jeffmath

I am sharing my experience because I feel this may be a common problem with the Accords and think I may now know what is causing the issue, hard starts. I am a self-taught mechanic so I don't have any professional advice, only an observation. My wife has a 2012 Honda Accord EX-L 4 cyl. We have had issues in the past with the crank shaft position sensor throwing misfire codes. Changed coil packs, plugs, CPK sensor and still had to take it to a mechanic to force a re-learn of the timing sequence with diagnostic equipment. All was well until last week. CEL showing the same codes and car was in limp mode. I once again checked the coil packs, fuel injectors, spark plugs, even removed CPK Sensor and put some dielectric grease on the connectors to rule out a connection issues. Cleared all codes with my Autel code reader and car still would go into limp mode. I had only made short trips up and down my street and when limp mode would engage, I would repeat code clearing and test drive again. Still would not come out of limp mode. Anyway, I made arrangements to bring to my mechanic for him to reprogram the computer. I drove towards his shop which is about 5 miles away and the car was in limp mode. I made a pit stop at a gas station and stopped the car. Then I continued to his shop. Car CEL was still on, but not flashing and the car was running normally. It is frustrating after spending all weekend on this issue.

I am posting this because I returned to the house and cleared the computer and no codes are now in the system. This all started when my wife said she had a hard cold crank start leaving for work one morning. After speaking with my mechanic, he said it can take up to 3 drive cycles in limp mode for the computer to reprogram the timing sequence.

My suggestion is to follow this advice if you have had issues with this as well. When starting the car, wait for the dash light to go off before starting the vehicle so as to let the fuel pump come to a proper pressure. Don't crank till kingdom come to start the car. If it doesn't start right up, wait a second and try again. If it does go into limp mode, drive 2-3 miles and turn off the engine. Repeat this 2 more times to see if the computer resets. If you are noticing that your car is having a hard start issue, run a can of Sea Foam or Lucas Fuel treatment thru a full tank of gas to clean the injectors and fuel system. If you can't get the car out of limp mode in this method, the only other thing I think is to bring it somewhere for a reprogram.

This is a frustrating problem to figure out and I spent a good bit of money and time changing out parts that may not have been necessary to fix.

Hope this helps. Jeff