This will be an ongoing issue for the life of the car. Dealer service dept told me I needed new software. I never did business with them again. We are very close to buying an MDX. That will not happen now. So carry a code reader, plug wrench and spare plugs. I used NGK ILZKR7B11 $15 each. I also carry a spare plug-coil.

Update from Aug 30, 2014: I have a plan now to get the expected 200k miles from this vehicle. If someone comes up with any improvement to the plan,please advise.

1. Do not take to Honda dealer unless a personal friend. ( they would not tell you the full extent of the problem)

1. Immediately switch to full synthetic ( Castrol 5-20 others may work but i know this oil does) for reduced oil consumption. During same service, replace ALL six plugs. I could only find them at O'Reilly, NGK 7751 Iridium @ $15ea.

   3. Every other oil change , replace the three rear plugs. I have a pic to share showing drastic difference in oil fouling from rear 3 plugs to front 3 plugs. Every 4th oil change replace all plugs. Do not torque plugs down excessive as you will be changing plugs frequently. This could be a hint on the design issue, I don't know. Maybe oil is pooling in the rear head and not front, leaking into valve seals?. The synthetic oil probably drains down to crankcase easier from it's flow characteristic. I'm guessing.

   So thats it. I changed my own plugs and cleared the P0303 code. Best Regards vonStuka

   Update from Aug 30, 2014: Mileage correction for this vehicle complaint. The correct mileage is 52,200 miles. The rough idle started around 5k miles ago. I do not get to drive this one unless there is a problem. Its my wife car and I was looking at the trip meter adding a zero. Correct mileage today is 52,200. Regards vonStuka

For a car that's only 2-1/2 years old, I've had more problems and it's cost me a small fortune! Twice now they're telling me the spark plugs need to be replaced and that Honda is aware of this problem telling me they need to do a reprogram. Only problem is they already did that last year in May when the car was only 1 year and 2 months old! So I maintain my vehicle regularly for what!?! I am at my 3 month oil change date, I was going to call to have it changed this week since the Oil percentage read 60% I wasn't in a big hurry. Now having to tow it 49 miles to my dealership because I was in the middle of the country when the engine light turned on I'm waiting for the dealership to let me know if Honda will do anything for me. Come on! I've only got 44,000 miles on the thing. They tell me there wasn't a drop on oil registering on the dip stick, how does that happen when there's no oil in the driveway. They tell me I might have to change the oil more often if I do lengthy driving. My round trip to work is only 25 miles and I drive out to my cottage round trip of 65 miles on the weekend. This is just insane that I'm going to have to dish out more money and I even have a service contract!

Update from Sep 19, 2012: Here's the story I got from the dealership. They don't have an explanation of what happened to all my oil. There wasn't a drop anywhere in the engine compartment. I wonder if the service guy ever put any in the last oil change??? They confirmed they did all the reprogramming last year, including changing the spark plugs, they did it again and have performed an oil consumption test to try to figure out where the oil is going. I'm wondering why the oil light never went on either?? Now they tell me I have to bring the car back after driving 500 miles so they can perform the oil consumption test again, gather the data, then I have to bring it back again after another 500 miles. The dealer has only charged me for an oil change and will try to aske Honda to help me with the tow charges. I'm obviously going to be driving white knuckled hoping that nothing happens between now and the next 500 miles.

Update from Oct 16, 2013: Well it happened again in June. I'm out in the country in the middle of nowhere and that stupid light went on again. I got it to my house, parked it, and that was it. It died. Again. This time I made Honda arrange to pick it up. They tried to get me to pay with my credit card and then they'd re-imburse me, yeah right! I wasn't born yesterday. They somehow managed to get it towed back to the shop Ralph Honda in Rochester, NY. After threatening to call my lawyer, Honda decided to drop a new engine block into my car at 56,000 miles. What a joke of a car. Can't wait to get enough time and cash to go buy a Toyota again!!!!

Bought 2010 Honda Accord EXL V6 as new in Jan 2011. About 4 months later, check engine light comes on - took car in for service and they told me the car needed a software upgrade and the spark plugs seem to be worned. They performed the software upgrade and replaced the spark plugs. Car drove ok until about 3 months later, the check engine light came on again, on my way to work. By time I got off from work the light had gone out, but I took it in for service anyway. The Service tech told me since the light had gone out there is nothing they could do, because their scanner would not pickup a trouble code thus they had nothing to go off of. They requested to bring it back if light reoccurs. On Mar 12, 2012 check engine light came on with a code = P0303 - cyclinder 3 misfire (I decided to connect my car scanner to see what code it would return before taking it in for service). Note: Each time the check engine light came on the car drives really rough, it hesitates, shakes and seems to choke and acceleration is sluggish. This 3rd time, the technician checked it out and found that there seem to be some serious engine problems occurring. The oil was lower then it should have been from the last oil change - which was done thru the service dealorship dept. A week later (Mar 20, 2012) my car is still in for service - they are replacing the entire engine.

Finally, the question is, why am I having engine problems after only 1 year of having this vehicle. Feel like I've gotten a lemon at this point. Spoke with a lemon law attorney and they said it needs to be on record that the car was serviced 3 times and technically it's only been 2x's (1x the engine light went out and did not get service). Anyway, with all of this being said, I just wanted to go out on public record letting others know even with the great reputation Honda have with their vehicles -- their cars too can exist with major problems.