| Ceenit |
The wife was driving our '03 MDX (76k miles) last week and said if felt like the rear of the car went over some hug potholes and the back end was falling off. Then the VTM4 and Check Engine lights came on.
Fortunatley she was pulling up to a stop sign (going about 10 mph) at the time.
She drove it home without incident (light still on).
My first thought was 'holy smoke, I got snagged by the dreaded Tranny issue' After reading A LOT of posts, I had convinced myself that it was either the Tranny or the EGR valve.
Took it into the dealer the next day (under extended warranty so I wasn't really sweating it). After checking the codes, they diagnosed the problem as a faulty O2 sensor.
I have had several O2 sensors go bad on other cars, but none that impacted the suspension or set off anything other that the Check Engine Light. The service manager explained that the bad '02 sensor caused the engine to choke, which in turn created havoc with the VTM system. He indicated that he at first thought it was something other than the o2 sensor, but felt very comfortable after the tech thoroughly checked out the car and all the codes, that it was the culprit.
One week and a few hundred miles later, I've had no issues and no strange lights. I've got my fingers crossed that its all resolved and that I have in fact not experienced any dreaded Tranny/EGR issues.
BTW - the overall cost was $305, about $150 for the part and $155 for labor. Out of pocked was only $100, because of my warranty deductible. The warranty hasn't paid for itself yet, but at least I am getting some value out of it. |
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| BlueStreak |
When the O2 sensor throws a code, most often the VTM light will also come on. Once this light is on, the computer will not allow the locking or engagement of the VTM unit. You can manually try it with the dash button and you'll see what I'm talking about. The VTM unit is off-line.
I seriously doubt this failure caused the engine to choke. Maybe if it was under hard acceleration when the sensor quit sending the signals. The computer (PCM) will just adjust the air/fuel mixture which will likely kill your mileage, but the car should have continued just fine. I say should have...
If you want some more info on the sensor, you can read here. You have the warranty so you're covered, but Advance Auto Parts and Autozone will read the codes for free and they will even print out what the code means for you and what to do to resolve. So keep this in mind...and the best part is they don't charge for the service.
O2 info is located here. http://acuramdx.org/forums/showthre...53&pagenumber=2
It's not a hard part to replace. The top rear is a bit tricky to get into, but it's not bad. Top front is a piece of cake. You can get the tool to take it out for free as a loaner from the auto parts store as well.
Glad you're back in the saddle. If one sensor went, I'd expect the other top one to go in the not to distant future.
In case you're wondering, the 03 MDX has 4 of these sensors - two wideband sensors on top (front and back) and two regular units bottom (front and back).
My sensor went out about three weeks ago....03X with 82k miles.
Safe motoring. |
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