2003 CRV key / start problem on hill

Only once in a while we park our CRV on an incline about 30 degrees nose
down. ( a friend's driveway is sloped). When we go to start the CRV, it
fails to start and the imobilizer key symbol blinks. It seems that I
must take the key out, rotate in 180 degrees and re-insert it in order
to get the car to start.

Usually it seems a Honda ignition keys work either way. Not on a hill,
it seems. Both keys have shown this behavior (we haven't tried the
vallet key.).

Anybody else notice this?

 

Usually it seems a Honda ignition keys work either way. Not on a hill,

I used to have a 2001 Civic and now have a 2002 CR-V, both with the
imobilizer with a chip inside the key.
I never had any problem and I parked on slopes several times. Maybe not 30
deg though.
Try to see if it happens with a bare key too, no keychain, no ther keys.
Some people wrote about some problems when the key has something wrapped
around it or there is something magnetic on the keychain.

 

Do you have any other immobilizer keys, or any minature credit cards or
grocery store affinity cards on the keychain? The immobilizer isn't an
electrical connection. It's an RF connection. Inserting the key the other
way orients the other items differently.

From the Service manual troubleshooting guide:
"remove any other immobilizer keys or large key fobs on the key ring"

 

My key ring is the one from Honda with only the fob for the keyless
entry on it. You can't get more simple than that and keep the fob with
the key. My wife has an added plastic tag with the dealers name on it.
We keep nothing else on the keyrings as we were warned that too much
weight causes problems.