Hi Kev,
I have further feedback regarding my CRV following on from last year's replacement of low pressure EGR. It would seem that the replacement has initially addressed the issue; however after several months the issue with ''Check Engine'' or ''Check System'' dashboard notifications coming up on the dashboard started again. Over the last 6 months or so, I have observed the following pattern: ''Without any apparent reason, the orange warning light ''Check Engine'' or ''Check System'' comes up and at this point limp mode always kicks in and it feels like the car engine is losing something like 80% of power. Recently, whenever this occurred, I started the ''procedure'' of pulling out of the road, turning the engine off, waiting a few minutes, then turning the engine on and driving off. In all cases, the engine power was back on and felt normal after restarting. The orange warning light typically remained on the dashboard for about 2-3 days, but during that time the car was driving just fine, with no issues. Then, typically after a couple of days, the orange warning light would simply disappear from the dashboard and it seemed that there is no problem at all. After a certain period of time (usually a few weeks), the orange warning light ''Check Engine'' or ''Check System'' would come up again, and I would typically do the same with pulling out, restarting engine to come out of the limp mode, and continued to drive, as the engine seemed OK and again after a couple of days, the warning light would come off, until it came back again after a few weeks and so on and so forth. This basically seemed to be a very repetitive pattern, which I have associated with a temporary error, which was every time resolved by itself.''
Interestingly, a couple of days ago, I was on a longer motorway trip and the orange warning light came up again, which - as in previous cases - made me pull the car on the hardshoulder to restart the engine to regain the power and to continue driving further. As this was a bit of a longer than usual journey, say around 200 miles or so, the orange warning light ''Check System'' was continuously on through most of the journey. After 1st restart, the engine power was fully back on, but then I noticed another pattern. As I continued driving with normal engine power (after 1st restart), the limp mode kicked in, which again made me pull out onto hardshoulder or emergency layby to do the restart. Over the remaining part of the journey (ca.90miles), I had probably 4 or 5 instances where limp mode kicked in, then I had to stop, restart the engine to re-gain normal power only to lose it again after next 15 minutes and the process of pulling out and restarting etc. repeated 4 or 5 times. After 1 day, the warning light is still on, but the engine power is back on at normal level. I am expecting that the light will go off after another couple of days and will probably re-appear after a few weeks, as this seems to be a very repetitive vicious cycle.
When my car had an MOT done some 3 months ago, it was done in my trusted garage, as opposed to the one I was previously in (the one that was previously testing the problem in question and replaced the low pressure EGR etc.), my mechanic couldn't find any obvious fault anywhere, although he thought that this time it may possibly be a high pressure EGR at fault, but he wasn't 100% sure about that and hence has honestly admitted that he wouldn't recommend any expensive replacements at this time without investigating it further. He checked it on the diagnostic tool and reset the orange warning light, which went off, and everything with the car was fine until the ''vicious cycle'' started again after a month or so and seems to be repeating as a pattern already described above.
I continue to wonder from the very beginning of this issue occurring in my CRV, whether this orange warning light ''Check Engine'' or ''Check System'' is activated by a really trivial issue, like a momentary short circuit or something that triggers it due to a minor electronic fault or something along those lines. It's interesting that there is a range of different types of warning lights that can be triggered, but they never ever came up, only those 2 ''Check Engine'' or ''Check System'', which seem to indicate a fault of a general nature (could be anything, everything or nothing), as I understand it.
I am beginning ''to lose the will to live'' with this car, having that issue reocurring in this vicious cycle again and again, as it is really annoying, especially that it has a tendency to kick in at the start of a motorway journey, at which point the limp mode kicks in and puts the car and the passengers in a very dangerous situation from safety perspective. To give some user perspective, which obviously will be very subjective, I used to own a Renault Grand Scenic (turbo diesel) and over the period of 12 years something like a loss of engine power during a motorway journey was something very exceptional and occurred no more than 2-3 times, then the problem was quickly identified and fixed (by my very trusted mechanic who knew Renault cars inside out). In my current Honda CRV, over only the last 2 years of ownership, I recorded probably more than 30 (if not more than that) occurrences when there is an unknown or unclear fault, with orange warning light coming up suddenly and triggering limp mode, stripping the car engine from 80% of normal power etc., very often on a busy motorway seriously compromising traffic safety at that point.
Given so repetitive pattern of this issue, I think one can imagine how annoying (and how expensive) would it be to go to a garage, every time this occurs, to do a diagnostic check, which very often in my case did not indicate anything obvious. I wonder how many CRV users had a same/similar experience with their cars?
Any thoughts on the above? Do you recon that giving a shot with JLM Doctors to check/clean DPF would be a good idea, knowing that there has not been any clear indication of any DPF related faults so far? Any rough idea of the cost of it?
