Killing the Maintenance Required Warning Light in a 1999 Honda Accord

Aren’t those the same steps to reset a locked-up Ipod?

The only method I know of is to drive your vehicle far enough so the light actually burns out. I just took a 1988 Chevy pick-up off the road after ~200,000 miles. It's amazing how much extra electronic stuff (except the EFI) could just simply be disconnected and not have any effect on whether the vehicle ran or not. It always passed MA emissions with flying colors too.

Or, just look at the stuff you can buy!

Some time ago the maintenance light on my 1999 Toyota Corolla came on. I took it to the dealer who determined that I needed a new gas cap. If I remember correctly, the EFI fuel system was not correctly pressurized due to an after market gas cap I was using. The new gas cap cost me about $20 plus about $150 to reset the light.

Most Jeep owners are familiar with this trick ... but it works for most Chrysler vehicles. From the website http://www.allpar.com/fix/codes.html:

Normally, to get codes, you put the key on OFF and then rapidly do OFF-ON-OFF-ON-OFF-ON (on some cars you have to do four or five, not three, OFF-ON cycles). On our test 2002 car, the key did not go back to unlock, so it was ACC-ON-ACC-ON-ACC-ON.

To clear the codes, you still generally need a scan reader to send an acknowledgment command to the ECU. Resetting an ECU is typically a matter of disconnecting the vehicle's battery and then grounding the positive terminal (to discharge the ECU). If the problem is systemic - it will come back, unless cleared by OBD acknowledgment.

I tried this process on my 1998 Honda Accord and it worked also. I had also called the dealership about this and the instructions they gave me were incorrect.

This "trick" works on my 2002 Civic but I can't get it to work on my 2003 Odyssey. Not sure whether it stays on becasue of some other problem or whether the trick doesn't work on this particular model. Although everything I've heard/read about this annoying light leads me to beleive it is stricktly a timing/mileage light as you suggest. If you had a REAL probelm the check engine light would come on not the maintenance required light.

Awesome! Thanks for the tip. I have a 2004 Honda Odyssey and suspected it wasnt any real problem but just a way for you to have to take the car to the dealership. Thanks again

The Maintenance Required light is associated with the preventative maintenance such as oil changes. It should be reset by the facility performing the oil change. The steps for the Honda Accord may also be different for other vehicles. The steps are also identified in your vehicle operating manual supplied with the vehicle.

On the other hand, the Check Engine light is associated with the vehicle's health, and should be checked by reading the engine code(s) that caused the light to come on. Most of the time it is associated with the emissions system and can be anything from a loose gas cap to more severe problems with the engine operability such as miss fire or sensor problems. Some places will check the codes for free, others charge around $20 to read only or $80 to $100 to read and determine what needs to be repaired or replaced. Other sources of the code can be from transmission problem.

Most auto parts stores sell the simple OBDII reader that can tell you the codes, and then you can do a google search for the code to see possible problem resolution. They also sell a more expensive reader that will also diagnose the problem.

I just went out to try this on my 98 Honda Accord Coupe and it worked like a charm !!!

I was just about to take it into the dealership to have the light checked out when I decided to do a quick search online instead.

That light was driving me crazy!!

I was worried something might be wrong with my car and didnt even feel comfortable driving it.

Thanks for the info Brandon, youre a headache and money saver bud.

Nice try Honda but youre not getting my money this time !!! Lol

Still love Honda, but can do without the Retard Light.

All right ... it's great that you can turn the indicator off. But what's bugging me is the common perception as to what that light means. That light doesn't come on to let you know that your engine is malfunctioning. It really has nothing to do with that at all. (Although as a side effect of it's purpose, it can inform you of problems). Rather, the MIL (malfunction indicator light) is designed to alert you of problems with the OBD II system (on board diagnostics) which exist only to monitor emissions! That light comes on when there is a leak in fuel pressure (gas vapor escaping from the gas cap or tank), if the cylinders are misfiring (wasted fuel or incorrect burn) if the exhaust has a leak (catalytic converter not being used), catalytic converter failures (O2 sensors detecting proper scrubbing not taking place) or the O2 sensors fail (not heating up and not detecting O2). There are a variety of other things detected as faults - but the MIL light lets you know when something to do with your emissions has triggered "an event." Many of those events are completely innocuous. Some of them aren't. But the light comes on when a fault occurs.

BTW - when your vehicle is inspected (depending on your state), most of the emissions tests for modern vehicles are performed by plugging their equipment into the diagnostic OBD II port - NOT measuring actual emissions. That equipment can tell whether the problem was fixed or the code was simply cleared. If the light comes back repeatedly, they can also tell that you were just clearing it and not servicing the fault.

So ... that said, just because you can clear the light, doesn't mean you should. It came on for a reason. I plugged my laptop into a co-workers car and read multiple faults from his engine including bad O2 sensors and engine knock. Stuff like that will keep coming back and he now knows exactly what to ask his mechanic to fix.

Besides, if you're into the "green chic", clearing your emissions fault indicator without reading the fault code is like a Catholic spitting in the Holy Water.