New blog post or video every Monday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
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-Dan
New blog post or video every Monday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Watch Mechanical Malarkey on YouTube!
Mechanical Malarkey T-shirts, hats, and stickers are available to order!
-Dan
A Honda Accord came into the shop with only a few thousand miles on it and a check engine light. It had a code for no signal from the radiator coolant temperature sensor, so I got started on electrical diagnostics.

New blog posts every Monday and Thursday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Watch Mechanical Malarkey on YouTube!
Mechanical Malarkey T-shirts, hats, and stickers are available to order!
-Dan
New blog posts every Monday and Thursday, plus pictures throughout the week on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Watch Mechanical Malarkey on YouTube!
Mechanical Malarkey T-shirts, hats, and stickers are available to order!
-Dan
Originally posted March 27, 2017.
I recently had an older Honda Odyssey come into the shop for a few recalls and other repairs, and found that it had some codes in the computer indicating misfires. It was misfiring on all 6 cylinders. First thing to do when you have a misfire is to pull the ignition coils and spark plugs for the cylinders that are misfiring. I quickly found the problem.

It’s not too unusual for a coil spring on a higher-mileage car to eventually break, I’ve seen it many times. A lot of times it’s just half a loop from the top or bottom and it rattles around and makes an awful noise. If it breaks more in the middle of the spring it can all collapse and get twisted all together and make noise too.

I was starting to work on another Honda Accord axle shaft recall and was giving the car a quick once-over when I noticed that the left front lower ball joint was loose, along with some other suspension issues. After pricing out parts for the service advisor, I set to work on the recall.

Working on cars often involved squeezing your hands and arms into tight spots. That also means getting tools into those areas, and sometimes they get can get stuck in awkward positions.

I’ve posted before about how some people like to stick little gems on various buttons and knobs in their car interiors, but this one beats them all in how much it has.

I was given a Honda Ridgeline with a check engine light to diagnose. It came up with two codes, one current and one pending. The current code was P219A AF Ratio Variation of Cylinder, which on Honda Pilots and Ridgelines leads to replacing the fuel injectors. The pending code was P0304 Misfire Cylinder 4. I didn’t pay much attention to the P0304 because it was a possible additional code that can be triggered by the same condition that throws the P219A. When I got to replacing the fuel injectors, I found another problem.
