[Cbayman]

thanks. is there anything in the description of the spark plug threads color to indicate blow by or is that normal? so far so good with no intermittent misfire after 3 around town trips.

If the spark plug was not properly torqued it may have been leaking causing low compression in cylinder 3. Excessive blow by caused by worn cylinder rings can result in oil fouling the spark plug which will result in misfires. If that were the case you would definitely see oil on the spark plug tip as well as excessive oil consumption.

 

[Cbayman]

If it starts misfiring again, swap the coil packs on 2 and 3 to see if the misfire follows the coil pack.

 

[Cbayman]

You‘re not the only one experiencing intermittent flashing CELs followed by nomDTCs. Use the search function and search “flashing CEL” to find other threads on this problem.

 

[Cbayman]

It may be helpful to look at mis fire count PIDs. Mode 6 generic OBDII data contains locations for present and last drive cycle mis-fire counts by cylinder. It‘s not unusual to see the counters register a few random misfires but if you see a cylinder dominating misfire counts, it could point to an issue in that cylinder. It’s important to know if the misfires are random across all cylinders or is primarily in 1 cylinder. When you say no codes are stored, does this include pending codes? No misfires recorded in mode 6 data?

 

[Cbayman]

If you have a scanner you may want to drive the scenario that caused the mis-fire with the scanner attached. When you park, check the mis-fire PIDs before turning off the engine. It’s possible to have mis-fires but below the threshold to declare a fault and flash the CEL.

 

[Cbayman]

Maybe a fuel delivery issue? For those reporting the problem, what was the fuel level when the fault occurred?

 

[Cbayman]

Interesting that this is occurring on new RLs but no recent reports on the Pilot, PP and Ody forums and there are a lot more new Pilots and Odys on the road than RLs. There is 1 report from 2016 of a 2016 Pilot with a similar issue. That owner reported the gas tank was also most dry when the problem occurred. A few others chime in on thread with tanks that are not almost empty. The thread is in the link below - no definitive cause was found.

Flashing Check Engine Light? Misfire?

Driving 65-75mph in my Pilot Elite & engine light starts flashing, engine suddenly loses power except enough to maintain speed or at least try to. Empty car except me, no trailer, straight flat highway road. It would maintain 65-70mph but no more and acceleration was almost non-existent...

www.piloteers.org

Also this report from 2020 on the PP forum

Limp Mode - Engine Issue?

Hi everyone, I am new to the community... I have owned my 2020 Passport Elite AWD for two months now, have put 3,000 miles on so far. This past weekend I was driving for about 2 hours and when I went to merge onto a highway the check engine light flashed a couple of times and limited the car to...

www.passportforums.com

But nothing like the frequency of reports on the RL forum.

 

[Cbayman]

I think that makes six on this thread, I think there are at least 4-5 other on other threads. All 2021-22s and I think all RTL-Es or BEs?

I called Honda and opened a case but they were no help. My dealer replaced the injectors and I am waiting to see if it happens again but no coordination through Honda NA which is super disappointing.

Most likely the dealer contacted Honda for troubleshooting assistance and was told to replace the injectors after providing data to Honda. I doubt the dealer would get paid for replacing the fuel injectors without authorization from Honda. There could be a full investigation going on at Honda that owners are not aware is in process. The NHTSA website contains a data base of complaints, recalls, investigations and manufacturer communications. A complaint for a similar problem has been submitted to the NHTSA:

2021 HONDA RIDGELINE PU CC | NHTSA

www.nhtsa.gov

All owners with this problem should log a complaint with the NHTSA as it is a safety issue.
The manufacture communication section of the data base contains TSBs and dealer messages related to technical issues. An example of Honda asking for TPMS related information is shown here:

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/2021/MC-10205460-0001.pdf

The NHTSA data base isn’t always updated In a timely manner but it contains a wealth of information that should be viewed on a regular basis.
Given that 41K RLs were sold last year, even if 400 trucks have this problem that would be a small percentage of RLs sold. Of course this is no comfort if your truck has the problem. But given that this appears to be a rare failure brought on by cold weather, it’s going to take time for Honda to understand the root cause of the problem.
Curiously there’s no reports of this on the Pilot forum which sold 140K units last year. The PP forum does have a few reports.

Limp Mode - Engine Issue?

Hi everyone, I am new to the community... I have owned my 2020 Passport Elite AWD for two months now, have put 3,000 miles on so far. This past weekend I was driving for about 2 hours and when I went to merge onto a highway the check engine light flashed a couple of times and limited the car to...

www.passportforums.com

 

[Cbayman]

thanks for the link. I just registered a complaint. This has happened to me 6 times since November 2021 through April 16, 2022. Dealer and Honda haven't been willing or able to deal with this. Makes me extremely angry...no confidence in the truck to take it on long trips. Strongly considering getting rid of it.

What region of the country did these incidents occur? What was the outside temperature? All similar circumstances - off ramp acceleration after an extended hi way cruise?

 

[Cbayman]

Owners need to report these incidents to NHTSA. File a complaint at the link below:

Report a Safety Problem | NHTSA

File a complaint with NHTSA if you experienced a vehicle, tire, car seat or equipment safety problem that could be a safety defect.

www.nhtsa.gov