car: 2007 ACura TL 5AT

Took the TL out for a quick run to the USA border (from vancouver, bc) to fill up the tank.

stuck in 91 at Shell. filled it up to the max.

on my way back... i found an open stretch of highway with absolutely no one on it...so i took the TL up to about 160km/hr... but it wasn't a gradual acceleration.. i was already doing 100km/hr and basically stepped on it. at 160km/hr, the CEL was blinking and blinked for about 15seconds while i slowed down. otherwise, the car was driving normal as it always has...

my thoughts:
1. upon driving to the USA, the tank was completely empty as in range = 0.
2. only other time this happened was when i was driving up an incline approaching a bridge, i put the car into the lower gear while I was at about 80km/hr and had the CEL blinking.


car is driving fine but i'm curious as to what it could be since i'm almost out of warranty.

thanks.

 

possible misfire. do you punch it often? couldn't have hurt anything.

 

Try going to an auto parts store and getting the code read.
I dont know if the code is stored, if the CEL goes away.

 

Yup usually a blinking cel is a misfire

 

good catch, guys!

 

good to know it isn't harmful... and no i dont punch it at all actually...The TL turns so many heads that I like to go by slowly for them to appreciate the sheer beauty.

lol.. so yah.. most i've done is maybe 120km/hr on an open stretch.

 

you're missing the point.
you have a misfire, when punching it.
Hence, when goosing it the CEL blinks.

you need to further troubleshoot and find out which plug is causing the misfire.

 

My 04 did the same thing untill the ECU got a free upgrade at the dealer.

Well maybe upgrade is the wrong word. Ima try to find the old thread I made.

 

^a twist!
find that thread Roger!!!

could an '07 have the same ECU as a '04? I would think they would have gotten rid of all the troubles by now

 

the 04-05 ECU is WAY different from the 2006+ because of the Torque control system that Acura added to counteract torque steer among other things.

To the OP, the blinking CEL light means a minor misfire that the car is detecting. If you don't drive the car hard at all it simply could be some gunk or buildup letting loose from the injectors due to the sudden increase in fuel being dumped because you floored it.

Also getting to 100 takes a few seconds in the TL so I really don't doubt it was some sort of gunk or something blowing out of the fuel lines/injectors. Adding onto that, you said you ran the tank low so it's very possible that some sort of dirt was sucked up by the fuel pump.

Flooring the car once in a while is good for the car since it helps clean out anything that may be stuck to the injectors/valves and such and as well lets any other sort of buildup blow out the tailpipe. A few folks call it an "Italian tune-up:

There isn't any damage done from it and as well I doubt autozone will be able to pull out a code. In any case, it's a good idea to also run a fuel cleaner like Redline SI-1 every so often to clean out the motor and fuel lines and stuff. I run a whole bottle through the car every 20-30K miles to keep the car happy.