New owner here. Have two pretty specific questions for everyone.

1) My exhaust seems to become black around the tips with soot, after driving for a little while. I wash the car, clean the exhaust tips, and they become blackened again with soot. There's no "puff" of smoke during acceleration (confirmed by friends, over and over again).
Any ideas? Is this normal? Car is completely stock. Am I running rich from factory?


2) Every time I start the car, the "Maintenance Required" lights blinks a couple times before turing off... maybe 5 times. Never goes solid.
Does this mean my maintenance period is coming up soon?



Thank you!

 

1. As far as I know, every car will develop black soot like material around the exhaust tips as time goes by. As long as your car is not producing alot of smoke, you are fine.

2. The light is just a reminder to do your scheduled maintenance. Nothing is wrong. Go to the links at the top of the page, look in the DIY folder and find the link for resetting maintenance light. Or read the manual.

 

2) blinking of maintenance light is a pre-warning. Another couple of hundred miles it will stay lit and then you follow the reset procedure.

 

Do you have a test pipe??if wich case,black sooth would be quite normal.!!!
For the MRL,just reset it.=

 

No test pipe. No puffs of smoke.
But, black soot will accumulate after a few miles... between each car wash!
This can't be normal.
Is it possible that my car is simply running very rich from the factory?
It's a MY02 with 30k miles. No mods whatsoever.


Thanks, I was aware of the DIY light reset.
I don't want to reset the maintenance light just yet. I was just wondering if the flashing is part of the Power-On Self Test the car goes through, or if my maintenance time is coming-up.

 

Soot is normal. You are burning gas, soot is a byproduct.

 

A clogged air filter can cause a rich condition, and crappy VTEC

If it's got 30k on it, it's junk.

 

My car, or the air filter ???

Just kidding.

Thanks Bill. My air filter is pretty dirty. You're probably right on the money.
You da man!

What's the best replacement filter, or should I stay with stock?

 

All our cars run rich from the factory...the scoot is normal

 

OEM bro.

After that, reset the ecu then take it for a spin. You'll feel the difference in VTEC big time

I've had customers that had almost non-existent VTEC. Dirty air filter.