shaolyn54

I have an 08 accord v6. Took it to the dealer today and they said that only 4 cylinders are working. I asked them if it's okay to drive around and they said it was fine. The VSA light keeps popping up for no reason. What could cause it to run on 4 cylinders and is it really okay to drive it around? Please help!

ilikehonda

is the eco light on all the time? the accords have the cylinder mgt for better gas mileage

shaolyn54

the eco light is on all the time. the dealer said they have to diagnose the head assembly and they don't know whats causing the problem. they said the "rear cylinder" is not working. i don't know what that means. does an accord have a rear cylinder?

MSchu

that diagnosis makes little sense because the front only has 3 cylinders. and since the ignition system is coil on plug, a bank going down is really unlikely.

running on less than 6 ylinders is more than likely a sensor or electrical issue... NOT a mechanical one.

your car is designed to run on less than 6 cylinders, so are you sure the dealer was simply explaining the VCM feature of your car? I doest think he was

shaolyn54

just heard from the dealer today and they said some valve seals failed and some spark plugs misfired. they replaced the valve seals, spark plugs and resurfaced the head. could this have damaged the cylinder walls? maybe made some scoring?

IT'S ME DAVID

iTrader: (1)

I dont think valve seals will make it run on 4 cylinders..

fiveten

Honda is having problems with their v6 vcm engines. the rear bank valve seals were installed incorrectly and damaged. The spark plugs begin to oil foul and cause misfires. You can get misfire codes and or vtec codes due to low oil / oil pressure. Replacing valve seals is the fix for this problem. A service bulletin will be released soon.

93HoDNA

my girlfriend has a 4cylinder one, with a little exteriors mods, should she worry about this kinda of stuff???

Is it only on V6 models??

thanks

redej878

actually Honda designed the new v6 engine to shut down an entire bank if there are 2 cylinders missing on that bank, from there the engine bumps up the idle to 1500 rpms and runs only on 3 cylinders.

also it is possible to have a mechanical issue and not have any dtcs.

redej878

we have only seen this on the v6 models. One of those did have scoring on the cylinder wall.

Angels_fall_first

i work at a honda dealer and have repaired a similar problem on a 09 honda(had 5 miles on it) odyssey that threw a check engine light and VSA during salesmen test drive with a potential customer. LOL.

it came down to the variable cylinder management hydraulic actuators sticking and making the some of the valves stick open. i replaced the whole rear cylinder head under warranty. (^_^)

VCM can make your V6 engine run on either 3 or 6 cylinders...or....3 or 4 or 6 cylinders. its depends on what version of VCM you have. VCM-I or VCM-II

09V6coupe

Bumping this to the top to go with my other thread... Looking to see if there are more occurrences of this in other V6 accords.

The dealership only states that this is a known issue and Honda is investigating. Can the user fiveten please elaborate if they know when a notice for this repair will be posted to the dealers. I do not want to take my wifes car in every few weeks for new plugs. Clearly there is a problem here.

bhonda1981

it actually does make some sense that its only running on 4 cylinders. 2008's shut down from 6-4-3 depending on what parameters the pcm is detecting. So if its running on 4 cylinders probably has 2 cylinders on the rear bank that are not firing.

Sr420Det

I know u guys are speaking of the motor cutting off a few cylinders to save gas but if oil is fouling out the plug and gas is still being injected, i imagine the cylinder walls wont be in top notch condition afterwards

MSchu

Why is that... the pistons and rings are completing a cycle no matter if they are firing or not(this actually happens during every four cycles anyway). as a matter of fact I would hazard to guess that a wall and o Ring would last longer without combustion if it was say... being turned over by an outside source.

LPED

because if its caused by fouled spark plug that means unburned fuel will wash away the oil on the cylinder walls and can give problems. Also unburned gas going out exhaust is not good for O2 and cats , will shorten there life .

Sr420Det

Yes ur an idiot, gas will act as a detergent and clean the hell out of the walls especially with all that heat too. Not only will it **** ur cylinder walls but it will also get into ur oil and deteriorate it. It wont take long of driving like that to completely destroy the properties of ur oil and bearings start spinning, etc... Plus like the dude above me said it will prematurely where out ur o2 sensors and converters. U want gas to fire not wash away the oil on ur walls and trash ur oil.

LPED

While what you say is all correct , why the attitude ?

Ed

Sr420Det

Cause i hate my life

MSchu

I understand how internal combustion works... I know how rings wash out... I know how rings seat.

Oil fowled plugs and a complaint that fuel injection will wash out the rings? come on man, get with the program

VCM works by Disengaging operation AT THE VALVES halting Fuel supply in combination with iVtec. If somehow the vales were locked open, then failure would be more likely... IF

What doesn't make sense with that idea is that if the rocker arm was locked in the OPERATION position... it would just be operating, meaning no VCM mode, just regular 6 cylinder mode

Sr420Det

read here