Hey everybody,

Brief history: Bought my car in August of last year (06, Certified). In October my CEL came on but the car seemed to drive fine. I have a warranty so I just dropped it off at Honda. Turns out it was misfiring and had done enough damage that they sent the head off to get refinished and replaces valves. 4 months after that the CEL comes on again, car is driving fine but I take it to Honda again. It was misfiring AGAIN but they did a valve adjustment and it fixed the issue.

My CEL has been on for a few days now. It's come on a few weeks ago, but went off after a day or so. This time it seems to be staying around. The car is driving perfectly normal and I can't notice it doing anything out of the ordinary at all. Sometimes I'll drive and just the CEL is on, sometimes my VSA warning pops up too. What worries me is that yesterday the CEL started flashing while I was at a stop light. The car was still running perfectly fine. After about 30 seconds to a minute the CEL went back to solid and was solid this morning when I drove to work.

Normally I'd have just dropped it at Honda days ago, but I'm in the middle of moving and can't afford to be without my car until at least Monday. I'm going to call them today and see if they can't get me a loaner because I really don't want to damage the car any more but I REALLY need to be able to drive around this week.

Any ideas as to what's going on?

 

Can you drive to an AutoZone or Advanced/get an OBDII scanner and get the CELs pulled? That will help diagnose what the issue may be.

 

I'm going to try to go tonight, but I have to be fully out of my old place by Sunday and have not only pack/move my stuff but my girls as well.

I have an appointment at Honda tomorrow for 2PM, if it's something they'll need to keep the car for any period (overnight at least) then I'll be getting a loaner car. I can't imagine then being able to fix it in like an hour so I'm pretty sure I'll end up with a loaner car for a day or so.

 

I would go to autozone and get the codes rewad first. dont trust the dealer. They are going to take a lot of your money for something simple.

 

It's under warranty, I don't have to pay for anything.

 

You think that now....even if a car is under warranty, then can "find" stuff that is not. Trust me. get the code first. They will find a way to blame the driver or some act of nature.

 

BTW a blinking CEL is a misfire.

 

They've accused me of over-revving the motor the last 2 times I brought it in. Both times a "Yeah, I haven't done that so don't try it" has put them in their place. I'll try to make it to autozone tonight but worst case they tell me it's going to be out of pocket for me and I can just take the car back.
Thanks, it's annoying that it's probably the same thing I've brought it in for 3 times now, but it gives me more ammo to make them fix it properly/look into why it keeps happening.

 

When the light was blinking you could have possiably damaged yout cat. Take it back to the dealer and have then check it out again. They sold u a messed up car so i would make them fix it! If u left the motor stock and have not driven crazy then they have no way of blaming u for anything! Also when u take it back ask for a different tech to look at the car instead of the one that looked at it before.

 

Update: Honda has the car now. It was a misfire in cylinder 1, which is the same one that was misfiring the last 2 times. They sent the head over to the machine shop to figure out what all is broken.

Now, the first time I brought it in they had the head serviced too, and the problem came up again. There has to be something that's causing it to continue to be an issue after they've fixed it twice already. I told them yesterday that I'm kind of tired of bringing it in for the same problem, but I don't know what else I can do.

They gave me rental car (some Kia sedan, bleh) so I can at least get around for my move.