop some hypotheses. Go back out to car. Figured I'd stick the key in the ignition and give it a try... and... car starts fine.

Car is fine for next 24 hours.

2 days ago: Wife goes to grocery store. Car starts overheating. She turns off the engine and ... same starting problem when she tries to turn it back on. Buys coolant and fills up reservoir which was mostly, but not completely, empty. Tries to start car again... it starts fine. Doesn't overheat on 35 mph 3 mile drive home

1 hr. later: Wife drives to pick me up from train station (another 35 mph/3 mile drive). Car starts to overheat again. She turns on fans and it goes down. I get in car and temp gauge is halfway up but radiator not kicked in. Give it more coolant so reservoir is at max line (it was below). Radiator finally kicks in while doing this. Drive home. Discover reservoir is much lower. Fill it back up. Starts to rain. Call it a day.

Yesterday: Let car sit in driveway. Come home from work. Go to troubleshoot cooling system (reservoir still full), and... same problem starting the car.

Checked oil to see if head gasket problem, but oil is fine. Also, the ignition coil is only a few months old as are all the radiator hoses.

Is it possible the starting issue and coolant issue are related? What are the odds of two things going bad at once when the car had been more or less fine before sitting for 12 days?

Basically, I am a man of limited time, income and knowledge. I knew little about cars before getting this car (I was a public transit type), but since purchase have had no trouble replacing master/slave clutch cylinder, muffler, radiator hoses, and changing oil... so I guess I am a quick learner and reasonably competent. I don't have hours on end to troubleshoot this thing (I'm working this weekend and get up at crack of dawn to catch the public transit, leaving me with a few hours in the evening before it gets dark) and am reluctant to pay a mechanic unless I have to, so I was hoping for a little advice. I scanned over the FAQs and I figure with only a few hours a day to work on this in the near future starting from step A was going to take a looong time.

Thanks and sorry for the long story (don't know how else to explain without giving all the details if there is a relationship between the problems).

 

UPDATE: even more puzzled....

Had a chance to read more and test the car out yesterday.

Testing out the car involved putting the key in the ignition, and, yep, it started just fine this time. So I figured I'd use this as an opportunity to test the cooling system (because if I'm not going to throw money at the starting issue only to find out I have a bad head gasket and it would be a better use of $ to get a new car).

I figured I'd just let the car idle for awhile and see if it starts leaking and/or overheating. So I did and eventually the radiator kicked in no problem. I let the car idle bit longer (say 15-20 minutes) much of the time spent reving the idle control and sitting in the car with my foot on the gas trying to mimic highway driving.

Radiator kicked on like it should. No leaking. No overheating.

So basically the car worked just fine today. No clue what's going on here. Can't be the water pump because no leaking (and I had a bad water pump in a previous car and that started leaking quickly). Maybe I should pressure test the thing when I have time next. At a bit of a loss here.

I also have had no common head gasket problems (chocolate milk, oil in coolant, etc), though a compression issue is something that could cause both starting and coolant leaking problems, yes?

 

The oil doesnt always get coolant into it. Mine looked fine but was eating a bit of coolant. It didn't smoke or nothing. You should check your main relay. It is very common for these to go out in hondas, especially if yours is the original one.. Make sure your cooling system is bled and keep an eye on the fluid level. If your loosing coolant and you don't have any external leaks then you probably have a blown head gasket.