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Flashing Malfunction Indicator Lamp

22K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  William Wiles 
#1 ·
'07 EX-L with 76k miles

Wife calls me while on the hwy telling me that the MIL is flashing, engine sounds "loud" and it jerking/not driving smoothly. All happened very fast after 30 miles of driving with no previous issues.

Dropped it off at the dealer within 10 minutes of all this happening. They say that the exhaust manifold is clogged, the catalytic convert is clogged and it's throwing a bunch of misfire codes.

They want to replace the manifold, catalytic converter, spark plugs and adjust the valves, all for the low, low price of $1600.

I inquired how this could happen, there were no codes thrown before this incident. Obviously, if there's enough carbon buildup to clog the manifold, it's had some sort of misfire issue for a LONG time. Also, shouldn't the cat be covered under the emissions warranty? Why do the valve adjustment?

They give me a bunch of garbage about how it might be bad gas. They don't know why it didn't throw codes earlier. Catalytic converter not covered under warranty.

I tell them that if what they say is the issue is correct, then what they are suggesting would only fix the symptom (clogged cat) and not the root cause (what caused the clogged cat). They agreed, couldn't assure me that it wouldn't happen again since they can't say for certain what caused it or why there were no previous codes.

I told them that I needed more information and I'm not going to just agree to give them $1600 when they can't even explain how this happened. They agreed to call me.

The subsequent call results in the catalytic converter being covered by the emissions warranty (as I suspected it should be) and the price drops from $1600 to less than $600.

They can't/won't explain how this happened. I still feel I'm getting screwed because it just doesn't make sense but we need the van back so I authorized the work.

Anybody else have anything like this happen? I did some searches and saw posts about bad coil packs causing issues but they're not even touching those.

Scott
 
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#2 ·
Man this is the first I've heard of this one!! I'm glad you discovered the 8yr/80Kmi federal emissions warranty for the catalytic converters (of which there are THREE on these beasts). I've read of people who nearly paid for them when they shouldn't.

We've all heard of carbon build-up from the EGR system, but that generally leads to EGR related codes and not what you experienced.

I can't grasp what would have caused your issues out of the blue like that. Something like driving with a misfire long-term could cause it, but you would have had an 'early warning' so to speak.

Joel
 
#3 ·
More good news...

They took the manifold/catalytic converter off and what do you know? They're not clogged.

They have no idea what is wrong at this point. He said they're doing leakdown tests to see if it's an issue with the head gasket, but so far, they're clueless.

Going to pick up a loaner now since it's gonna be awhile before they have any answers.
 
#11 ·
Not sure what you mean by "likely the next hole to the right".

After thinking about this some more, the fact that the combustion chamber with the burnt valve is darker than the other two, it leads me to believe that it was a build up of carbon that caused a hot-spot on the valve, leading to the burn through. If it were a lean condition as I initially suspected, I would think that the combustion chamber would be hotter and therefore lighter in color due to the higher heat. Does this sound correct?

I'm wondering why only one cylinder would show carbon buildup. Is it possible that this cylinder is closest to the EGR valve? I have read that these engines have a lot of EGR issues with carbon buildup. Is it possible that the bad EGR caused my carbon buildup?

Very frustrating. I never wanted a Honda (I'm a GM guy) but the wife really wanted it so I caved in. I can't believe I'm having major engine issues at 75k. One things for sure, it will be the only Honda we ever buy.
 
#6 ·
Flashing Malfunction Indicator Lamp (Repost)

NOTE: Not sure what happened but my original acct "zabolots" was deleted for spamming. It must have something to do with the upgrade because I had only posted about 10 posts in total. Luckily I had the orig post open in another browser so I can repost it here before adding the latest info

ORIGINAL POST
'07 EX-L with 76k miles

Wife calls me while on the hwy telling me that the MIL is flashing, engine sounds "loud" and it jerking/not driving smoothly. All happened very fast after 30 miles of driving with no previous issues.

Dropped it off at the dealer within 10 minutes of all this happening. They say that the exhaust manifold is clogged, the catalytic convert is clogged and it's throwing a bunch of misfire codes.

They want to replace the manifold, catalytic converter, spark plugs and adjust the valves, all for the low, low price of $1600.

I inquired how this could happen, there were no codes thrown before this incident. Obviously, if there's enough carbon buildup to clog the manifold, it's had some sort of misfire issue for a LONG time. Also, shouldn't the cat be covered under the emissions warranty? Why do the valve adjustment?

They give me a bunch of garbage about how it might be bad gas. They don't know why it didn't throw codes earlier. Catalytic converter not covered under warranty.

I tell them that if what they say is the issue is correct, then what they are suggesting would only fix the symptom (clogged cat) and not the root cause (what caused the clogged cat). They agreed, couldn't assure me that it wouldn't happen again since they can't say for certain what caused it or why there were no previous codes.

I told them that I needed more information and I'm not going to just agree to give them $1600 when they can't even explain how this happened. They agreed to call me.

The subsequent call results in the catalytic converter being covered by the emissions warranty (as I suspected it should be) and the price drops from $1600 to less than $600.

They can't/won't explain how this happened. I still feel I'm getting screwed because it just doesn't make sense but we need the van back so I authorized the work.

Anybody else have anything like this happen? I did some searches and saw posts about bad coil packs causing issues but they're not even touching those.

FOLLOW-UP POST
More good news...

They took the manifold/catalytic converter off and what do you know? They're not clogged.

They have no idea what is wrong at this point. He said they're doing leakdown tests to see if it's an issue with the head gasket, but so far, they're clueless.

Going to pick up a loaner now since it's gonna be awhile before they have any answers.
 
#8 ·
And now for the latest: I stopped by the dealer today after authorizing work to pull the head due to no compression.

Turns out that one of the valves has a hole burnt through it, hence, no compression. The combustion chamber with the bad valve was much darker than the other two (carbon buildup?).

No estimate on cost of repair yet. My concern is that simply replacing the burnt valve will not be sufficient. Obviously something is wrong to cause this to happen. Tech said it could be bad/cheap gas (seems like a common fall-back answer for this guy) or wrong octane (we always use regular unleaded).

Usually, burnt valves/pistons means super-lean AF mixture. I'm guessing that maybe the injector is partially clogged. That's the only thing I can think of that would cause a super lean mixture in a single cylinder. I asked the service rep to ask the tech if he checked the injector but haven't heard back yet. Anyone have any other ideas?

I'm not that familiar with Honda stuff (though I must say this van has not made me a big fan) but I know on GM products if it detects a lean mixture it will throw a code to indicate that a bank is running lean. Is the Honda supposed to do anything similar? If so, wouldn't I have gotten an indication (MIL) that something was wrong well before the valve burnt through?

I haven't gotten the repair estimate yet but I'm certain it ain't gonna be pretty.
 
#9 ·
That would be me. Sorry about that. But in my defence, there is some bug in the s/w. I am going to have to get in touch with Dwayn and show it to him. Your old id's last few posts show up as a bunch of green smiley faces so I did the "one touch" that blew away your id. I have unbanned it (Yes we can now do that) and restored your thread. Thankfully, due to yet another bug, the deleted threads are only soft deleted. :)

You should be able to use your old id.
 
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