Hi. I have a 2005 Honda Odyssey EX-L with approximately 215,000 miles on it. At around 170,000 miles the check engine light started flashing. When we brought the car to our repair shop they said that it looked like we had not changed our spark plugs at the normally scheduled interval and they were right. Those spark plugs were the originals and we missed the replacement timeline. Their assessment was that there was excessive carbon build up as a result and they did a full tune up and replaced all the spark plugs and cleaned as much carbon out as they could. <\/p>\n
Afterwards, we still had the same problem where the check engine light would flash and then turn solid with occasional stints where the car would stutter and behave as if there were misfires. The diagnostic tool did confirm we had multiple random misfires that could not be attributed to any one cylinder. Over the next 30,000 miles or so we’ve been replacing as many critical parts piecemeal to see if we have the right fix to the problem. Since that time we’ve changed out:<\/p>\n
– All fuel injectors
\n– All ignition coils
\n– Fuel pump and fuel filter
\n– The intake and gaskets have been cleaned several times
\n– Plenum gasket<\/p>\n
Our mechanic recommends that we go for a compression test next since they don’t have the equipment for it but I want to exhaust all our options before we go to a dealer. We haven’t done anything over the past 15,000 miles as we have a temporary solution albeit an inconvenient one. It appears we can avoid the flashing check engine light if we rev the engine on start up until the vehicle warms up such that the temperature gauge is at the normal operating temperature. Sometimes we do this by driving in 3rd gear until the vehicle warms up. The funny thing though is that the vehicle runs smoothly afterwards if we can just have the car warmed up. <\/p>\n
When we miss our timing and the check engine light comes on we just reset it by disconnecting the battery. It’s a sad existence but we refuse to give up on our Odyssey. <\/p>\n
Incidentally we were revving the engine during cold winter mornings to warm up the car before our spark plugs gave out on us and we were wondering if that contributed to our current problem. <\/p>\n
I’d appreciate any help you can provide in providing a fix. Thanks.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"