Rep Power: 161

2003 Civic LX Sedan, 169K miles (Sorry for the novel, but I believe in providing as much info as possible right up front to limit the number of questions that have to be asked)

I bought this car from an acquaintance (girl at my wife's office), and it has been somewhat molested. I am slowly but surely bringing it back up to full OEM specs. So here's the current issue:

When I got it last March, it had an aftermarket alarm/keyless entry system in it. Every once in a while (like every 5th or 6th time starting it), when you turned the key all you would get was a mechanical "click", and nothing else. No rattle from the starter, no dimming lights, etc. It just refused to turn over at all. After a couple times removing and reinserting the key, eventually it would start normally.

A friend said it was probably the alarm system hosing up the ignition wiring. So I removed the system. They had used clip-on leads so it was easy to pull out without having to reconnect any wiring except for the main power lead. All I had to do was unplug everything, and then crimp the power lead back together. This was done correctly and I have good power to the ignition. I should also mention I put in a brand new Interstate battery right about this same time.

At first, this seemed to solve the problem, and the car started right up every time. About a week later, I started having issues again. But this time, the car would start to crank, hesitate, stutter a few times, then turn over normally. It doesn't do it every time, but it's back to the every 5th or 6th time giving me issues.

At first I thought it might be the starter. So I went to BAP Import Auto Parts (I trust these guys and their parts over everything else except genuine OEM) and got a reman starter. Put it in and same problem. Thought maybe I got a bad one and took it back for another, still no difference.

I'm thinking at this point it may be something with the wiring. There are a lot of those clip-on leads just sitting in the steering console where they had the alarm hooked in. Should I look for something in this area?

Oh, and get this. All this time I've been thinking there was something wrong with the key interlock on the ignition, because you could pull the key out when the car was running and in gear. I've been working on my door locks as the tumbler pins are damaged and the key has a hard time going into the lock sometimes (both locks were completely frozen up before). So I decided to get into the ignition cylinder and see what's going on there. I pulled one out of a junked car for parts.

So I pull out the lock core, and found that there were NO TUMBLER PINS in the ignition. WTH Batman? I have pins on order and will get that issue fixed for sure.

 
Rep Power: 308

Check and clean the major grounding points. Terminals and mating surfaces.

 
Rep Power: 209

sounds like a grounding issue to me

 
Rep Power: 161

I just did the head gasket, all grounds were verified clean and good. Are there any under the dash I need to check?

 
Rep Power: 518

I'd connect a test light to the starter solenoid wire (the small one), then wait to see what it tells me when the starter acts up.

THEN decide what my next move is.