How do you reset a Honda Accord check engine light?

Answer 1

DAVID, AS YOU KNOW THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT COMES ON FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS. A DIAGNOSTIC WOULD NEED TO BE RUN TO SEE WHAT CODES ARE COMING UP. ASSUMING THAT YOU HAVE DONE THIS AND MADE THE NECESSARY REPAIRS AT A SHOP, THEN THE SHOP SHOULD HAVE RESET THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT. IF YOU DID THE REPAIRS YOURSELF YOU CAN DISCONNECT THE BATTERY(BOTH POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE TERMINALS) LET IT SIT FOR ABOUT 15-30 MINUTES. IF YOU RECONNECT THE BATTERY AND START THE ENGINE AND THE CHECK ENGINE LIGHT COMES BACK ON, THEN ALL OF THE NECESSARY REPAIRS HAVE NOT BEEN DONE.

All you have to do is disconnect the Negative battery terminal. It is not necessary to disconnect both. Once you've disconnected the terminal, let the car sit with no power for a few minutes, then reconnect the battery terminal. Your light should not come on, unless your engine sensors throw another code through your car's computer.

Caution: I was tempted to disable the "engine check" light in my 2001 Odyssey. Last time it came on I spent over $100 on emmission control. However I had the dealer run the diagnostics on it again. Diagnostics showed I needed a new transmission! I had the transmission replaced at NO CHARGE under an extended warranty thatI was unaware of. Lesson? Better Safe Than Sorry.

You DO NOT need to disconnect the battery terminals.

All you have to do is turn the key to the "on" position (not running, but so that the radio etc. come on) and hold the trip reset button for about 15-20 seconds.

KEEP IN MIND - that the light could be an indication of needed service as opposed to just coming on based on mileage.

To be clear, you must hold in the trip odometer reset button and THEN turn the key to the "on" position. If you prefer the battery disconnect method, be sure you have your radio code handy to re-initiate.

according to factory repair manuals all you have to do is remove the radio fuse for 10 seconds. the fuse is in the engine compartment fuse box, 15 amper (blue)

Ok, a couple things real quick. The MAINTENANCE LIGHT can be reset by holding down the odometer while turning the key. You can reset the CHECK ENGINE LAMP (technically the "MIL"...stands for "MALFUNCTION Indicator Lamp") by removing the power supply to the "ECU"...stands for "Engine Control Unit" or "Electronic Control Unit" depending on the manufacturer. This will clear all OBDII (On-Board Diagnostic II) codes without question (I'm assuming we are working on a 1996 or newer vehicle when I reference the OBDII, but even if not the codes will still be cleared.) This can be definitely be accomplished by removing the negative cable for a couple minutes and probably by removing the radio fuse like the manual says (in Hondas the two general share that constant power source for memory functions such as fault codes, radio stations, and whatnot.) If you are doing this to get through an emissions inspection where they hook up to the computer via the OBDII connector you'll have to wait anywhere from 5 to 50 miles, rarely longer, for the computer to run a series of diagnostic self checks on the different systems. Until that happens the inspection will not even initiate because, guess what, the EPA that mandates the OBDII system is not a bunch of idiots. They require manufacturers to meet specific requirements when programming these rascals and the self-checks (known technically as "Readiness Monitors") are one of them. For this type of inspection two (2) of these "Readiness Monitors" can be left unchecked when inspected on vehicles up to 1999, from 2000 on only one (1) "Readiness Monitor" is allowed to be unchecked for the inspection to initialize. Also, you should know that when a diagnostic query is made on that computer a block of time before and after the error is stored. This block contains all of the vehicles streaming telemetric data at the time of the fault(s). When you erase the code you erase that data too. This information is extremely helpful to anyone trying to diagnose your problem. They'll be able to tell if the engine was hot or cold, what your speed was, what RPM range, how much air and how much fuel the engine was using, the position of the throttle, how hot the air coming into the engine was, and a lot of other stuff that they'll definitely be billing you for should they have to take the time to recreate the problem to regather a large enough data set to make a proper diagnosis. Should you clear the codes, they'll be able to see that too, by looking at how many key starts/warm up cycles and how many "Readiness Monitor" checks have occurred since the car had the battery disconnected/codes cleared. The mechanic in me gets thoroughly irritated when Jiffy Lube or some parts store clears the code after checking it and not knowing how to fix it or even what it is besides what the scan tool in their hand or their computer tells them the description is...and not the slightest clue how to properly go behind the computer and manually check the systems (after all car computers can go bad too and report false positives). It'd be ashame to replace even just a hundred dollars worth of sensor(s) only to find out you actually needed a $200-$1200 computer [don't know the year]). When the customer comes to me with only a code in their hand and says I need this fixed, I just shake my head...okay, all you have is the code guess the entire system will have to be checked instead of keying in on specifics within the fault data set. This can be most frustrating to a mechanic, but the businessman in me just wants to laugh...SURE, Heck yeah, must be a tough one, if Joe Bob Partscounterman with his high dollar scan tool can't figure it out then we'll probably have to spend awhile on it (I really don't gouge in this scenario, but there are plenty who do...by the way Joe Bob's scan tool is what we call a generic scanner and probably cost the store about $300-$600...pretty expensive right, NOPE a shop that services your type car should have something a bit more specific to your car, such as our $2200+ Teradyne Tester w/ Honda software [1])...an hour & half or three later in real time, if you come out on the lucky side of this I tell you, you need a set of plugs and somebody misrouted a vacuum hose and you just wasted good money and hours of our time (mainly trying to get it to act up/set a code/etc.), and yes, believe it or not most mechanics do feel like it's a waste of time regardless of whether or not you're paying. On the flip side of this I come back to you and say yeah your torque converter is starting to come apart and clogged up some of the fluid passageways in your transmission which led to some of the other internal components burning up and we'll need to take it out, tear it down, and make a list...but it shouldn't be too bad though considering there doesn't seem to be any obvious symptoms, all the gears stills function so the hardparts should be good. At this point, the customer asks how much and I tell him around a $1000.00 since we caught it early. EARLY! they exclaim...$1000.00! they cry, but it doesn't feel like anything's wrong, and I tell them, "That's because ingenius Honda engineers programmed an alternate shift pattern for events such as this to save the hard parts. That way it can make it to the shop when the "MIL" comes on without doing huge amounts of damage running the bill up even higher for a full overhaul. Generally we'd just have to replace the torque converter for $400-$600, but this one must have come apart too fast and now we're dealing with internals," I say. IT'S AT THIS EXACT MOMENT THAT EVERY SHOP OWNER/MECHANIC/SERVICE WRITER/ETC. CAN SEE IT IN THEIR FACE, THEY WANT TO KICK THEMSELVES SO HARD IN THE <INSERT EXPLETIVE HERE>. "WHY DID I PUT IT OFF! WHAT DOES A PARTS GUY AT SUCH & SUCH AUTO PARTS KNOW ABOUT THE INSIDE OF A TRANSMISSION, IF HE'S SO <INSERT EXPLETIVE HERE> SMART HE'D BE DOING THIS NOT THAT" AND IT'S AT THIS EXACT MOMENT THAT EVERY ONE OF US CAN'T HELP BUT FEEL WHAT THE GERMANS CALL "SCHADENFREUDE" (look it up). It's the truth, a human being in that scenario might outwardly show some empathy or at least professionlism, but inside the mischievous little voice in our heads is laughing it's rear-end off. Unless you personally unplugged something and right after that the light came on, don't disconnect the battery to reset the light, especially if this is for a state inspection and it's due this month. By the way I used the transmission example because I just dealt with this for fella on his Toyota 4Runner. He was so <insert expletive here> man he was going to take me to court because he thought I was trying to rip him off. I ended up making a deal with him. He'd take it to a dealer (I'm an independent), have them check it, and if I was wrong I'd give him a refund and reimburse him for the tow to the dealer. After the dealer looked at it and told him they didn't rebuild transmissions he was informed he'd need to buy another for well over $2,000. Needless to say we did that for him, and now his little around town beater (again his description) is in having an entire list (mostly his list LOL) done to it. It's actually pretty funny, in my experience it's situations like these that make the best customers.

WOW - you all are making it so difficult. All you do is take a key and push the little black indent part, and light goes back to green.