1998 HONDA ACCORD — Complaint #940048
Open-data reference.
NHTSA Complaint about POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:PARK/NEUTRAL START INTERLOCK SWITCH filed September 18, 2012
NHTSA complaint #940048 (ODI reference 10475839) concerns a 1998 HONDA ACCORD and was filed on September 18, 2012. The owner reports the failure occurred on October 27, 1999. The vehicle had 2,450 miles on the odometer at the time of the incident. The report was geocoded to New York based on the filer's self-reported location. The affected component is categorized as power train:automatic transmission:park/neutral start interlock switch, one of NHTSA's standardized taxonomy codes used to group defect patterns across make, model, and year.
The filer flagged the following severity indicators: crash: no, fire: no, injuries: 0, fatalities: 0. No crash, fire, or fatality was associated with this report, which places it in the early-warning stream rather than the priority-review stream. Because a VIN was supplied, this complaint is tied to a specific vehicle and not just a model-year cohort.
Individual complaints are consumer-submitted and unverified by NHTSA engineers — the agency's role at this stage is to collect, index, and make them searchable. What matters for federal action is the pattern: when many owners of the same HONDA ACCORD cohort independently describe similar power train:automatic transmission:park/neutral start interlock switch failures, defect investigators have grounds to open a PE and request manufacturer data. Related filings for the same vehicle and component appear below, and the detail page for the full 1998 HONDA ACCORD shows the complete component-level complaint distribution alongside any active investigations or recalls.
Complaint Description
PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT THIS HAS HAPPENED ON MULTIPLE DATES RANGING FROM 1999-2012. I THOUGHT IT WAS COVERED THROUGH NHTSA CAMPAIGN ID #: 98V018000 BUT I DID NOT USE THE CAR ENOUGH TO RECOGNIZE A PATTERN UNTIL 2002. I THINK AT THAT TIME, THERE MAY HAVE BEEN SEVERAL THOUSAND MILES IN 2002 WHEN I BEGAN TO USE THE CAR ON MORE ROUTINE BASES. THERE ARE TWO OCCASIONS THAT CAUSE THE ISSUE TO ARISE. WHILE I AM DRIVING, THE STEERING COLUMN WILL LOCK UP CAUSING AN ISSUE TO SHIFT FROM GEAR TO GEAR AND THE MOBILITY OF THE CAR. AS THE STEERING COLUMN WOULD LOCK AND CAUSE THE HORN TO MALFUNCTION AND NOT MAKE A SOUND AND THE LIMIT MY MOBILITY TO PARK THE CAR. MOST STREETS THAT I DRIVE ARE NOT ON AN INCLINE BUT THERE HAVE BEEN FEW OCCASIONS, WHERE IF THE CAR WAS ON A SLIGHT INCLINE, IT WOULD BEGIN TO ROLL. I WOULD USE THE GEAR BRAKES TO PREVENT AN ACCIDENT. ANOTHER ISSUE INVOLVES ANOTHER PATH (OCCASION) WHICH CAUSES THE STEERING WHEEL TO LOCK WHICH CAUSES MALFUNCTIONS IN THE HORN AND THE INTERLOCKING
Complaint Details
| NHTSA Complaint ID | 940048 |
| ODI Number | 10475839 |
| Date Filed | September 18, 2012 |
| Failure Date | October 27, 1999 |
| VIN | 1HGCG1852WA |
Similar POWER TRAIN:AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION:PARK/NEUTRAL START INTERLOCK SWITCH Complaints for 1998 HONDA ACCORD
REC'D RECALL 98V018000 FOR POWER TRAIN: TRANSMISSION,AUTOMATIC: IGNITION INTERLOCK SYSTEM, AFTER CAR HIT A NEIGHBORS HOUSE, THE VEHICLE POPPED OUT OF GEAR. *BF THE CONSUMER REQUESTED REIMBURSEME
CONSUMER RECEIVED NHTSA RECALL 98V018000 CONCERNING TRANSMISSION FAILURE. TOOK VEHICLE TO GILMAND'S HONDA FOR REPAIRS. DEALER TOLD CONSUMER THAT HIS VEHICLE WAS NOT COVERED UNDER THE RECALL DUE
MY WIFE PARKED THE VEHICLE IN THE K-MART PARKING LOT. SHE TOOK KEY OUT OF IGNITION, LOCKED THE VEHICLE AND WE WENT INSIDE TO SHOP. AFTER SHOPPING FOR 5 - 10 MINUTES, K-MART INTERCOM ASKED HONDA OWNE
CONSUMER HAD PUT VEHICLE IN PARK. TOOK KEY OUT AND WENT INSIDE. VEHICLE ROLLED DOWN INTO STREET. THEY WERE ABLE TO TAKE KEY OUT OF IGNITION, VEHICLE WILL STILL BE IN DRIVE GEAR.CONTACTED DEALER
THE CONSUMER REMOVED KEYS FROM THE IGNITION WHILE THE VEHICLE WAS IN DRIVE AND THE VEHICLE ROLLED FORWARD AND CRASHED. THE INTERLOCK SYSTEM FAILS TO PREVENT FROM REMOVING THE KEYS WHEN THE VEHICLE WAS
Source: NHTSA Vehicle Complaints Database. Component taxonomy and severity codes are standardized by NHTSA Office of Defects Investigation.
Read our methodology — how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.