The feared Honda check engine light is familiar to everyone: you are driving your vehicle one day and suddenly, the “check engine light” indicator shows up in your dash. What do you do? Do you bring it to the garage right away? In essence, when the Honda check engine light is on, it definitely warns you that a fault in the electronic circuit is detected. As a matter of fact, everytime any part or sensor of your engine fails, it is recorded in the computer memory. Your job is to get these codes and learn how to fix them to avoid wasting your time and money.

Here are a few things to remember about Honda check engine light:

1.) First of all identify what kind of troubleshooting system your vehicle has. Example, any Honda vehicle made before 1993 uses OBD1 where the fault codes are retrieve using a jumper wire or counting light flashes in the dash panel. Any vehicle made after 1995 strictly uses OBD2 system where you will need an engine scanner to retrieve the fault codes. This scanner is readily available and can be bought cheap instead of going to a garage that will charge you $60-$80 to scan your code once. Once you have the scanner, you can always scan it any time you see the check engine light.

2.) Assuming you are pressed for time and wants to fix the fault code yourself, get hold of a Honda fault code list/service manual and it will tell you how to check the individual sensor or circuit. For OBD1 system, here is a quick reference you can use:

http://www.extreme-check-engine-light-codes.com/HONDA_OBD1_Decoder.htm

Let say for example you have an EGR sensor fault code, just go and read everything about the sensor description, wiring and servicing and you should be on your way on fixing it. When dealing with numerous code, always fix the first one first before going to the 2nd fault code and so on. At the same time, always reset the code after each code repair is completed.

3.) To reset the fault code on pre 1993 vehicles, disconnect the battery connection for about one minute and reconnect. For newer vehicles made after 1995, the back up or ecm fuse can be removed for 10 seconds and reconnected instead. This should be located in the engine fuse panel.

Powerful Troubleshooting Honda engine light codes Tools:

1.) On pre 1993 Honda engines (OBD1), use the troubleshooting chart for testing the defective sensor or circuit which can lead you to the fix. This is available in OBD1 Honda manuals.

2.) Once a fault code is known, you can also use the search engine and any online resources to find the solution of the code like forums.

3.) On post 1995 Honda engines, you can use the wiring diagram to test the sensor or ecm (computer) wirings so you can verify and test the fault OBD2 codes. Using a digital voltmeter and few handy tools is more than enough to do the repairs. The important factor here is having the wiring diagram to help you locate the circuit and faulty wires, sensors or engine components.

Troubleshooting tips on wiring diagram:

The wiring diagram can leap frog your technical skill because of the following advantages:

1.) Identification of each sensors using their wiring colors and exact location. Using a digital voltmeter, you can access the location of the sensor plug in and voltage test the wires there to find if the sensor is shorted (wires with bare or damaged insulation) or if the sensor is open (cut or damaged wire).2.) Measuring also the resistance reading of the sensor, you can determine if the sensor is defective internally. 3.) Finally, by measuring the ecm (computer) wiring terminals for voltage, you can simply measure the power, ground and reference voltage to find out if the ecm is OK or not. And remember…all of these can be done by you by just having a scanner and wiring diagram.

NOTES:

See the pictures above showing:

How to test the engine sensors using the wiring diagram and a digital tester.
How to back probe your ecm (computer) terminals pins to verify the integrity of your ecm (you can also watch these in a VIDEO if you are an ATS member).

4.) To make the fault code analysis quicker for you, you can get a list of common fixes for the fault code and get the assistance of an online mechanic. This option is a lot cheaper than paying a garage $100 per hour to fix it for you. Besides, this will speed up your learning curve and avoid mistakes which you might do while starting up to do your own repairs.

Finally, to fix and troubleshoot a Honda check engine light, you can use this proven strategy when faced with a Honda fault code problem.

Thanks!

This entry was posted on Monday, April 21st, 2008 at 3:27 am and is filed under Check Engine Light FIXES. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.