Acceleration made MIL blink, but light is now off...thoughts?
 

I have an automatic '09 Fit (non-sport model) that's about a year old, with 15,000 miles on it. Absolutely no problems to speak of until today...

I was merging onto the highway and accelerating pretty quickly. Everything seemed normal initially, but I suddenly noticed that the car was taking an awfully long time to shift gears -- the engine revving noise was louder than normal. I looked at the tachometer and noticed the needle slightly above the 5,000 mark. Right around that time, the car shuddered and forcibly slowed down, and the MiL began blinking.

I know driving on a blinking MiL is bad news, so I pulled over almost immediately (within 10 seconds) and shut the thing off. After a minute or two, I turned it back on. No sign of the MiL. I decided to drive a bit, and everything seemed normal -- no shuddering, normal speeds, normal acceleration.

What do you guys make of this? My theory (keeping in mind that I'm pretty amateur when it comes to cars) is that I tried to accelerate too hard too soon after turning the car on -- the "cold" engine light was still on when all of this went down. Of course, it could be something much worse.

I'm still under warranty, and I do have an appointment with the dealer on Monday (it's Friday), so I'm more curious than worried. Opinions welcomed!

well first off i wouldn't be trying to redline the thing
when your cold temp light is still on. this is a total no no:(
drive it easy till it goes out. then beat the balls out of it :p

Hah, yes, I try not to be too hard on it before that little "C" is off, but I wasn't thinking yesterday and just wanted to get home.

Is it possible that there's any long-term damage done, or was this just my car's way of saying "Knock that off"?

it might be the cars way of saying don't do that. but i'm not
sure. if you have the dealer check it out don't tell them that
the cold temp light was on though.

on a side note:
i had a friend who did what you did and wound up putting
a crack in the intake manifold. these things are plastic
now a days. getting it very hot very quick isn't good.

Hmm, hopefully I have better luck than your friend did...thanks for the tip. I feel bad for my poor Fit -- it's treated me so well thus far! I definitely won't be trying to burn up the freeway again with a cold engine anytime soon.

Check your automatic transmission fluid (ATF) level. High reving, late shifting, and engine bogging could be signs that your automatic clutch plates were slipping or there was a lack of fluid in your torque converter. Remember you need to check the level after your car is warmed up.

If your ATF level is okay then it could indicate that your didn't give your ATF a chance to warm up making it too thick to flow quickly throughout the system (torque converter and housing). This is all theoretical, however, as I've never heard of anyone having a problem with cold ATF.

I bet the cold light went out.

Just get the codes looked up. They are stored now and the dealer can look them up for you. Even Autozone will do it for free.

I just experienced the same issue this morning. I was describing it almost word for word the same ... quick acceleration, 5000 rpm, and then mil flashing and complete loss of acceleration. Only difference is my 09 automatic is the sport model with about 30,000 miles on it and I had been driving for about 45 minutes already (engine was definitely warm).

Drove it a bit longer with the blinking mil to make the exit ramp that was just ahead and it could barely produce enough power to keep moving forward. Turned it off for a couple minutes and was able to start it up and drive another 5 minutes to work with no problems.

A couple other notes. The roads were a bit snowy/slushy/wet, but certainly had lots of that last month. I just had the car in for state inspection/emissions test two weeks ago at the dealership where they supposedly do a complimentary multi-point inspection that includes fluid check, tire pressure, tread wear, etc. I was kind of thinking that over the past month or two I had noticed it seemed to shift more harshly (kind of pop/thunk) on a couple occasions (maybe once every couple weeks). Wasn't consistent or harsh enough for me to bring it up at the dealership but I'm thinking about that now.

MIL... It took me a minute to figure out what on earth you were talking about!

I read that and thought "Why was your mother-in-law blinking? What the hell is going on?"

O2 sensor issue. Have someone pull codes as Lyon suggested.
Hard load on a cold engine brings out the worst in an O2, not that it's going bad, simply put your pushing it too hard too soon. If there's an issue it will set itself solid soon enough.

Damn it, still trying to figure MIL out.

a little help here. Been a long day.

~SB

Ah, power of google.

Malfunction Indicator Light
MIL = CEL

Malfunction Indicator Light - old world for CEL or Check Engine Light.

Hey Goobs - that's a ditto stutter!!

But then I'd have to move the cursor to the top of the screen to type in that box up there that says google.

That's a lot of work.

~SB

PS. THX.

Right now, I'm surfing from my iPod. :s

I saw this thread earlier today and when I saw "MIL," I was think to myself: "What the f*** is that? Gah, another acronym I have figure out?!?"

Once you posted, I figured I might as well figure out what it is.

I always knew it as the check engine light too until I had that problem and decided to see what the manual had to say about the flashing icon. Calls it the malfunction indicator light ... figured it's the new fancy name they're using. And then when I searched around on this forum for that problem I experienced and found this year old thread just using MIL, thought it must actually be the common nomenclature used by all these uber knowledgeable users found here. It actually generally drives me crazy when people use just the abbreviation without at least once providing the full meaning somewhere in the thread or post.

I've gotten about 90 miles over two trips without seeing the light again or noticing any issues so I'm not going to be taking it in unless I see something again ... or maybe not until I get a recall notice in the mail since it looks like my VIN is in the range and might be affected.


p.s. since I'm no longer lurking ... Hi! and thanks to all for all the useful (and not so useful) conversations both in this thread and all the other posts. No mother-in-law with blinking issues, but thanks for being concerned :D