Reapermen

Long story ahead, with ranting...so bear with me please....i am not a car guy and have little knowledge in them.

So my GF is a honda lover. And she just moved out with me last week. We went and bought her a 2006 CRV SE, honda certified pre owned. We pay for it and go to pick it up monday. The guy who sold it to us takes it to get inspected. We wait an hour. He shows back up, tells us the place he went had the PC they used for inspections "reboot" 3 times. So he finally gave up and said we could leave it there and they could do it another day or we can take it home and do it ourselves. Well the dealership is one hour drive, so we opted to do it ourselves.

We bring the car in to get inspected at a local garage, they say first thing, that the car comes up as a Retest for failing yesterday. Odd...Then they try to test it and the car comes back and says "ODB2 Sensor not ready". They told us to bring it back to the place we bougth it there is a problem.

So we take it the hour drive back to the dealer, very unhappy i spent 19K on a car for it to fail inspection, even though it is "certified preowned". We are told by the dealership that they have never heard of an ODB2 sensor, only an O2 sensor. Which is odd cause googling ODB2 sensor for hondas pull up thousands of hits. >_>

The dealer gives us the run around saying this happens to 3 out of every 20 cars he sells. And that if we pulled ANY car off his lot they would all fail the same thing until they are driven 50 miles. So we ask him to prove it, inspect any car on the lot, he declines. We then state, well we drove it 48+ miles home yesterday and just drove it another 48+ back here today. It should be ready then. So they retest it for us after we argue with the sales manager for 30 minutes. Still showing as "Not Ready". Not happy. Not in the slightest.

Then they said to leave it with them and they will make it ready and get it inspected and have it ready for us today. I don't trust them. Not in the slightest. I am infuriated now that i have wasted so much time driving back and forth on this.

So we are going back today to pick it up and hope it is ok. We intend to pay another $30 to get it inspected ourselves to make sure 100% it is ok. The car supposedly showed no error codes to the honda tech who looked at it, just that the ODB2 sensor was not ready.

So is this as common of a problem as they say? that anytime the battery is removed that this happens. And that they need to drive it for an hour solid to make the problem go away? And how does one certify a car as "certified pre owned" if it couldn't pass inspection? I was ready to rip the guys head off yesterday.

/rant

Any help or opinions would be appreciated greatly. Thanks

Splaturn

Three things:

Communication
Monitor Readiness Status
and DTC and MIL status.

Essentially you need to log enough mileage and drive cycles for the computer to "learn" driving habits (how much fuel to inject, when to shift, etc.). I'll quote something for you.

(http://www.smogtips.com/functional_inspection.cfm)
Different cars react differently. This is why if you clear codes right before you smog, you'll most likely fail at the very end (where they connect OBD2 to DLC).

So before you jump down some poor salesman's throat (they clear the car's code after inspection and do another road test, usually not enough to complete a cycle, to ensure the light won't come back on) research it. Before we smogged the mustang, it took me almost 4 hours or driving because this is an area where certain fords are flawed/finnicky.

Does it happen when the batt is removed? Certainly. And when codes are erased (the link i sent you explains that there are good ones, too), it has to be relearned.

Also your mechanic is wrong, there infact isn't an OBD2 sensor. Instead it's an OBD2 system monitor. When I google "unicorns" i get millions of hits. Doesn't mean they're real.








I'm not discrediting you. Infact, I applaud your willingness to stand up for what you think you deserve. But seek a second or third opinion before jumping down the guys throat. He's just a sales man, not a mechanic.

Reapermen

i thank you for your opinion and help in this matter. It is much appreciated. And for the record, the mechanic was with the sales guy the whole time backing up EVERYTHING he said.

And yes i can google unicorns...and get tons of hits...however when i google unicorns i don't get links directly to honda car sites like this that all have threads relating to it like i did with the OBD.

edit: and trust me i was civil up until i kept getting the run around. I am a very nice person and it takes a lot, and i mean A LOT to **** me off. You have to try very hard...and oh did he. Took a lot of concentration and effort to just walk away from this and not say some things i wanted to say.

i still want to know how it passes as "certified preowned" if this was already an issue with it. Shouldnt at least one of the x many hundred certification tests have found this issue????

Splaturn

The issue is that it HASN'T cycled yet, not that it WON'T cycle.

Here are a few tips that may or may not work on cycling an OBD2 ECU/PCM

http://www.obdii.com/drivecycle.html
http://www.obdii.com/drivecycleford.html
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you..._a_honda_civic
http://www.aa1car.com/library/ic10224.htm

Take your pick, and good luck!

(you can try to google a specific one for the CRV though the civic link should work.)

Reapermen

Gotcha. Thank you for your time and help in this. It is GREATLY appreciated. I am sorry if i sound miffed. I just don't like dropping $19k on something to find out it doesn't work right out of the box. Ya know. Just makes you lose a lot of faith.

After this is set up properly, would we have to worry about this happening again, in a years time or whatever? I mean we have no intention of removing the battery unless it is neccessary, so that won't come into play. I just want to know we aren't gettting ourselves into some kind of trouble later on down the road.

I thank you again for all your help. I have ZERO car knowledge other then how to pump gas and change tires. So anything you say i am very grateful to hear. :D

Splaturn

It will not effect your driving with the exception of it will use a little more gas until it learns your driving behavior.

You will not have to worry about this, unless you remove the battery or delete any OBD codes before your smog test (if it's required).

I fully understand you about dropping that kinda cash for something that's not working or performing as it should. I complain when my big mac comes with onions when I specifically asked for none.

All I can say is drive the car for a few days. Don't baby it. That's how it'll learn where it should shift (not all automatics are the same), and how much fuel it needs to deliver according to your elevation, and how you make you happy.

Good luck, post pics of the CRV when you get a chance, and make sure you don't get your leg pulled by the mechanic or dealer.