CE Light came on, bottle Regain fixed it?

[DavidVerba]

Long time follower - first post.

I have a '07 civic with 210k miles on it, mostly highway and is my gf's car. Let's just say she doesn't make the cars life easy, even at such high mileage. She puts nearly 100 miles on a day 4x a week. All in all has been a good car - lower part of engine rebuilt by Honda due to poor aluminium casting per service bulletin - now has a few oil leaks nothing major.

My question - about a month ago the check engine light came on, brought it to dealer. Either MAF, O2 or catalytic converter is the issue. They said it would be okay to drive and fix when things improve (I was recently laid off).

I heard good things about Gumout Regain High Mileage and decided to use it on her car. 1/2 bottle to 9ish gallons, and then half way through the second half of the bottle doing the same ratio the Check Engine Light went off! Any explanation? Once close to empty would it be a good idea to put a tank of shell premium or 90 octane ethanol free gasoline? Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[spasm3]

If its not been too long, i would go to autozone if you have one, and get the actual codes that are stored. It should not be hard to determine, o2 , maf etc, if you have the actual code. If the o2 sensor had more that 70k on it, its suspect anyway.

 

[Pontual]

Looks like its Not the maf, but clean the maf, just to be sure its clean.

 

[HerrStig]

An OBD II code reader would be a good investment, Harbor Fright has then for very short money. The stealer can tell you anything.

 

[AndyinAL]

I assume a P0420 code? Converter probably getting a little lazy. Google "O2 spacer" and read how to make one using 2 spark plug non-foulers or they are now available pre made on Amazon or ebay. $5 to $15... just gets the 2nd o2 sensor out of the exhaust stream and allows it to register sufficient difference from the primary o2 sensor. Has worked for thousands of people - even with cats totally removed. YMMV, but it is obviously low risk in terms of money outlay.

 

[mk378]

It is common, especially in the early stages of a problem, for the light to come on and go out even without anything being done to the car. Like the others said, you need to start tracking the actual code numbers.

 

[JustinH]

Clean the maf and replace the o2 sensors.

Rockauto or advance auto with coupons should be pretty cheap to do this.

You want to use electronic contact cleaner on the maf wires and don't break them.

 

[Vikas]

If you can afford to bring the car to dealer to find out about CEL, you have more than enough money to buy your code reader / scanner.

What is this with people who can't be bothered to purchase a reader for under $10 ?

 

[JustinH]

Agreed, you can buy a bluetooth obd2 scanner for like 10 bucks, and run it with a cheapo android smartphone or tablet.

 

[Yup]

Originally Posted By: JustinH
Agreed, you can buy a bluetooth obd2 scanner for like 10 bucks, and run it with a cheapo android smartphone or tablet.


Best investment ever. Amazon for $10-15.