Hi, I did search and there are too many possibilities that could have caused my recent observation of CEL+VSA+solid TCS lights comming on while I was driving slowly under heavy snow condition.

I've been hearing cough sort of sound when I rev the engine standing still as the RPM drops. When the RPM drops the car makes noise that sounds like it is coughing lightly.
I have comptech cat-back system so the noise seem apparent but I wouldnt have noticed with stock exhaust on..

It snowed really badly here in Toronto, and the car was covered with around 5~10 mm of frozen snow. Since I forgot my winter brush to scrape the ice off the windshield, I decided to melt them off the car.
I started the car and waited around 5 minutes and revved upto 1900rpm to heat up the engine a little faster..
Then I drove off about 15 minutes later, and drove for about 3~4 minutes. Since there was so much snow on the road, I was driving around 25 km/h when I saw CEL light comming on then VSA then solid TCS light comming on.
I pulled over and turned the car off to started again.
VSA and TCS light was gone but CEL remained lit.
I decided to drive home and contact dealer to see what's wrong with the car.
On the way back, I noticed the car idling at around 700 RPM which is lower than usual.
After driving for 30 minutes, the car felt very normal. Idling went back to around 900 RPM which is normal..
But CEL was still on.
I contacted the Dealer and they said they cannot see my car tonight and they will only take a look at the car tomorrow evening..

I'm kind of worried if I can drive to work tomorrow..
What could cause this problem?
Does it have to do with "coughing" sound that I was hearing?
(The coughing sound almost sounded like the cars on Need for Speed Underground2 when they rev standing still if you know what I mean..)

Any help would be appreciated.

 

That cough sounds like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oNfexiN2jo

 

Hi, I contacted the acura dealer to get the coad read..
They say it's an EGR valve TO START WITH.
They said they will replace it and see if that takes care of the problem and will cost me $450 for diagnosis and EGR valve replacement.

My question is that increased exhaust pipe efficiency could cause the ECU to mistakenly determine that EGR is malfunctioning?
I mean exhaust gas recirculation pressure would drop when the exhaust gas can escape easier right?
Could my Comptech catback have caused this?

 

THE EGR problem is fairly common on our cars. There are plenty of DIys on cleaning the EGR Ports. I would try that first and reset the ECU and see if that comes on. Your exhaust had nothing to do with it and the slight cough is normal, you dont notice it with stock, but with aftermarket on occasion you hear it.

See the black soot in the right of the picture in the valley, and look for 6 small round holes (next to the silver ones) those plug up causing a EGR code. SImply cleaning the carbon out of the squiggily tracks in the upper plate you pull off and those holse may solve your problem. Its less than a hr 30 min job to do and only requires a few cans of carb cleaner and a old tooth brush

 

Damn, I should have read all the DIY's first then tell the dealers to do it if I cant fix it..
anyway,
Total came out as 400 dollars...

It looks like it took care of the problems as well as rough idle and "low RPM" idle too..

The car feels alot smoother though.

I will post more follow up tomorrow after I drive to work. Since I take about 40 minutes (30 minutes city and around 10 mintutes highway) to get to work, it will tell me if the dealer actually fixed the problem..

The thing is though, when the service representative guy told me they will change EGR and test drive it "Around the block" to see if the CEL comes up again, that "Around the block" ended up being like 20 km..
God knows what the heck they did with my car..
But he seemed really nice.

by the way, what is that liquid on the centre of the engine? Sorry I have never opened up my engine like that.

 

thats just a little oil. It leaks into that area and is normal

 

Where is this part located? My CEL has kept coming on after reseting? Thanks

 

That is the upper intake manifold. If you pop your hood and look at teh engine, its the plate sticking up thru the plastic engine cover.