I started my Honda the other day and it hesitated about 5 seconds before it turned over. I drove down the street and went to turn it off and the ignition kept cranking. So I left it running for a min to grab a coffee. Came back and started driving home. It started smelling like burning electrical and then my car cut out and was smoking and smelling pretty bad. I got it towed home but I don't know where to even start! Anyone have any ideas?

 

it seems to me like maybe something bypassed the solenoid and gave the started 12 volts. Dont know if there was something that bridged and posts or anything.. but the current off of those batteries can be kinda hoss. If you feel like a cheap thrill, a scare and some possible harm... (please don't) you could bridge the pos and neg terminals of your battery with a wrench and see a hell of an arc and a burn mark and crater on your wrench, and worse... Meaning to say that there is enough there to do something nasty potentially. I feature a more savvy Honda person could give you greater insight into what may have happened here.

 

huh?

 

The contacts on the starter relay (under the dash) or the starter solenoid (on starter) may have gotten stuck, etc. to cause the problem.

Since the starter is most likely damaged, take a look around the area of the starter to see what damage may have been done, such as the engine wire harness, etc. See how far the damage went.

 

Yeah, sounds like starter solenoid kept the starter engaged and now it's dead. You should be able to pretty see where the damage is at this point. It does sounds like a new starter is in order.

 

Manual Transmission Accords used the Denso starter which has a rebuild-able solenoid that can stick when it gets up there in mileage. Napa even sells just a contact kit as it arcs enough to wear down the contacts.
If it is an automatic, check your ignition switch, when it wear the contacts get sloppy and sometimes it does not fully return the key to II(ON) position from III(START).