Well, today I had my hard-top installed and spark plug TSB done today at Diamond Bar Honda in California and everything was great, the service manager, the hard-top install tech and so forth was very pleasant up until later tonight when things started getting wierd. After I picked up the car, on my long drive back, I noticed that as I revved up the motor while in gear that I had some slight power loss every so often that I thought it odd but thought I was going crazy and just blew it off as being too anxious.

I drove for probably a good 60 miles without any problems until later tonight when I was showing my car to some buddies of mine at a parking lot when the check engine light came on for the very first time. My car has about 1,800 miles approx being a month old now and I thought this was very weird. I turned her off and made sure the gas cap was 3 clicks tight and started her back up with the light coming back on. I then noticed a slight but strange change in the engine note and knew it must have something to do with the spark plug work done earlier today and a relation to what I noticed earlier in the day and that freaked me out. Over a period of 2 minutes, the sound became worse and the engine started shaking like it was out of balance and I determined that it's now firing on 3 cylinders as it was too rough. At some point, I even tried driving forward a bit and the car was WAY down on power and idling like a 79 Chevy with race cams.

Fortunately, my friend was kind enough to go home and get a tool kit while I started imagining the worst. I'm not very happy at this point as you can imagine. As soon as they return, we pop the hood and begin to take the spark plug cover off and my first guess is that it might be a loose wire. As I begin to pull some of the plug wires out of their holes, I notice that the second wire clip just fell right out while all the others were locked in place. Ah-ha! Found the culprit. Put everything back and started her up with no more rough idling or problems so it seemed but the check engine light is still on and while on a test drive, it feels as though the ECU has retarded the engine timing maybe as a saftey feature and might need to be re-set. Does anyone know if this is the case and if only the dealer can reset this? It really pisses me off that they were careless enough not to make sure everything was tightly clipped in along with the fact that they must have used the wrong tool as the allen bolt head is slightly stripped!! It almost seems like they used a power tool to tighten the bolts as a spark plug cover doesn't need to be THAT tight.

I read about very similar things from other folks on this board about nearly identical things and whatever little faith I had in mechanics is now completely done away with. What pisses me off is that it was a recall issue otherwise I wouldn't have taken it in for a plug change. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. Sorry for the long message but anyone know about the re-setting of the ECU? Many thanks for all the informative info I've found on this board!!

 

Pull out the ECM fuse for about a minute & put it back in.
There is a fuse box under the dash in the driver's side, and
the ECM fuse is the second one from the top in the right
column. It's labeled '7.5'.

Since the spark plug recall, my car started to show rough idling
intermittently as the vehicle is brought to a stop. I suspected
the spark plugs, but I won't be able to investigate this until
the dealer receives the replacement bolts for the ignition cover.

 

It's actually the 3rd fuse from the top on the right bank of fuses.
As for the wiring harness not clipped in .............. what a dumbass! This is such a novice mechanic's boo boo. I have yanked these plugs out over 1/2 doz. times and never have I had a problem with anything like this. As for the wrong allen wrench, I think he used the correct one but didn't know how to use it correctly. These plug cover bolts get "stuck" onto their seats almost right away ("galvanic corrosion" is the theory that has been discussed here before). Even using the correct "key", each bolt must be "snapped" to get it started. The average "novice" mechanic would simply put the key in the top of the bolt and continue to increase the torque till the thing begins to turn - WRONG! I think they owe you new bolts. This only serves to round off the hole. I'm not going into details here as I have posted previously on this very subject.

 

You mean the bolt holding the spark plug coil in place was not torqued down? It sounds as though there were no bolts at all holding the coils in place.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Prolene
[B]You mean the bolt holding the spark plug coil in place was not torqued down?

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
[B]
He used the word "clip" in his description so I'm assuming that the bolts on the coil packs were done up right.

 

Hey guys, good info. I actually read some of the re-set suggestions and wanted to do it myself but wanted to get this documented in case anything happens down the line.

Prolene, it was the "clip", not the bolt that was loose. And yes, very noob mistake. The funny thing was that my friend and I took the cover off and we looked in awe at the plug design, LOL. I figured it out quickly and as I pulled the second wire from the front, the connector just came off whereas the others needed unclipping.

So just an update on what happened today as I took the car into the dealership where I bought it and not the other dealer that botched the job for two reasons. 1. Didn't trust the same people to touch the car. 2. It was wayyyy out of the way for something another dealer can take care of.

I dropped my car off and soon after got a call that the ECU was re-set and there were misfire codes for two cylinders, not just one hence the massive timing retardation from the ECU. After I left and got back to work, I walked around the car to take the antenna off and noticed two long scratches!!!!!!

I immediately called the dealer to complain and will be taking it back to see what can be done. It must have been from the "number" plates on the cars for service and this thing must have gotten dragged across my trunk! Oh man, so pissed off. My fault for not doing a final inspection at the dealer but then again, I know where it's been and the scratch wasn't there when I dropped it off. Unbelievable!

How do you think the dealer should remedy this? Repaint the entire trunk? I don't want some cheap paint job. Has anyone had a similar situation?