weimin

Hello community!

I have an 07 RDX tech package. Was purchased as a salvage and has been great for the last 9 years. Today something unexpected happened. The car started but when put into drive, the car did not go. Not knowing what was going on, we turned the car off and tried again. We then turned off the car but didn’t put the car back into P before turning off the key in panic.

1. one thing forum post said it might be the fuse, checked the horn/stop fuse #12 and it looked ok.

2. another post said to check the stop switch on the brake pedal, replaced it with a new one, no change.

3. another post said to check the transmission fluid, checked and it is between the dots.

We then tried to start the car again, but now the car doesn’t start anymore. a couple times, it did try to turn over, can kind of hear the engine start up but dies right away. the majority of the time however, it just tries to start with no luck.

The alternator was changed about 6 months ago, the battery was changed out at the same time.

We did an oil change synthetic and transmission change with atf about 6 months ago as well.

Sorry, I am a complete car noob am actually afraid of the car for no reason but am starting to realize i shouldn’t be afraid of the car and work on it.

my father came over and he thought it might be the spark plugs so we took them all out. his mechanic friend said to check them by trying to turn over the car with the spark plug individually plugged in to see if they light up.

This is the state we are in right now. the car has the spark plugs removed and my father is going to come back tomorrow (central noon) with new spark plugs.

I’m going along with what he says since i don’t know what’s going on, but am using the time until tomorrow in hopes of gathering some additional information to be useful tomorrow.

Plugged in an odb and don’t see any error codes, the odb does detect the car correctly.

when i turn the key, the dash doesn’t have a cel light, but in position II, the “brake light” is on.

thanks for anyone’s assistance, guesses as what we should look into.

when we got the alternator changed, we were told the fuel pump sounded weak. during testing today we do smell gas since we were trying to start the car to test the spark plugs.

Essthadoc

Is the starter not working? Also make sure it's fully in park. There's a little neutral safety switch right under the shift knob. It's the tiny little cover pry it out and use a screw driver to press the switch in and make sure to fully engage park. Then try to start it again. Also test the battery. If it's weak on a rdx it will either hard start and stall or just not start at all. Here's a pic of where your neutral safety switch is.

weimin

thanks! we plugged a battery booster and got the car to crank again, but now i notice with the key in position ii, the green key light keeps flashing. now searches are telling me immobililzer.

Essthadoc

do you by chance have a 2nd key? Also im glad you got it to crank, seems like a low battery so far. If you were close i would reprogram your key free "fellow rdx discount " but I'm in western NY.

Essthadoc

There are reasonably priced obdII scanners that include the Honda/acura software so you can reprogram keys and do a bigger scan on the specific model you have. The tool is 100$-150$. If you need reprogramming the dealer is gonna charge the price of the tool.

weimin

thanks, we just swapped out the battery with a new one from costco. we got the car to crank now but no luck starting. definitely see the green flashing key now, found a youtube video that seems to exhibit the same issue when someone put some bling on their key hole. we don’t have that. we tried with both the key fob key and the grey spare, unfortunately both keys don’t work.

Is there a fuse or anything i can check?

Chopperpilot

How’s the key fob battery ? Have you tried locking and unlocking RDX with all keys yet ? Also try cycling the keyhole mechanically to lock and unlock for grins with both, including “ valet “gray one Just a wild a$$ guess IMO .
​​​​​​Good Luck!

weimin

I replaced the battery on the fob.

I tried unlocking and locking with the fob.

I also tried turning the key on the driver side lock and unlock.

I also tried pressing panic for 5 seconds because google told me to.

Whats funky is a couple times it seemed like the car is about to start but dies right away. This is expected behavior with an immobilizer issue?

DaIll1

If the light is flashing it will get momentary loss and kill it.

weimin

cool, at least i’ve arrived at a point where there is a describable symptom.

deepa1600

Sounds like an immobilizer or MICU issue, clear any codes with scanner and try disconnecting both battery terminals and short the positive and negative wires (when they are disconnected, and away, from battery), cover the battery terminals with something (plastic etc.) to be safe. Leave disconnected for 10-15 minutes and then reconnect. Also check under hood fuse # 1,2,11,19 and under dash (driver kick panel) fuse# 2 also check engine ground (small 6-7 inch wire near engine mount) near firewall on passenger side. If this doesn't work you need high level scan tool for further testing.

weimin

thank you everyone for your help. As i mentioned before I am am car ignorant. I am afraid of anything under the hood. I can sys admin the scariest of servers and whip together scripts with no fear but am terrified about anything related to the car.

The initial issue was the car started, but when put into drive the car would not move.

This led to some fuse checking, then the car didn’t want to start anymore but would still crank.

My father came over and we dismantled down to the spark plugs but found nothing.

We put everything back together (wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be) and got the car back to the state where it would not turn over. Finally saw the flashing green light.

At this point my dad and I were like let’s call a tow truck. Thanks to all your help pointing me to the immobilizer we told our mechanic friend we saw the green key and he knew exactly what to do.

We called a friend over who happens to be a mechanic and he has a fancy odb device that looks like an ipad. He did a reprogram of the keys and we are back in business.

Not sure if everything was related but I am glad everything is working again, and I got to hang out with my dad.

I just placed an order for the Foxwell NT510 Elite.

I think i’m going to order a haynes manual too, my father has a 2009 rdx which I believe is the same so a manual will benefit both of us.

TLDR, don’t be afraid of the car.

I think I shall take on doing the oil change and transmission change next!

DaIll1

When you drain the transmission lube measure what comes out and fill with same amount, you won't be able to drain all the fluid. This may sound ridicules, but be sure to replace drain plugs before adding fluids. My mother took her car to one of those quick lube places and, well... Engines get real noisy when they don't have oil.

Essthadoc

Congratulations we're glad to see your back up and running. When you ordered the foxwell obdII scanner just double check it, is preloaded with honda/acura programming. It'll say it in the item description if you ordered from Amazon or ebay. Transmission fluid you you can go factory/oem fluid or valvoline maxlife atf. If you go valvoline max life atf just make sure on the back it says honda/acura safe. Sorry I have some but I'm not home to take a pic.