Outer Limits 4x4 Board

I own a 2006 CR-v sport (wifes car) bought it new in Sept 2006. I has been a reliable car for towing the boat (I have a 455 hornet trophy with a 50 yamaha 4 stroke) trailer with logs and stuff to the dump, and bringing larger items home that wont fit in a normal car, or need to be out of the weather (the 12-HT engine block out of my 60 series when I had the machine work done to it before rebuilding it)

My only issue is that just a few days ago, the missus and I left Cairns to go on holiday to Darwin. (we were going to take the cruiser and the boat, but I didn't finish the work I was doing on the cruiser, thats another story) On getting to Cardwell, about 200klms south of Cairns I noticed a warning light on the dash on: in the shape of an engine. We pulled over and read the owners manual to see what it was. It basically was a warning light saying "something" was wrong with emissions system. I have RACQ service so rang them, bloke came out and said there was nothing he could do and get to a Honda dealer as soon as possible.

We drove to Townsville (about 150klms) and got a hotel room for the rest of the day as it was Sunday and 10am, great start to the holiday!! Anyway, after a few hours and a meal I did some research on the net and found a lot of people had experienced "false" warning lights and many were because the fuel cap was not screwed down tight enough

So car had cooled down, went out and started it up, no light. Went for a drive, no light. Decided to keep going early next morning, and have the car service here in Darwin and let them know. Got it serviced today and was told there were two codes stored, one was for a sensor fault on a wheel (WTF does that have to do with the engine?) and the other was for a sensor that apparently can play up if the engine oil is low, which I know it wasnt (checked it before we left) but can go off if the wrong oil is used (told all this by the dealer in Darwin) however I have always had the car serviced by a Honda dealer, so should be good.

In general I am happy with the car (I think it is a car, not a 4x4 or SUV) but research has showed that honda has a few issues with this warning light in other models as well as the CRV.

Has anyone here with a CRV ever experienced false engine malfunction lights??

Just because the car doesn't do anything wrong doesn't mean the light is "false"

It seems that the "check engine" light is now labelled "emissions" in most owners manuals these days.

Generally, the check engine light will light if the computer sees an error. It doesn't mean there is anything necessarily wrong with the car, only that the software has seen a value from a sensor that doesn't match what it was expecting.

Instead of having lights for all sorts of different things, and the driver having to figure out what each light means, they have a catch-all light that tells you to see a dealer, where they will read the trouble codes and repair the fault.

In the case of your car, it may well have been a wheel speed sensor fault. Does this have anything to do with the engine? Well, it sure does on any car where traction control is capable of pulling power out of the engine. If the false value from the wheel speed sensor happened to indicate, for instance, that a wheel was doing more revs than the other three, the car would apply the brakes and if that was still ineffective, if would cut power to the motor - so in a real sense, yes, the fault might well appear "engine related" - you would have no power.

In our old Mini cooper S, a wheel speed sensor fault threw on the ABS/Traction control AND check engine light, and every time I hit the brakes the ABS would go off. It was interesting to drive, to say the least.

These wheel speed sensors are mounted (as you'd imagine) at the wheels and they live in a poor environment. They can and do give trouble and occasional false signals.

Once a check engine light has come on, it will not go out until the ignition has been turned off and back on again. This will not clear the code though, only turn the light off.

To clear a code, you can disconnect the battery, open a door, turn the interior light on etc to ensure the car is totally de-energised, and then reconnect the battery, and start the car normally.

If, once you've done this, the light doesn't come on again- all good. If it does, take it to a dealer.

PS some cars have diagnostic links so you ca read the trouble codes without a dealer scan tool. The check engine light will flash out a code that corresponds to the problem. Not sure if they are still common with OBD-II/OBDIII cars, but they are pretty common on older EFI cars. An FSM will tell all.

Steve.

Fox22 wrote: Ohh! look at that! Stock Recovery points!!! How did you guys with your first hand CRV experiences miss those!?? Mine are somewhat hidden by my homemade brush guard attached to the stock-provided mounting points of the tow tabs and front crumple zone.. Some jeep guys from krawlerz once challenged its integrity and the end result was 5 guys lifting the front of the car clear off the ground with it.

I don't want to get involved in this stoush as I'm happy to let people so what they want without forcing my opinions on them but are you sure these are stock recovery points? I've never looked twice at a CRV for any reason but they sure don't look factory stock to me.

To the OP: Congrats on buying a car that suits your needs perfectly.

To everyone else: Why do so many people seem to have the opinion that anyone wanting an offroader MUST have a hardcore off road beast. If someone only wants to use their car for simple off road tasks, then why cant they buy a simple off road vehicle? There's no doubt that the CRV is not as good offroad as most of the other fourbies on this site, but it suits the needs of the poster, so who cares?

Someone said that he may as well have bought a 2wd because they can do everything that he does except for the beach driving....... maybe a good point, except that the OP does beach driving! if he bought the 2wd like you suggested he wouldn't be able to use it to do what HE wants to do. Instead, he bought a CRV which perfectly allows him to do everything that he wants.

Personally I own a suzuki sierra. Tough as nails, awesome offroad... but you know what? It spends 90% of its life on road, and I only get to take it offroad on the weekend.... therefore all I can say is that the OP has a more sensible choice of car than I do! Mine is substandard (but passable) 90% of the time and great 10% of the time... his is great 90% of the time (on road) and sunstandard (but passable) 10% of the time.