[Girl in her Element]

Hi! Hoping to get some advice on diagnosing a stall issue I've been having with my Element recently--

Description of problem: when the engine is cold (usually on first start-up, but not all the time & more prominent in cold weather), if I put the car into gear (reverse or drive) pretty quickly without letting it warm up, the engine stalls. I have noticed that letting it warm up for 1-5 minutes usually prevents this issue, and I can sometimes pull it out of the stall by hitting the accelerator hard/giving it gas. Before it stalls, it becomes very rough and then dies. When it does stall, only the battery light on the dash comes on (i.e., no check engine light). The most recent time this happened, I had a hard time getting the engine to start after the stall and the oil pressure light turned on as well as the battery light (might be a red herring, might not be). Outside of this stall issue, the car has appeared to operate fine ~99% of the time (including starting up fine). I've had one issue with lag on acceleration from a stop with the engine warm (enough of a lag to think "wait it's not moving" and then it moved). I've had trouble getting it to turn on at all (i.e., no start then stall. just no start at all) probably a total of 2 times. At a stop when the engine is warm, the car sometimes idles rough around 1k rpm, and otherwise idles between 1k- 500 rpm (honestly only started watching rpms recently so unsure if 1k-500 rpm is low relative to before I started having this issue).

I took it to a shop and they couldn't recreate the problem. They said it might be a bad throttle body and quoted me >$1k to replace it. I declined since I would rather not pay $1k without being certain that the throttle body is the actual issue.

Other maybe relevant information:
1- alternator replaced ~20k miles ago
2- replaced the battery in Feb (this problem has spanned a bad & good battery; was really hoping it could be battery related...)
3- new aftermarket catalytic converter as of October 2022. The original was stolen in 2020, and the aftermarket cat. put in after the theft went bad (was driving with that for a while; only knew it was bad when I failed emissions but no code thrown ever)
4- recent oil change and oil level was fine when I checked after the light turned on at the most recent stall.
5- 2006 EX-P with 133615 miles. AWD, automatic transmission.
6- haven't noted how much gas was in my tank at every stall, but most recently it was at a 1/4 tank. I don't usually let it get much lower than 1/4 tank in general.

Any advice on diagnostics or (simple) things to try to correct this problem would be really appreciated! I'm a grad student with very little car experience but willing to youtube most things & would love to try to make this a less expensive problem!

 

[jperry]

Hi! Hoping to get some advice on diagnosing a stall issue I've been having with my Element recently--

Description of problem: when the engine is cold (usually on first start-up, but not all the time & more prominent in cold weather), if I put the car into gear (reverse or drive) pretty quickly without letting it warm up, the engine stalls. I have noticed that letting it warm up for 1-5 minutes usually prevents this issue, and I can sometimes pull it out of the stall by hitting the accelerator hard/giving it gas. Before it stalls, it becomes very rough and then dies. When it does stall, only the battery light on the dash comes on (i.e., no check engine light). The most recent time this happened, I had a hard time getting the engine to start after the stall and the oil pressure light turned on as well as the battery light (might be a red herring, might not be). Outside of this stall issue, the car has appeared to operate fine ~99% of the time (including starting up fine). I've had one issue with lag on acceleration from a stop with the engine warm (enough of a lag to think "wait it's not moving" and then it moved). I've had trouble getting it to turn on at all (i.e., no start then stall. just no start at all) probably a total of 2 times. At a stop when the engine is warm, the car sometimes idles rough around 1k rpm, and otherwise idles between 1k- 500 rpm (honestly only started watching rpms recently so unsure if 1k-500 rpm is low relative to before I started having this issue).

I took it to a shop and they couldn't recreate the problem. They said it might be a bad throttle body and quoted me >$1k to replace it. I declined since I would rather not pay $1k without being certain that the throttle body is the actual issue.

Other maybe relevant information:
1- alternator replaced ~20k miles ago
2- replaced the battery in Feb (this problem has spanned a bad & good battery; was really hoping it could be battery related...)
3- new aftermarket catalytic converter as of October 2022. The original was stolen in 2020, and the aftermarket cat. put in after the theft went bad (was driving with that for a while; only knew it was bad when I failed emissions but no code thrown ever)
4- recent oil change and oil level was fine when I checked after the light turned on at the most recent stall.
5- 2006 EX-P with 133615 miles. AWD, automatic transmission.
6- haven't noted how much gas was in my tank at every stall, but most recently it was at a 1/4 tank. I don't usually let it get much lower than 1/4 tank in general.

Any advice on diagnostics or (simple) things to try to correct this problem would be really appreciated! I'm a grad student with very little car experience but willing to youtube most things & would love to try to make this a less expensive problem!

I was told to use Lucas injector cleaner and it seems to run smother.

 

[Fleetw00d]

Have the valves ever been adjusted? If not, about 33,000 miles overdue.

 

[AWD]

battery cable

 

[07lmnt]

Have the valves ever been adjusted? If not, about 33,000 miles overdue.

^^^^THIS^^^

 

[seagiant]

Hi,
Good call on the Throttle Body!

Some Shops are like, you got the money, they have the time, weather it fixes the problem or not!

Would seriously look for another, more honest Mechanic.

The ground idea is interesting, Honda's demand good grounds.

I don't know where you are located but people up North have more problems with grounds and corrosion because of the salt.

Also do not ignore the advice on the valve adjust, no matter what the problem turns out to be!

 

[pounce]

battery cable

Yes, lets see some picks of your ground(s)

 

[Girl in her Element]

Hey everyone,
Thank you so much for your advice! I have not had a valve adjustment, so I will get on that. Out of curiosity, do you guys have a ballpark of what that should cost?

As for the grounds, attached are some pictures of them. I don't see any obvious fraying on the lower part of the cable like the posted video had (it is dirty, though, so probably worth replacing and it looks like an easy DIY job).

 

[pounce]

Grounds look ok.

 

[seagiant]

Hi,
That Ground looks good to me BUT...

Here in Florida with the humidity and heat, corrosion can be inside the wire and not noticed but cause a "voltage drop".

I worked with some pretty sharp Women Engineers in the Merchants, so don't know how far you want to go on your own, but with a $5 VOM from Harbor Freight...

You can run some voltage drop test on your wires to see if they are really as good as they look.

The other thing is, you say "cold", but not how cold.

Engines need to warm up and pump some oil before being demanded to work.

Running an engine too cold is bad as running it too hot.

Admittedly don't know what your problem actually is, but if you are cranking in the cold and then taking off, AND your valve lash is not in spec...

Could be the problem, not adjusting Honda K24 Valves can cost you a LOT more money than getting them adjusted!

 

[dc99]

Sounds more like a bad IACV just from the original post

 

[pounce]

If so you can clean it instead of replacing it.

 

[Iyan]

Check your intake tube for cracks in the bellows or if a hose popped off. I know the earlier years intakes have a rectangle double hose that went into the intake that was only held in by a small spring clip and easily popped off when you take the cover off to replace the air filter.

 

[cshoov61]

^^^^THIS^^^

Valve adjustment. Ditto.

 

[westieterrier]

I replaced my IAC valve and put in a new TPS sensor and that solved the problem I had, which was exactly as you described. My E only had 75,000 miles then. Please please make sure you go OEM only. I didn’t and suffered the consequences of disassembling my throttlebody several times before I realized I had a cheap Chinese copy. P

 

[bradeisman]

Hi! Hoping to get some advice on diagnosing a stall issue I've been having with my Element recently--

Description of problem: when the engine is cold (usually on first start-up, but not all the time & more prominent in cold weather), if I put the car into gear (reverse or drive) pretty quickly without letting it warm up, the engine stalls. I have noticed that letting it warm up for 1-5 minutes usually prevents this issue, and I can sometimes pull it out of the stall by hitting the accelerator hard/giving it gas. Before it stalls, it becomes very rough and then dies. When it does stall, only the battery light on the dash comes on (i.e., no check engine light). The most recent time this happened, I had a hard time getting the engine to start after the stall and the oil pressure light turned on as well as the battery light (might be a red herring, might not be). Outside of this stall issue, the car has appeared to operate fine ~99% of the time (including starting up fine). I've had one issue with lag on acceleration from a stop with the engine warm (enough of a lag to think "wait it's not moving" and then it moved). I've had trouble getting it to turn on at all (i.e., no start then stall. just no start at all) probably a total of 2 times. At a stop when the engine is warm, the car sometimes idles rough around 1k rpm, and otherwise idles between 1k- 500 rpm (honestly only started watching rpms recently so unsure if 1k-500 rpm is low relative to before I started having this issue).

I took it to a shop and they couldn't recreate the problem. They said it might be a bad throttle body and quoted me >$1k to replace it. I declined since I would rather not pay $1k without being certain that the throttle body is the actual issue.

Other maybe relevant information:
1- alternator replaced ~20k miles ago
2- replaced the battery in Feb (this problem has spanned a bad & good battery; was really hoping it could be battery related...)
3- new aftermarket catalytic converter as of October 2022. The original was stolen in 2020, and the aftermarket cat. put in after the theft went bad (was driving with that for a while; only knew it was bad when I failed emissions but no code thrown ever)
4- recent oil change and oil level was fine when I checked after the light turned on at the most recent stall.
5- 2006 EX-P with 133615 miles. AWD, automatic transmission.
6- haven't noted how much gas was in my tank at every stall, but most recently it was at a 1/4 tank. I don't usually let it get much lower than 1/4 tank in general.

Any advice on diagnostics or (simple) things to try to correct this problem would be really appreciated! I'm a grad student with very little car experience but willing to youtube most things & would love to try to make this a less expensive problem!

I'd say it needs a valve adjustment. My Element needed valve adjustment about every 70K. It would stall at idle and had loss of power.

 

[choochmalooch]

A refurbished throttle body is about $150 and takes about 30 minutes to replace with simple tools. You may need a new gasket if you destroy the old one when doing the removal. There’s an air idle control valve that gets sticky and gummed up that may need cleaning.

 

[Willmann]

Adjusting the valves should solve the problem 👍 😉
You could do it yourself, but if not it is rather quick and inexpensive job for a mechanic to do.

 

[molabear]

Have the valves ever been adjusted? If not, about 33,000 miles overdue.