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Last night at 10pm I headed out to go to Tanger Outlets Midnight Madness Sale. I filled up at the gas station and headed 60mi to the outlets. I arrived sat in the car for a few minutes before the stores opened then got out to go shopping. I arrived back at my car 45mins later and started it up to find the dash lighting up like a christmas tree with errors. Check Emissions System and some kind of SH-AWD error. I restarted the car about 5 times before I tried to see if it would drive. It did, but only up to 2k rpm. I called roadside assistance but they would only tow me to the nearest acura dealer 30mi away, not to mine which was about 80mi away. So I took my chances inspected the car and headed home. I'm no mechanic but I checked all the hoses and fluids to make sure everything was normal. Couldn't get the car to go past 60mph on my way home. This morning I called my acura dealer and asked if I should have it towed to them or if it was safe to drive. They said to drive it so I headed over there to drop it off.

After a few hours I got a call from my advisor asking if I had refueled prior to the emissions and shawd lights coming on. I said yes but why. He informed me the errors the car was giving was similar to what they have seen when someone puts diesel in their car. I told him it was remotely possible I put in 87 or 89 but diesel is a different pump on the other side of the gas station so I certainly didn't put any in. He remarked the diesel may have been put into the wrong storage tank. He said they would test the contents of the tank and call me back. An hour later he calls back and said the test shows there is something wrong with the gas. Whether its diesel or bad gas or anything else they don't know. He said they are going to empty my tank and do more test samples on monday. I am wondering if this would cause damage to my engine. I always thought putting diesel in would distroy an engine but when I asked about what this was going to cost me he said, i would be billed for the compute plug in plus time to empty and refill gas plus cost of gas. Nothing about a new engine and not even about all testing of the gas. By the way, when I filled up the tank before the problems occured I had 1/4 tank. It was 60mi and 90mins later that the issues popped up. Just about the time the original gas could have been used up assuming gas and diesel don't mix. But that's just my guess. What do you think?

 

i doubt it'll do anything to your engine if it was diesel....what it could do is clog up ur injection and spark plugs, but that's over a longer time. If it runs fine after they're done and it's not cutting out or idling unevenly, don't worry about changing the spark plugs.

it's wierd that ur awd warning lights wud go off as it don't really have anything to do with the engine.

 

The service advisor also said they didn't know why the AWD lights went on. I have been trying to figure that out and my only thought is the awd system shifts the engines power to different wheels and there wasn't much power coming out of the engine. But any other ideas would be appriciated.

Only one reply? Where is everyone?

 

Probably on vacation. I wish I knew about check engine lights, but I don't. You certainly have an unusual situation.

 

I thought the diesel had a different size nozzel to prevent that from happening?

 

it does...but if the ground tank to the service station gets filled with diesel, it will mix.

gas & diesel will mix right away. If it stratofies, then the diesel will go to the bottom of the tank as it is heavier than gasoline. Gasoline engines are not capable of combusting diesel fuel. It's octane is less than 20. A mixture would cause a misfiring engine and a lot of smoke. It will quickly foul the catalitic converter.

If you had 1/4 tank and you filled it up with diesel, you would have known before you got off the lot

 

Thanks for the reply. After trying to research this issue I found that diesel is really an oil and as you said it's heavier than gas so I don't get it. Maybe the dealer is full of crap. There was no smoke, just dash lights and something choking my engine.

 

it might have been bad gas, such as water in the tanks of the gas station or a bad winter blend. Which station did you get gas from? THe SH-AWD lights went off most likely as the motor was not giving proper power to the SH-AWD system, so it must of thought that there is a problem with the electromagnetic clutches it uses. just my opinion of it. BTW, the car goes into limp mode when transmission issues are detected, hence the SH-AWD errors and also due to engine misfires. If the check engine light came on, what codes were registered, misfires?

 

Once you get jinxed...

After no more AFS yellow in my dash, this morning, the CEL & Emissions system decided to go on. After putting the car into drive, the SHAWD felt like kicking in.

Turning off the car, restarting, bring back the CEL emissions light on its own. No SHAWD.

Two stores later, I start the car, CEL emissions is still steady, and upon driving, SHAWD comes back. Drive. Restart the car. CEL emissions by itself.

I've read that somehow the first triggers the other.

I have had the CEL emissions come on few months back, and proper twisting of the gas cap resolved it. This time I filled gas from a different - but quite busy - station. Always V Popwer.

So... dunno.

 

Lights are gone yesterday. It either took a few ignitions after tightening of gas cap, or my topping up of engine oil. both I believe can cause the check emissions.

The check shawd is clearly triggered by the check emissions on occasion. No clue why.

 

That check emissions is back. And only once shawd came on, but went off on restart.

I read last week somewhere this could be related to some tranny switch or something. I have noticed sometimes when i slow down, in D, the downshifts low and pulls the car as if i pushed the brakes a bit harder.

My tranny oil is slightly low on the marker.

 

No one has any info on this?

The shwad is rarely coming on. When it did today, driving on the snow becomes quite different. I'm assuming it becomes a regular AWD when the light comes on. Restarting the car makes it go away, and driving becomes much better. Nice to see the difference this SH does vs other cars with just AWD.

 

According to TFM, it's FWD-only.

It drives like a horrible FWD car and just does not feel right.

 

When the light comes on, I click the MID to show SHAWD, and all four wheels are still getting torque.

 

Tighten or change battery ground cable. Check.

Gone.

 

How bizarre! I can only imagine that the clutch packs must default to a half-clutched situation, or something and not to CBA situation from my understanding, only 'frictional torque' gets transmitted when they're off:

Acura SH-AWD: A Comprehensive Analysis | YouWheel - Your Car Expert

Still - good news if a terminal clean/tighten has eliminated the weirdness! If only Honda made batteries as well as drivelines...