The van threw a check engine light while driving home. I later attached my OBDII reader, and retrieved the code, which was for a cylinder #3 misfire. I pulled all 6 plugs and plug #3 was completely soaked in oil. All the other plugs were fine with normal combustion deposits. After doing research and seeing the info regarding the piston rings being defective, I took the van to my local Honda dealership which confirmed the misfire code was present and scheduled an appointment to perform the warranty work on cylinders #1 and #3. About a month later after the work was done, I pulled the plugs again to see if everything was still good. Plug #5 was completely soaked in oil. Additionally, after hooking up a vacuum gauge, I saw a temporary vacuum leak which would fix itself after about a minute of the engine running. This keyed me on to a manifold gasket being damaged and oil seeping throughout the damaged section into the combustion chamber and soaking the plug. The engine had still not thrown another misfire code but I took the van to a different Honda dealership and explained what was going on and that this only happened after the original warranty work. The dealership pulled everything apart and confirmed the manifold gasket was damaged for cylinder #5 and was probably torn by the original warranty mechanic. Honda covered the repair work again and replaced 2 of my ignition coils at no charge. Overall, this van has had the entire gauntlet of problems; warping of brake rotors, paint peeling, and defective piston rings. I wouldn't say Honda had a swing and a miss with this year/model, but they definitely had a foul ball.
See:
http://www.autonews.com/article/20131022/OEM11/131029975/american-honda-settles-class-action-suit-over-oil-burning-claim
and
http://www.hondaproblems.com/trends/excessive-oil-consumption/
for the issue.
Here's a solution for disabling VCM (there are others in the forum too)
I change my own oil and normally see a lot less oil coming out than what I need to put in (4.5Q). I finally looked it up and it's an ongoing problem admitted by Honda. Aside from extended warranties, Honda should go beyond this to make it right to their customers.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T S
The van threw a check engine light while driving home. I later attached my OBDII reader, and retrieved the code, which was for a cylinder #3 misfire. I pulled all 6 plugs and plug #3 was completely soaked in oil. All the other plugs were fine with normal combustion deposits. After doing research and seeing the info regarding the piston rings being defective, I took the van to my local Honda dealership which confirmed the misfire code was present and scheduled an appointment to perform the warranty work on cylinders #1 and #3. About a month later after the work was done, I pulled the plugs again to see if everything was still good. Plug #5 was completely soaked in oil. Additionally, after hooking up a vacuum gauge, I saw a temporary vacuum leak which would fix itself after about a minute of the engine running. This keyed me on to a manifold gasket being damaged and oil seeping throughout the damaged section into the combustion chamber and soaking the plug. The engine had still not thrown another misfire code but I took the van to a different Honda dealership and explained what was going on and that this only happened after the original warranty work. The dealership pulled everything apart and confirmed the manifold gasket was damaged for cylinder #5 and was probably torn by the original warranty mechanic. Honda covered the repair work again and replaced 2 of my ignition coils at no charge. Overall, this van has had the entire gauntlet of problems; warping of brake rotors, paint peeling, and defective piston rings. I wouldn't say Honda had a swing and a miss with this year/model, but they definitely had a foul ball.
- Jason W., El Paso, US