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Car Forum / Honda Cars / January 2005serious problem or not a serious problem
Recently my "Check engine" (malfunction) light came on in my 1997 Accord LX (194,000 miles). Took the car to a mech and was told that it was the emmission control sensor and that it would not affect the overall engine performance or give me any serious problems with the car. The light, he says, is only advising me that there is an environmental emmission problem only. He turned off the light, however it just came back on (4 days later). Question; is this a serious enough problem (engine wise) to have the sensor fixed or not? >Recently my "Check engine" (malfunction) light came on in my 1997 >Accord LX (194,000 miles). Took the car to a mech and was told that it [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >it just came back on (4 days later). Question; is this a serious enough >problem (engine wise) to have the sensor fixed or not? You need a new machanic. Yes, many of the problems that bring that light up are trivial, but not all of them. Pull the code and see what's the problem. http://www.tegger.com/hondafaq/faq.html#retrieve > Recently my "Check engine" (malfunction) light came on in my 1997 > Accord LX (194,000 miles). Took the car to a mech and was told that it [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > it just came back on (4 days later). Question; is this a serious enough > problem (engine wise) to have the sensor fixed or not? I am assuming the "emission control sensor" is the oxygen sensor. You car should have two of them, one before the catalytic converter, one after. The first one is essential for proper engine performance, the fuel injection system uses the output of this sensor to regulate air / fuel mixture. If it is broken, the engine will still run, but it will be running rich, pollute more and likely use more gas. Running rich can also cause more gas to make its way into the oil, causing more wear on the engine. The second oxygen sensor is there to measure the effectiveness of the catalytic converter. When the second oxygen sensor throws an error code, it is usually because the catalytic converter is no longer up to spec or because the second oxygen sensor is broken. If the cat is bad, you will be polluting more than you should, and depending on what is wrong with the cat your performance and fuel economy might suffer. If the second oxygen sensor is broken (and if nothing else is wrong) there should be no ill effects. Depending on where you live, you might not be able to pass inspection with this kind of problem, in which case you will need to fix the problem eventually. Since your mechanic didn't tell you exactly what the problem is, I'd have it fixed sooner rather than later. I probably should have been more ( a lot more) clearer an what the mechanic did say. He said it was the second sensor and that I would have no problems with the engine. This was after he ran the diagnostics test. I was looking for second opinions when I asked the question because as I said the light came back on. You verified everything he told me, thanks. I am going to get the sensor fixed but not right now. Again thanks for the very clear response. > > Recently my "Check engine" (malfunction) light came on in my 1997 > > Accord LX (194,000 miles). Took the car to a mech and was told that it [quoted text clipped - 27 lines] > problem eventually. Since your mechanic didn't tell you exactly what the > problem is, I'd have it fixed sooner rather than later. |
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