Okay..here's something stupid from a non-car person. I was braving the New England winter weather and while pulling into my driveway, I drove over what I thought was a snowmound. It wasn't. It was ice.

Well, the car drove fine for about 5 days, and now the Malfunction Indicator Light is on. Could it be related? Everything still runs fine.

I retightened the gas cap...so I'll see what that does. And I'll go to AutoZone for a free diagnosis.

Any thoughts? It's a Honda Accord 2000, V6, with 104,000 miles.

 

you can pull the code from under your seat, theres a plug under there when i get home i can tell u which plugs to jump to get te correct code

 

If you jumper those wires the MIL will flash it's code. But if you go to AZ they read it with an OBD-2 reader that has a larger more detailed list of codes. Besides, it's free...

But get the actual code number & come back here. Sometimes they get kinda 'creative' with their verbal explanations of what you gotta fix.

 

I went to AutoZone and got the code. P1491 and it said something like "Auxillary emissions control." When they brought it to the computer inside the store, it said something completely different.

I had them turn off the light, so if it is the gascap, it shouldn't go back on.

Any ideas of P1491?

 

When you ran over the chunk of ice , did you hear it hit the botom of the car?
The EVAP emission control valves are located under the car behind the driver seat. You might want to have a look underneath and see if there is damage to that unit.
The emission codes will reset after 2 drive cycles.

 

Yeah, I did hear it scrape the bottom. Is that something that would need urgent attention?

 

i would lift it up and check to see if the canister has all the hoses attached... but i would suspect a faulty purge valve .... wait till it comes on again ...

 

My list (from my '98-'99 Helm book) says that P1491 is "EGR valve lift insufficient". That's not the EVAP system at all. The EGR stuff isn't underneath the car, it's on/in the intake manifold. I don't have a V6, so it's probably a little different than mine.

Are the V6's prone to clogging their EGR ports like the I-4 engines? Cleaning them out gets kinda expensive - lots of labor.

 

Hi Jim,

Well, I noticed on my model there was a general recall regarding the ERG port back in 2001. I wonder if it was ever done on my car? I believe I got it around 2001, but never got a notice.

The link to info:
http://www.alldata.com/TSB/24/002427AX.html

 

It's sure worth a phone call to the dealer. I bet the emmissions warranty is 8yr/80k miles so you're over that. But if it was a recall item???? I believe ANY dealer can look up your VIN & tell you whether the recall applies to your car & whether it was done.