dickaur

I started this thread in hopes of finding someone that has previously solved this problem but no luck so far. This is now my third winter with this problem.
I have made some progress however -
My car has been at the dealership for over a week and they were able to drive the car while it was snowing and record on their scanner/ computer several times when it jerked. They sent this information to Honda Engineering and are now working through checks and suggestions from Honda Engineering.
Most likely culprit is something to do with the mass air flow sensor system although the sensor was replaced once already without effect.

clp

Ihave a 2006 Accord 5 spd manual and this winter it is doing exactly the same as yours, in shop, no codes etc, The MAF sensor was cleaned, read your forum, called the dealership and they stated they haven't recieved any thing from honda engineering about the problem, VERY INTERESTED and looking forward to your answers from Honda when you recieve them. Please let me know!!!

ellas22

2007 5 spd accord. I also have the same intermittant jerking problem with no codes. Seems to jerk more when it's snowing out. On dry days it may not do it at all. Made a two hour highway drive on business two days ago. On the way there did not do it at all. On the way back while driving into light blowing snow it jerked around 15 times. The Honda tech was puzzled when I had him drive the car. He felt the jerks and had no ideas on how to proceed. Charged me $85 for the test drive though. Thanks! I took it to another mechanic who replaced the spark plugs and a sensor and did some additional investigative work. $600.00. ,,and he is puzzeled as to why that didn't fix the problem. Thanks! Took it to a third mechanic who said the car runs great and charge me $100.00 for that. Thanks! I'm now up to almost $800 and no one has any ideas. The mechanics consensus seems to be "keep driving it until your engine dies, then we should be able to figure out the problem" If anyone solves this issue, please post. Although I'm not very optimistic at this point. The only thing I am 100% certain of is that I will never purchase a Honda EVER again. These cars are not designed for cold winters.

dickaur

Running out of snowy days to fix my car (third winter now I've had the car with this problem). We took a short winter vacation and left the car at the dealer for them to test. Basically whenever its snowing here in Edmonton or the forecast is for snow, I try to get the car in to the dealer.
So far they have replaced the MAF twice, the O2 sensor, and the manifold pressure sensor - all without correcting the hesitation problem.
Next step they are going to try is to replace the car's computer. Let's hope that works.

ponzy

no code, then its a hit and miss diagnosis.

it sounded like spark, air or fuel.

check for spark plugs ( is it with in recommended gap), use OEM stuff only if possible, ignition coil, ground.

ruled out air on MAF(new maf is ok but faulty maf connector may be the culprit - clean it with dielectric cleaner), check vaccum leak, loose hoses, crimped hoses, or leaky
tb spacer/gasket, egr sensor, port ( remove, inspect, clean and reinstall). if you had recently done TB/manifold work on that car, check for loose bolt on the intake manifold (maybe a crack or something there) or just a missing gasket ( try the sopy spray technique. put water and some downy dishwashing liquid in a sparay bottle -- spray good amount on TB/intake manifold area/ vacvum lines and LISTEN, if the idle changes or you see some bubbles then you might have a leak down there). if everythings checks out ok, check your exhaust, check O2 sensors, catalytic converter( could cause hesitation, loss of power, jerking and lurching esp on 2000-3500 rpm if cat is clogged)

rule out fuel, check fuel pressure, fuel injectors, injector harness.

lol, well i guess everything here mentioned was done by honda tech anyway.....

good luck,

ponzy

try to measure the fuel pressure while driving...

drive up north, its snowing right now and tomorrow too.....

lol

93b20z

Check for shortage/open wire at maf, make sure its clean, check vacuum to the engine.. open or cracked intake boot intake boot anywhere water might affect performance..

way1019

Problem solved!

I took a gamble and replaced the air filter. After replacing the filter, I went through a rediculous snow storm and had NO JERKING what so ever!!!!! WOOHOO!!! Its been 2 months and have not had it happen since

The mechanic at the shop I take the car to thought I was rediculous for thinking it was the air filter but who gets the last laugh!!! Such a cheap fix for something I thought was catastrophic.

The filter didn't look bad but because of how the cover is on the filter my guess is that the filter might not have been seated properly. This allowed the snow to pass through and hit the MAF sensor which sent a current spike to the ECU which made it think it sucked in a huge amount of air which would cause the engine to compensate and by giving less fuel and then end up with a misfire but no code because it was compensating for the "amount of air" which was actually a snow flake.

Hopefully you guys get the same results! Its worth a shot

ponzy

if thats the case then, rain might cause the same issue again.. pls do update this thread if anything happens again like in month to month update basis.

it will help others as well. thank you.

dickaur

That's great if it is just a problem with the air filter. I know my air filter has been replaced and has been taken in and out a few times so maybe there is a defect in the way it is sealed - i.e. gaps etc. I'll will have to take a look.

An update on the attempted repairs at the dealership.

The car's computer was replaced and there was no improvement. The car still jerked during a snow fall. The mechanics were able to drive it again and took a few more data captures and sent them off to Honda Engineering.

Unfortunately it looks like the end of another winter without the problem having been solved by Honda.

joeparocks

Was anyone else able to try changing the air filter that Way1019 suggested? I've been having the same thing happen with my 07 Accord (automatic) and the only thing I could find that stopped it was not to drive over 50 mph when it was snowing. Would love to know if the air filter is really the culprit- guess I just have to wait for winter again...

ellas22

I read the post about changing the air filter. I recalled that the problem had started the same season I had one of those econo lube places change the filter to a generic. I took the car to honda and had the filter changed to genuine honda filter in the fall. So far through two large, windy snow storms car has not misfired. I think this is indeed the problem and it is the only logical reason as to why it would only happen only during snow fall. I have my fingers crossed that this has solved the problem. I will update the post in a month or so, hopefully with good news. Everybody else, please think back if you had a generic engine air filter put into your car shortly before this started to happen.

dickaur

I am very hopeful you have found the fix. I bought the car 2 years old so I do not know if it had a generic filter. It definitely jerked again badly in last week's snowfall.
I made a brief attempt last year to take the air filter cover off but the hoses on the canister prevented me from being able to move it out of the way of the body enough to pull it out. Most difficult vehicle I have had for accessing the air filter. Anyone have any tricks?

DCFIVER

And the dealership "techs" and Honda engineering did not detect this? All of that information is shown via scan data. I doubt the Honda "techs" would have found the problem. Glorified parts swappers with out an inkling of technical merit. But Im surprised Honda engineering did not find the problem. My guess is the engineers never looked at the car or data and it sat in the parking lot. Your problem is a very common occurance on Fords. Of course Ford has been using MAF's for over 20 years. Honda just started about 6-7 years ago, and still not all of their models use the MAF.

dickaur

I took my Accord in to a Honda (non dealer) shop and had the air filter replaced with a non OEM filter but I was told this was made by the same manufacturer. No labor charge! Hopefully this will do it.
I checked the old filter and there might have been a couple of areas where the snow could have passed through the filter. A couple of the pleats showed rips which might let snow through. Near the engine end of the filter, the ribbed gasket showed dirt in each of the grooves suggesting that dust was capable of passing by the gasket. See the attached pictures.

George Knighton

Thank you for persisting with providing information.

I remember back when you first started talking about this, I didn't know what to think.

accordion8183

Hey dickaur,

Can you update us if changing the filter solved the problem?

I have started to see the same problem in my accord (4 cyl 07) since last 2-3 days. Reading the post I realized that I have noticed the problem only when it snows (even if it is light snow) and on freeways.

The only change has been that I got the tires replaced and oil changed a couple of weeks back and they checked to see if the air filter has to be replaced but it was not replaced.

clp

I read the entry on replacing air filter, My 2006 Accord did start this problem when air filter was changed by Valvoline with generic one, Took car to dealership and had honda filter placed. They stated filter was "subpar" but really did not believe that it would fix problem. Had some light blowing snow finally and car did have occasional miss, but only slight, "one cylinder misfiring", not the violent jerking like last winter, Have not looked at car's filter, for I know how hard it is to get on off, believe this issue may contribute to problem for reseating of cover may be worn which allows small amount of direct air to blow into and onto air filter, thus only light snow can get in and then occumulation of snow(mositure) on air filter drips to MAF, then misfiring occurs. I feel that the decrease in misfiring of my car is do to airfilter being of several plys and oil film which is on filter. It did not solve my problem but lessen it. Please reply if any one thinks my theory may be on right track. Has anyone opened up and checked the airfilter right after driving in snow storm when cars has been doing the hesitation and seeing if snow or moisture is built up on air filter?

ellas22

The Filter is absolutely the problem. I've noticed there are some skeptics but you can't argue with facts. I went through hell with this issue last year spending thousands of dollars fixing parts for no reason trying to resolve the issue. Yes, finally the filter change stopped the misfire problem during snow. This is 100% confirmed as I have driven over 15k this winter through many many snow storms and have not had the problem. However, driving so long last year with the faulty filter allowed not only snow, but also dirt and road debris to get into the engine oil which has resulted in premature engine wear. Whover has this problem better also keep their eyes on their engine oil dipstick. The dirt gets into your oil and tears away at your piston rings causing an oil consumption problem.

Chance666

I completely agree with you but If you mean the air filter.
According to the owners manual, this model does not have traction control.
Thanks for sharing.

dickaur

Thank you to all the posts on this topic. It certainly is/was an aggravating problem. Not even the best minds at Honda engineering were able to solve it. The dealer had my car instrumented with their OBD and drove it in the snow and recorded all of the jerking and sent the data to head office but no solutions even after replacing the car's computer, MAF, and ABS brake module.

I had the air filter replaced a couple of months ago and wouldn't you know it, we have had a very mild winter out west. So far I have only driven in one snow fall and based on no hesitations during that drive, I would say the air filter was the problem.

I suspect some of the folds failed and on acceleration, the cracks opened due to the air pressure and allowed snow to hit the MAF causing the cars computer to shut off engine power. When the air filter was out and held to the light the cracks would not have been visible. The other less likely possibility in my case is a faulty edge gasket. See my pictures from a few posts back.

Moonlightstar16

I'm so glad I found this thread because I've had this problem for almost two years now. I have a Nissan Rogue and 4 mechanics and 2 Nissan service centers could not figure out what was going on! It was in the shop yesterday getting a final diagnostic for the problem because mechanic tried to reproduce it in the snow and it snowed yesterday. He reproduced the problem but could not tell me why it was happening. He said it was probably transmission related and to take it to the dealership. Except, I brought it to two different Nissan dealerships and they did a full transmission diagnostic with no problems found. I lost hope until I did some googling and found this threat! I read about the air filter replacement and decided to try it. IT WORKED!!!! Turns out my old air filter had a faulty seal (seals were worn and warped) and the snowflakes were coming in! My car drove like a beast last night in the snow and no bucking of the engine. Luckily, it snowed enough last night. The road conditions would have definitely caused the engine bucking but it didn't after replacement! I can't thank everyone enough for having this discussion!

Rafael O

[QUOTE=dickaur;44259036]Reply to Redbull-1
The hesitation is much stronger than simply taking the pedal off the gas. It is like a total loss of power or misfire, or a momentary application of the brakes so I don't think it is throttle position. I think it’s just how the traction control works. It happened to me I’m snow but only when I was going up a hill n it did it bcuz I started to spin to much so it cuts the throttle so the tires won’t spin n just grip to get u up a hill

Tommer74

‘07 5 speed. I’m glad I stumbled upon this. I happen to change the air filter one day, the next day it was snowing and the car was jerking quite a lot. Looks like I am going to buy an OEM air filter and install it. It’s too bad because I find changing the air filter to be a pain in the rear.