Hey, folks. Had a car problem this evening. I know we have some auto mechanics and knowledgeable automotive folks here, so throwing this out there to see if anyone has insight:
2017 Honda CRV - @CyclingGirl was driving, accelerating onto a highway, and said the car wasn’t accelerating normally, and the check engine light was flashing. We pulled over and turned the car off to see if it would reboot. We switched seats, and I started driving. When we turned the car on again, I don’t think there were any error messages. I pulled out and started to accelerate, the car shuddered, and the check engine light flashed. I tried to continue to accelerate, and the car continued to shudder. Then a whole bunch of error lights and messages came on. I pulled over. One of the flashing lights was the parking brake indicator, so I checked the parking brake. The brakes seemed initially on, but eventually hitting the parking brake release, the brakes did release. I drove the car slowly and carefully, and it seemed to be behaving normally except for a whole bunch of warning lights and messages on the dash, so carefully drove home.
Error messages are:
Adaptive cruise control problem
Collision mitigation system problem
Road departure mitigation problem
Electric parking brake problem
Tire pressure monitor system problem
Emissions system problem
Brake hold system problem
Power steering system (EPS) problem
Vehicle stability system problem
Hill start assist problem
Seems like a bunch of unrelated systems, so thinking computer or electrical system issue. The vehicle goes to the dealer tomorrow for diagnosis.
Umm. Weird. Check engine can be a lot of things as you listed. Dealer will know best. I guess you could Google to see what other 2017 CRV owners have experienced.
Auto manufacturers recommend safely stopping and having a vehicle towed when the check engine light is flashing especially when there are drivability issues. If the light is solid and vehicle is driving normally it is okay to drive it and have the car scanned.
Googling a bit - the most common suggestions are battery and fuel injectors. Seems a number of people with multiple error messages are having fuel injectors replaced.
The misfire is causing the check engine light to flash. It typically flashes when continuing to drive could damage the catalytic converter. I’d tackle the misfire first; depending on your ability, it’s easier to move the spark plug to a different cylinder and move the ignition coil to a different cylinder again, then drive and see what part the problem follows.
For example move the spark plug to cylinder 2 and coil to cylinder 4. Write this down! When you drive again, and it shudders, rescan. If the miss is now on 2, it followed the spark plug.
Don’t forget to check the battery connections. Loose negatives (black cables) can cause all sort of weird faults.
Thanks for all the suggestions and advice, everyone.
On the advice of Colonial Honda, had the car towed (flatbedded) to the dealership.
They replaced the Evap Purge Valve (probably because of the PO401 and PO441 codes), and diagnosed the cylinder 3 misfire as a result of water intrusion on the spark plug. Dried out the plug and boot, and reconnected.
Seems like an odd collection of errors from those two issues, but these modern vehicles and their computers…?
Took the car for a drive last night and drove to work this morning. Seems to be running normally, and no errors reported.
On the plus side, 1300km left on warranty, so part of the repair didn’t cost me anything.
