We have no issues with how our 6-speed Ridgeline shifts, maybe some day I can find somebody who does not like the way the Ridgeline shifts to ride with me and describe what they are feeling that is so disagreeable? On a similar note, could it be the "soft" shifting that is causing some of the heat issues some are attributing to the 6-speed?

Bill

 

Transmission in our 2017 RL worked perfectly, 6 speed in our 2019 Pilot woks perfectly. Transmission in our 2022 RL works perfectly. I think the 9 speed is just a hair smoother but not worth bragging about.

 

Very hard shifts in traffic..

 

I don't experience this at all.

 

New member, just picked up a new Ridgeline RTL in Radiant Red today. Retiring my 2003 Ford "StRanger" Edge.

Wondering about VCM defeat trick... Any other problems reported/to watch for besides that rough shift issue?

EDIT: I see this is a common topic. I'll read more posts on it first. Sorry!

 

New member, just picked up a new Ridgeline RTL in Radiant Red today. Retiring my 2003 Ford "StRanger" Edge.

Wondering about VCM defeat trick... Any other problems reported/to watch for besides that rough shift issue?

S-VCM Controller - Disable VCM / deactivate VCM and stop ECO in Honda Acura

Deactivate Honda VCM in 3.5L V6 SOHC engines. The S-VCM Controller is an automobile grade, high precision tool that can reliably disable VCM 100% of the time, and would safely bypass in case the engine overheats. It does not use a fixed resistor or manually adjusted potentiometer, and is a much...

www.svcmcontroller.com

 

So far I am the only one reporting this. I would still disable VCM

But I cant tell when VCM is off or on except for this issue

 

Found this info: so it must be a temp problem

*The engine mounts are not directly controlled by VCM. Instead, they are continuously changing firmness based on predicted vibration using information from the crankshaft and camshaft position sensors. 3 cylinder mode creates more vibration which is picked up by the crankshaft position sensor. The active control engine mounts do not have a "3 cylinder mode" - they're always working to reduce engine vibrations in all modes.

 

"The active control engine mounts do not have a "3 cylinder mode ":::: "The engine mounts are not directly controlled by VCM ". Does this engine have 2 sets of engine mounts or am I misreading?

 

Very hard shifts in traffic..

Not sure why the disabler would cause hard shifts but I would not leave it installed if it did cause an unusual transmission response.

 

I seriously doubt the disabler has anything at all to do with the tranny...I can't imagine there is any correlation.

 

could be a flaky mount. It only has 23000 miles though

 

Notice any difference in shift quality between disabled and not disabled when the truck is cold?

 

Got a scan gauge. Noticed with vim disabled ect1 is 167 degrees and block sensor is a steady 162

with vcm enabled ect1 is 180 and block is185
Ect1 does more than we think
Is tied to block sensor

 

There’s a ECT sensor in the block????……I thought the ECT sensor was located in the coolant that has exited the 2 heads.🤷‍♂️ My Scangauge always displays 161F-163F ECT, VCM disabled. Never observed VCM “ON”, engaged, below 30 mph and by then, tranny has shifted smoothly to 4th, maybe 5th.

CT2 (cold radiator tank) is a whole different story……CT2 displays all over the place (depending on driving conditions) and can easily be 100*+ below ECT (CT1). CT2 can equal CT1, but never exceed CT1.

 

I’ll look up the scan gauge code for what I am seeing
It’s called block temp not other ect

 

In other words vcm disable seems to affect other sensor
Maybe they are tired together

 

CT1(ECT), CT2 are the ScanGauge XGauge names I have set up/use. Who knows what all VCM affects?….just because VCM is not engaged, doesn’t mean it’s disabled. There is a difference. All I know is, VCM “disabled“ made our Rigi’s coasting downshifts much smoother and tricks the Scangauge CT1 display to show 161F-163F vs actual ECT (CT1) of 180F-195F. FWIW, idling with a/c off will eventually raise both CT1 and CT2 to 205F……at which point the radiator efans turn on.

 

To the OP,
GenII has been out since 2016 and there is no indication that Honda's version of VCM used in the Ridgeline causes any sort of engine damage. It does offer a very modest increase in fuel economy. So in your particular case, disabling VCM is causing rough shifting? I gotta ask then why are you bothering to do so?

 

Considering the average age of cars on American roads is over 12 years, I don't think 5 years is adequate to judge long term affects. I, for one, disabled VCM shortly after I bought my truck for 2 reasons. I didn't like the vibration I felt when cruising on the highway, and I didn't like that cruise control would drop 2 to 3 MPH below set speed at times. Disabling VCM resolved both those issues.

 

Overall, at this point I can't see much logic in disabling VCM because you are worried about engine damage. The evidence just isn't there.

For the past couple of days I have done a ton of research on post 2013 Honda J35Y engines. Not only is the evidence not there, that particular engine series, within it's application class, is ranked among the top three most likely to achieve 200K!

 

LOL. Well guess silly is as silly does. I could not see deactivating the VCM on my still under warranty 2019 Ridgeline to solve a problem I don't have. I rather think it is quite unsilly to keep my warranty effective.

 

You are totally missing the point of the conversation. The discussion is totally not about warranty or not...it is about whether the device has, or can have, a negative impact on the truck.

 

The SVCM does a little trick every once in a while that during idle checks for overheating. It's an interesting way of fooling the system but allowing it to work I think. I used Car Scanner and the data logging to get these graphs.

 

You are totally missing the point of the conversation. The discussion is totally not about warranty or not...it is about whether the device has, or can have, a negative impact on the truck.

Not really. The point of the conversation is disabling VCM. if you disable the VCM you will risk voiding your warranty for a problem that no good evidence shows exists. That is really silly to me.
Just sayin!

 

It's like anyone would be silly enough to leave a defeat device installed when taking the truck in for warranty work.

Dishonest? Yes. Do I still think +90% of people would still do this? Yes. Seems easier to justify something like this to oneself when you're stickin' it to the man.

I guess it's fortunate that there seems to be little, or zero, evidence that the vcm system, nor a defeat device, damages anything. Maybe that is why this debate rages on?

I wonder if you had a defeat device and took the truck to a dealer for routine maintenance, would they make note of said defeat device? If you came back a year later with engine trouble (and no longer any defeat device), would they know that you had one previously? If so, would all dealers know, or just that one? Asking for a friend......

 

I am not advocating for I am not advocating for VCM to be disabled or not just saying I think this VCM is tied into more sensors than we know

 

Yeah, it would be nice to know what all is going on. I'm kind of surprised no one seems to have this information.

I was out of warranty when I purchased a device. I wasn't necessarily avoiding the device because of the warranty, but it was a factor. I mostly avoided it because of this very debate. Some say vcm bad. Some say defeat device bad. There was no definitive answer, so I decided to get slightly better mpg while y'all figured it out.

I bought a device with a scanguage2 about 9 months ago. What I don't like about the vcm is that it seemed to frequently come on and go back off again in like half a second. I'd compare it to flicking a light switch on and off as fast as you can for the desired "disco effect" (old incandescent bulb). That bulb isn't going to last as long as it should. Obviously, this is no proof that the vcm is doing any damage.

I was previously under the impression that vcm didn't engage at high speeds. I have since discovered that is does come on when going downhill at 60mph+. I've been thinking about enabling vcm on highways/interstates, and disabling it around town.

It's too bad that it doesn't turn-on on flat ground around 60 to 70mph. That seems like it would save a lot of fuel, but I guess the wind resistance is just too great.

 

I may leave VVCM disabled when towing and leave it alone otherwise had decided still testing

 

Silly me….I took the Rigi to the dealership, with the VCMTuner II installed, to have the Stat/Stop push button switch replaced under the TSB extended warranty. They told me they would have to check for a stored code, since the Start/Stop button error message was not displaying. I presume they plugged into the OBD-II port and the disabler was a non-issue.🤷‍♂️

If I understand the VCMTuner II correctly, it restores the vehicles system back to reading actual operating coolant temp if/when diagnostic work is performed. I guess that means if a reader/diagnostic device is plugged into the OBD-II port, the disabler disables itself to allow for proper vehicle diagnostics.

 

If I understand the VCMTuner II correctly, it restores the vehicles system back to reading actual operating coolant temp if/when diagnostic work is performed. I guess that means if a reader/diagnostic device is plugged into the OBD-II port, the disabler disables itself to allow for proper vehicle diagnostics.

Automatically...or when you flip the switch to turn it off? I seriously doubt it is automatic as how would the device know a diagnostic tool, or reader, was connected since the VCM disabler is not connected to the OBD or data busses in the vehicle???

 

hmm looking at SteveM’s data, im inclined to agree with cbayman, there must be an accelerometer deciding when to spoof temps, as vcm only needs to be tricked in scenarios where vcm could actually kick in, I.e. not at stops/idle and not while accelerating. I think that would actually be better for vehicle longevity, if you really wanted to disable.

 

 

Our 2019 is now over three years old, has almost 38,000 miles on the odometer, our engine runs flawlessly and has yet to give us the minutest cause for concern.

I just thought I would share that with everybody here this morning! 😁

Bill

 

^^^^straight from the VCMTuner II website, I believe......and if the a/c compressor is engaged, normal efan operation continues anyway.

 

With VCM enabled CTB will vary with fWT sometimes by 5 degrees or more
With VCM DISABLE CTB will stay at 162 and fWT will stay at 165 degrees. (I will take a screen shot of this)
Somehow CTB (block sensor) and CB1 (fWT) is linked. I think VCM is more embedded than we think.
(all these codes are on scan gauges web site.

This vehicle is VCM3. I noticed that VCM3 does not engage much rarely over 10 seconds and only very light load. (going downhill). The most it will engage is at 35 mph. I cant see it saving much gas as engages so rarely and fast.

Again only giving my experiences. (more testing to follow)