My CEL came on last week, and like a good Honda fanboy I booked my car into the garage (Littlewick Green nr Maidenhead) for them to pull the codes and work out what's wrong. Mid-afternoon I get a call telling me that they've decided it's my spark plugs that are the problem, and they'll need replacing. All of them. Car has done 50000 miles so plugs weren't due for a little while yet but still, if it got me the car back and working I'd be happy. So I let them do it.

Monday afternoon, second journey in the car since getting it back and the CEL comes back on again.

I took the car back to the garage this morning and this time the guy behind the counter tells me that they're seeing compression problems on cylinder 4 again (wish he'd mentioned this last week). He then said the tappets needed to be checked and could I let them have the car for a while so they can do the check while it's cold. Currently it's booked in for tomorrow.

I managed to speak to the mechanic who actually looked at the car and he said that he needed to check the valve clearances (from my recollection) and that he was surprised the plugs had been changed.

So wonderful forums, what would you do? Am I still being fed or are we finally getting to the real problem. Should I be able to argue about the fact they made me change the plugs for no good reason?

 

Did you get the actual error code numbers?

Get them and check them on the list in the FAQ.
Then it'll point to what sensor is flagging an error.

Hows the car driving apart from the dash light?

 

Good point, I asked for the codes and forgot to actually insist on it before I left this morning. Car seems to be driving fine, although I had thought that it was slightly unsettled at idle for the weeks running up to the CEL first appearing.

Oh, and I've checked the fuel cap - it was screwed on nice and tight

 

Id bet they have got a misfire code from the crank sensor.

As Bibbs says, its vital you get the code and post it up here.

Id bet we could diagnose it better over the net In my experience, Honda and others like to solve problems by adding new parts on

If they have compression tested and the cylinder is down then that's fairly conclusive.

 

From what I've heard from my mate who has also got an S and had it serviced their, he strongly told me not to take it there but instead travel a little further and use Reading Honda as they specialise in the S, he had shocking service from Littlewick Green and they did him over price wise........ I have no experience of them but just thought I'd share his views as I trust him.

The service I recieved from Reading was second to none.

Hope that helps.

 

For the sake of 6k miles, i'd accept the plugs being changed.

I'd be more worried as to why the compression was low. Checking the valve clearances on that one cylinder shouldn't take more than an hour.

 

Yeah, I know what you mean about the plugs it's just 170 quid that I didn't need to spend last week and didn't make any difference to the problem with the car!

They said they needed the car to be stone cold to check the compression (again if I remember right) which is why they didn't do it then and there.

 

Ok, I got the codes:

P0301 and P1399

 

I've used Littlewick a few times and they've usually been very good. I'd be suprised if they're having you on. When the hub nuts on mine started to click I took it straight in, they knew what to do and they did it for free so I can't have any complaints.

Haven't used Reading Clover-leaf since Clover-Leaf took it over but I had big problems with the place in Ascot (also owned by Clover-Leaf). As everyone has said, the code is the key

Quoted from FAQ:

P0301 7 - 1 P1399 ____ Cylinder 1 Misfire Detected
P0300 with
P030# and/or P1399 __ Random Misfire

 

Those are the correct codes.