Help with dead 2007 Honda Odyssey
When driving between 55-65 mph I noticed a shake from the front end of the van when I accelerated. It would stop around 70mph. That began around the first part of March.
March 16, 2015 I was driving on the highway and as I accelerated the shaking became worse and rumbled loudly before it lost power and died. I had enough momentum to get to the side of the road and had it towed back to my house.
This video was taken in August after jump starting the battery. It’s been sitting, dead since then.
Does any body know what this could possibly be? I need to figure out if it’s worth fixing or scraping it.
Any CEL (check engine light or similar? Did you check the oil?
The CEL came on right before it died. As in less than a min before it died. The VSL light was always on, had been for at least two years. Honda dealership couldn’t even get it to turn off but had it checked several times and no one could ever find an actual problem with it. Oil could have been low, honestly I can’t remember it’s been so long. Obviously it’s goop now since its been sitting for so long.
Bought it brand new with 17 miles on it. Car accident when it was a year old. Insurance wouldn’t total it out, but rebuilt the engine. It’s been a pain since then.
Only thing I can find on “VSL” is Variable speed of light.
Vacuum swing adsorption, a gas separation technology
Van der Waals surface
Vehicle Stability Assist, technology that improves a vehicle’s stability
Vendor-specific attributes, in the RADIUS networking protocol
Very Small Array, a radio telescope
Viable systems approach, a systems theory
Voice stress analysis, a means of measuring stress responses in the human voice
I’m guessing whatever VSA means, it’s a stability control warning light. That light comes on for a number of reasons. The stability control function won’t work reliably unless everything else is working perfectly. So if the computer decides something is amiss it will turn off the stability control function, and issues a warning to the driver that the function is no longer available by turning on a dash light.
OP, there’s too many possibilities to list. For an engine to run it has to have spark, fuel, compression, and timing all within specs. So checking those one by one is the way to start. It could be something very simple and inexpensive to fix, like a faulty crank position sensor. That would affect spark and possibly ignition time. Or it could be something very expensive, like scored cylinder walls due to lack of oil, affecting compression. No way to know without starting the testing.
The engine limps along for a few seconds in the video as though there is about half the fuel pressure needed to operate. This is worth diagnosing, could be just a fuel pump failure.