All,

We have a 2008 Odyssey with 60k miles. EX-L if it matters.

Yesterday I had brought it to a tire/battery place to have the 2 rear tires replaced. Knowing that it was due for an oil change and seeing that service listed on their board, I asked them to do that too. I always do this myself with Honda filters and Mobil-1, but was moving to a new home and just haven't had the time.

They show me the air and cabin filters (I did not ask them to) and show me they are dirty - they are original and yeah, they needed to be replaced, but I don't want to pay their prices, so I say I will do it myself.

They get the van buttoned up and take it for a test ride. According to their tech, it started to surge and act strange when he brought it back into the lot.

Says they are going to try to fix it. They give it back to me saying it is fixed. I get in it, start it and immediately the idle starts to bounce from the normal idle (1000 rpm?), down to 500, then up and down a bit then stall. It does this repeatedly.

With all the activity (tried starting it a few more times), the battery finally goes below the threshold of starting (it was the original battery and resulted in a no start a few weeks back...jumped it and all had been well since...was going to replace before winter as it was due). They suggest a new battery and I agreed because 1) it was due and 2) I have seen strangeness with modern cars and bad batteries before.

Did not fix the problem. Wound up having it towed to the local Honda dealership who checked the air box (as it had been disturbed by the tire place) and found all the electric/vacuum connections to be good.

They asked me if I thought that the technician had failed to put oil back in before starting it. Not sure about that one...

But, at this point, I am really doubting all the technical "expertise" I've encountered in the last 24 hours.

Any thoughts on what could have broken, become disconnected, etc that would turn a well running Odyssey into one that fails to hold idle and stalls?

I sincerely hope that the Honda dealer is not trying to sell me a new engine...that angle seems to be a bit far fetched. Any thoughts on that line of reasoning? They've not done a compression test yet (at least that they've mentioned) but that should help determine if the engine is foobar I would think.

The technician was babbling about the ECM having to relearn after a new battery was put in. I understand that this happens, but doesn't the ECM just go back to set points and then learn from there? Just more BS from them. Idle speed is not something it has to learn.

Couple of other observations:

When the technician was trying to put the spare back in, I noticed them trying to shove it (with enough energy to move the car around) into the space under the floor in back of the front seats. Ran out into the bay to show them that it actually goes in the back on the side. Is there anything in that area that could have been disturbed and cause this problem?

Apologies for the length of this post, but wanted to get all the facts down. I never bring my vehicles to places like this - but circumstances being what they were... Also considering taking it out of the hands of the Honda dealer given their suggestion that the issues

Thanks for reading...

Sam

 

Some additional information:

CEL does not light. The Honda tech (it's a the dealer now) says that it throws a code, but that it gets erased when it stalls (?). This sounds odd to me.

 

The code does not erase on OBD 2 vehicles. The CEL may be off but the code will be stored, if not as current then as a history code.



Dealership technicians are not paid very well for diagnostic time(I was once one), so it does not benefit a dealership tech to spend time trying to accurately diagnose your problem. I suggest a Google search for a good independent repair shop.




An idle relearn is a possibility, though unlikely the problem. Sorry I cannot be of more help.

 

The car is now fixed. Evidently the MAF sensor needed to be "reprogrammed" (according to the service manager).

I wasn't aware that the MAF could be programmed...as it is just a sensor. Perhaps some limits needed to be set in the ECU or something....but it all seems to be resolved now.

Thanks!

 

He was lying. The MAF does not have a provision for programming, it is not a module. Most likely the MAF was disconnected, or not fully seated.



At least the car is fixed now.

 

Yep - I figured he was. Nothing new.