I have been buying Hondas for over 18 years. I love the brand. I had a weird experience today at the dealership with my 2019 Ody that was in for its 30,000 mile service, state inspection sticker, and some recall updates. When I picked up my Ody, the service tech said that when they did the softare updates, that it "erased my car's memory" and as a result, I failed the Massachusetts State inspection. He said that it failed because of the emissions test. The tech assured me that there is nothing wrong with the Ody but that I had to drive it for about 200 miles and then bring it back in and this would somehow restore the memory in the car and that they would then retest the car and it would pass. I have never heard of this before and have had software updates before and it never "erased" my car's memory. Was I lied to? Has anyone ever experienced this or heard of this before? Please let me know because, to be honest, I think it makes no sense.
Does this make sense??
mathman1
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I have been buying Hondas for over 18 years. I love the brand. I had a weird experience today at the dealership with my 2019 Ody that was in for its 30,000 mile service, state inspection sticker, and some recall updates. When I picked up my Ody, the service tech said that when they did the softare updates, that it "erased my car's memory" and as a result, I failed the Massachusetts State inspection. He said that it failed because of the emissions test. The tech assured me that there is nothing wrong with the Ody but that I had to drive it for about 200 miles and then bring it back in and this would somehow restore the memory in the car and that they would then retest the car and it would pass. I have never heard of this before and have had software updates before and it never "erased" my car's memory. Was I lied to? Has anyone ever experienced this or heard of this before? Please let me know because, to be honest, I think it makes no sense.
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Never heard of this, something doesn’t sound right. Latest recalls are to flash instrument cluster And backup camera.
you have to get a relatively new vehicle pass emissions inspection in your state? I thought emissions inspection sis for older vehicles
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you have to get a relatively new vehicle pass emissions inspection in your state? I thought emissions inspection sis for older vehicles
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yes. Massachusetts requires an emissions test as part of the yearly inspection. I did have the flash instrument cluster recall done as well but they said they were unable to do the backup camera recall fix now and they would take care of it my next trip in. My backup camera works fine and I don't see what could be wrong with it.
Thank you for letting me know that. I really felt that the tech was trying to make a jerk out of me because I had never heard of this happening before. Do you know how driving the car 150-200 miles restores the memory. That is the part that really made me question his story.
Yes, when vehicle looses power, readiness monitors are reset and vehicle needs to complete a few cycles at various speeds to complete its tests. They can take different distances, usually 20-50 miles or so of mixed driving. By 150-200 miles it should be completed.
Here's an example of a drive cycle to reset emission readiness monitors, ours might be different. Honda and Acura Drive Cycle - A Star Smog - Antioch Smog Check
Thank you for your response and for the info and link. I'll know this for the future now and won't schedule my state inspection on the same day that I have recall work done. I truly appreciate your response. thanks.
Not a problem. Glad I could help. 🙂
There are certain conditions that the car needs to be driven to get the computer to gather enough necessary data so that it will be "ready". Strange things, like coasting to a complete stop from 30mph without hitting the brakes, accelerating to a certain speed with the air conditioning on, etc. Most of these things you will eventually do with regular driving and a few hundred miles is usually enough, but not always. For my last inspection, I had driven my Odyssey about 700 miles since the computer was reset and it still was not ready... finally, by ~900 miles, it was.
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What was dumb was that they knew you were also getting a emissions test and they didn’t do that first, before resetting the onboard diagnostics.
Interesting. Looking at it from that perspective, it makes sense. I can see their point.
Yeah, I thought 150-200 miles was "overkill" but as another poster states, he had to drive his car about 900 miles to be "ready" for the test.
Thanks for your comment. 900 miles seems pretty high but if I bring it back after 200 miles for the test and it is still not ready, i will know that they are probably telling the truth. I have 60 days to get it ready. A trip to Maine this weekend will certainly help!
That is exactly the conclusion that I came to last night. These guys do this for a living. They knew that my primary reason for coming in was for the 30,000 mile service and for the MA state inspection. They should have done the inspection first, then the 30,000 mile srvice and recall work. Their order in doing thigs will now necessitate my having to schedule another appointment and tying up my Ody (and me) for part of the day. Next year, I will insist that they do the inspection first and then any recall work that may need to be done.
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If you have a cheap code scanner, you can check the readiness status of the monitors. Otherwise, the only way to find out is to actually go in and see if you pass. I bought a code scanner after the car failed at 700 miles because I didn't want to waste any more time going to the inspection station, only for the car to maybe fail again.
I thought 900 miles was ridiculously high too. On my Toyota Camry, I remember it being something like 300 miles and all the screens were ready. Although on the Odyssey, most of those original 700 miles consisted of driving from NJ to Boston and back, so perhaps the car needed some more local miles.
I forget the rules in MA, but in some states, you can still pass if you have one incomplete monitor.
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As was mentioned above, not very smart of the dealer/techs to not do the emissions test before the recall and disconnecting the battery.
The full instruction manual talks about the procedure on page 749(2020 model).
You can check to see if the readiness codes are set with this procedure:
To check if they are set, set the power mode to ON, without starting the engine. The
malfunction indicator lamp will come on for several seconds. If it then goes off, the
readiness codes are set. If it blinks five times, the readiness codes are not set.
Also talks about the procedure you have to do to set them:
1. Fill the gas tank to approximately 3/4 full.
2. Park the vehicle and leave the engine off for 6 hours or more.
3. Make sure the ambient temperature is between 40°F and 95°F (4°C and 35°C).
4. Start the engine without touching the accelerator pedal, and let it idle for 20
seconds.
5. Keep the vehicle in (P. Increase the engine speed to 2,000 rpm, and hold it there
for about 3 minutes.
6. Let the engine idle with your foot off the accelerator for 20 seconds.
7. Select a nearby, lightly traveled major highway where you can maintain a speed
of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 97 km/h) for at least 20 minutes. Drive on the highway in
(D. Do not use cruise control. When traffic allows, drive for 90 seconds without
moving the accelerator pedal. (Vehicle speed may vary slightly; this is okay.) If you
cannot do this for a continuous 90 seconds because of traffic conditions, drive for
at least 30 seconds, then repeat it two more times (for a total of 90 seconds).
8. Drive in city or suburban traffic for at least 10 minutes. When traffic conditions
allow, let the vehicle coast for several seconds without using the accelerator pedal
or the brake pedal.
9. Park the vehicle and leave the engine off for 30 minutes.
One extremely small benefit of living in NJ, we have state run facilities for emissions inspections that do the inspection for free. No safety inspection required. You pull in and they plug in their scanner, make sure no codes present, peel off your old sticker, slap on a new one, done in 3 minutes, good for 2 years. New vehicles have a different sticker when you pick it up from the dealer that is good for 5 years. You gotta go at odd times during the week for no line though. And with all the COVID stuff you can imagine the lines once they reopened a month or two ago(they did extend expiration dates). I recently moved over from PA and only the urban area counties have emissions checks, all have state safety inspection, both annually.
The full instruction manual talks about the procedure on page 749(2020 model).
You can check to see if the readiness codes are set with this procedure:
To check if they are set, set the power mode to ON, without starting the engine. The
malfunction indicator lamp will come on for several seconds. If it then goes off, the
readiness codes are set. If it blinks five times, the readiness codes are not set.
Also talks about the procedure you have to do to set them:
1. Fill the gas tank to approximately 3/4 full.
2. Park the vehicle and leave the engine off for 6 hours or more.
3. Make sure the ambient temperature is between 40°F and 95°F (4°C and 35°C).
4. Start the engine without touching the accelerator pedal, and let it idle for 20
seconds.
5. Keep the vehicle in (P. Increase the engine speed to 2,000 rpm, and hold it there
for about 3 minutes.
6. Let the engine idle with your foot off the accelerator for 20 seconds.
7. Select a nearby, lightly traveled major highway where you can maintain a speed
of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 97 km/h) for at least 20 minutes. Drive on the highway in
(D. Do not use cruise control. When traffic allows, drive for 90 seconds without
moving the accelerator pedal. (Vehicle speed may vary slightly; this is okay.) If you
cannot do this for a continuous 90 seconds because of traffic conditions, drive for
at least 30 seconds, then repeat it two more times (for a total of 90 seconds).
8. Drive in city or suburban traffic for at least 10 minutes. When traffic conditions
allow, let the vehicle coast for several seconds without using the accelerator pedal
or the brake pedal.
9. Park the vehicle and leave the engine off for 30 minutes.
One extremely small benefit of living in NJ, we have state run facilities for emissions inspections that do the inspection for free. No safety inspection required. You pull in and they plug in their scanner, make sure no codes present, peel off your old sticker, slap on a new one, done in 3 minutes, good for 2 years. New vehicles have a different sticker when you pick it up from the dealer that is good for 5 years. You gotta go at odd times during the week for no line though. And with all the COVID stuff you can imagine the lines once they reopened a month or two ago(they did extend expiration dates). I recently moved over from PA and only the urban area counties have emissions checks, all have state safety inspection, both annually.
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Thanks for the helpful post. I was starting to wonder wouldnt it be nice if Honda could tell you that its system is ready for the test...
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