Hey all,

My wife's 2000 Honda Accord SE 2.3Lonly has 102,000+ kms. Lately we have been noticing the car at times seems to be turning over hard. It doesn't happen all the time, just every now and then and it appears to be happening more frequently.

When the ignition key is turned the engine sounds like it's turning over 2-4 times normally then when "it" happens it sounds like the engine hesitates, at this point the engine sounds a lot slower turning. But the car will always start and drives normal, in fact still drives like new.

The car does have a code for a few years now, and last time I checked it was an Evap Cannister. Could this be the cause of car hesitating? Also read somewhere that if the Evap Cannister gets to the point where it is so bad it could stop the car from starting at all, especially in the cold.

At first I thought it might be the battery and the cold in the winter, and maybe the battery was low, or maybe even the alternator. I charged the battery multiple times, changed the battery for a new one.

Also tested the battery while car was running to see if alternator was working, and was getting around 13.8 - 13.9V. I also have a Bluetooth FM transmitter in the car and when the car is started it reports back around 14.2 V from the cigarette lighter.

Whenever the battery is fully charged it seems to start better, but the strange thing is it seems to only last a couple of days before acting up again, and then I would put it on a charger again and the battery only has about 50-60% charge. I tested this a few times also, and seems like either battery is not holding a charge, but they are both pretty new, so it must be something else. Alternator seems like the culprit in this case.

Getting back to the starting part, could it be a starter solenoid?

Any help or advice would be appreciated.