Hello Freaks, haven't visited in a while and thought i'd drop in a to report on my first major (non-scheduled maintenance) repair.

My 07 AT Sport started to hic-cup a but when i let off the gas on the interstate. When i came to a stop the car stalled. I got it to start with no trouble, then drove it home (i was 50 miles from the dealer and my office so home was my best bet at this point).

Next morning, low speed was problematic, idle was chugging hard and on the verge of stalling. I drove it about 30 miles toward the dealer and eventually the check engine light came on. I pulled to the side of the road and had it towed in for repair.

Turned out to be carbon build-up on the EGR valve. EGR valve took a freaking week to arrive, but once replaced everything's good again. Total cost was $302 parts and labor.

I can't believe i made it 65000 miles with nothing. I love this car

 

thats impressive. gotta love the fits. + rep to the nice car.

 

Any way to keep the valve from carbon build up? Did the service guy mention anything?

 

make sure the engine has plenty of time to warm up. running high rpm's every once in awhile is good to burn out carbon too.

 

I was told it was normal.

To give you an idea of my driving habits, i drive around 90 miles a day. 95% highway, hilly. I set my cruise for 72mph. Use regular 87 octane gas and change the oil when the car tells me it's time. Though, with the amount of driving i do, it's usually in the "negative" numbers before i get to it. Once the 10% and 5% life remaining lights are done, the car counts into the negative miles to constantly remind you to change the oil.

 

This is something i don't do, and have never done. I pull right out of the driveway onto a 40mph road (where i drive 48-50) for 8 straight miles.

 

do you run synthetic oil?

 

Interesting. Wonder if anybody else had this problem.

Anybody ever use Seafoam? My friend used this to clear up his engine and talked me into using it on my Civic. Supposedly it clears out gunk wherever you put it. I only sucked it through some vacuum tube in my engine somewhere. Started the car and revved it and saw a bunch of smoke come of out of the exhaust. Guess it cleared out some stuff.

Sea Foam

 

No

(ignore the ten characters padding here...)

 

i heard something about regular oils building carbon on egr valves quicker than synthetic oils. synthetic can only help if your willing to pay.

 

good to know

 

I have done that on my old integra. not specifically with seafoam, but a different thing. suck it in through one of your vacuum lines...it smokes and smells...idles bad...then clears up. weird stuff.

 

i don't recommend seafoam. it may dislodge carbon build-up and deposit it in places where it shouldn't go.

you can remove and clean the EGR valve by hand. just use carb cleaner or throttle body cleaner and just clean out the carbon build-up. make sure you clean out the ports too.
or you can buy a brand new OEM Honda EGR valve online. they're not that expensive. and the installation is very easy.

 

seafoam works wonders, I swear 1/3 of all check engines can be solved by seafoam in 4cyl hondas, the other 2/3 are usually P0420 emissions codes

 

what's an EGR valve? I have about 101,000 miles on my car now and I'm planning to do a weekend of fun under the car. Anyone can recommend stuff that I should check on?

 

yeah Seafoam is amazing,ive used it on my old saturn and the s2000 as well...nothing but great results will be seen when you use it correctly.

 

Thanks for the heads up Rob, I'm going to make it one of my maintenance checks. Throttle body cleaner does the trick to keep it clean.

 

Nothin works better on the EGR than seafoam especially hondas

 

I have heard some negative things about seafoam, better safe than sorry.