Man, thank you so much for all this information. I’d go to the local dealer and try to chat up the service advisors/techs but they totally hate that if you aren’t having them do the work. It helps if you stop in parts first and you are holding parts you just purchased but even then, they tend to get very annoyed very quickly if they realize you’re going to do the work yourself. So, I truly appreciate someone with valuable experience at a dealer taking the time to share. I just ordered the subframe mount that I know I ripped, and in the meantime I might go ahead and do that valve adjustment. I bought the feeler gauge set a long time ago with the intentions of doing it and never got around to it, I figured it was a long shot, and I’ve also not done one before, although I’ve watched the Eric the car guy video on it and it seems simple enough. One other question, since the upstream oxygen sensor on these is an A/F sensor, could that sensor degrade in performance to the point of rough idle without throwing a CEL? At $180 I don’t want to replace it just to do it, but I do have a live-stream scan tool so I could look at values, I just don’t know what I’m actually looking for. I recently discovered Honda’s factory repair manuals for other cars and they’ve been worth their weight in gold, so I’m considering buying it for the TSX, although with an issue like this idle problem, I don’t know that there would actually be useful diagnostic flow charts in them that would successfully narrow it down.
No problens at all man i was in the same place!
So, about the dealer. its always and option.we had alot of people with older cars come in that would pay for the diag and then go home and fix it themselves. Of course, it doesnt make people very happy, but if its something that you need to do to get the job done, screw em!! Dont let a service advisor pressure you into paying for something you can do in your driveway! If its somewhere that youre a regular, it may not be wise so it can be a judgement call.
And that manual. My thought process about it is, if youre buying a tool thats going to save you more time in the long run and costs less than if you just brought it somewhere to get done then its a good buy. There is valuable information in there for sure. Im not sure about the manual you have but we had tons of digital diag flowcharts that were pretty helpful at times. And wiring diagrams are always handy. Even for something like a valve adjust can have useful info. Theres a very specific procedure and order that the valve adjust has to be done in that requires moving the cams certain amounts at certain steps and working backwards and thay info can be invaluable. For your specific issue there may not be too much information, but there should be diagnostic information to rule out or confirm things like motor mount issues, sesor failures, etc. Even if it lacks info for a specific problem.
For the sensor, thats a definite possibilty, alot of times those upstream sensors can get clogged up and cause issues. However, youd probably get a code, something along the lines of sensor inefficiency/low volt(but anything is possible and its worth looking into). Id leave that problem for last and id leave that one for the dealer if you need to do it. Many times, even with the right socket, that sensor in particular will shear off just below its socket and will need to be drilled out, and the socket re tapped with an oversize sensor installed (PITA, ask me how i know) you might be able to get away with paying just for labor if your dealer is willing to install your part (you get some wierd looks and they wont be happy with you, but its worth a phone call). As far as confirming that diagnosis, i dont know the go/no-go values for that sensor on that car off the top of my head but that information can sometimes be found in manuals or online if you look around (look for tuning information like hondata, i remember coming across quite a bit of that type of info when i was goofing around with my flash pro.).
Sensor issues can be hard to diag at home properly without ton of expensive factory tools and data equip, especially without codes. so if it comes to that it might save you dome time and headache to bite the bullet and take that one to the dealer. Say something like "i went to my dads old mechanic and he said in had a bad
__ but i wanted to check with you all first"
Goodluck and glad to help!
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