[Gray_Beard]

Last week my wife and I went down to Punta Gorda, Florida from Charlotte, NC. to visit her brother. First and foremost I need to say I know where we're retiring to and it ain't Charlotte! This was the first decent trip that we put on the PP other than the daily racking up of mileage of every day living like going to work. All in all put on about 1300 miles between highway and tooling around down there and the Passport did great. Really comfortable for a 10 hour trip (which we spit the driving between us), both drivers and passengers seat were great. Plenty of leg and head room with great butt and back support. I turned the VCM tuner off via my ground switch and was surprised how little the Passport used the VCM being I was able to monitor through my ScanGauge II. Averaged 22-24 mpg at 80 mph (that is with 265 18" tires). My only beef was with the Garmin navigation. On the return trip somewhere near Stark, Fl. the navi completely wigged out and had us in the middle of nowhere, not on a road and repeating recalculating over and over. Ditched the Garmin hooked up my Samsung and used Waze for the remainder of the trip. I also have to note that on the trip down it rained from the minute we left Charlotte till about an hour of arriving at Punta Gorda, and I mean it poured to the point I though we needed an ark; and the Continental Terrain Contact AT did fantastic, never hydroplaned and tracked dead on. Absolutely no question I would get these again. Which is good because when I retire, Florida is known for it's pop up thunder storms!

 

[Moab Junky]

Nice trip report. Glad you two had a great time.
Are you saying the tuner isn't all that necessary?
When does it go into 4 banger mode the most?

When I read you lost your Garmin in the middle of nowhere, I was afraid a "Hills Have Eyes" story was about to begin.
Glad all is good.
I'll bet you didn't see another Deep Scarlet HP on your journey.
MJ

 

[Gray_Beard]

Nice trip report. Glad you two had a great time.
Are you saying the tuner is all that necessary?
When does it go into 4 banger mode the most?

When I read you lost your Garmin in the middle of nowhere, I was afraid a "Hills Have Eyes" story was about to begin.
Glad all is good.
I'll bet you didn't see another Deep Scarlet HP on your journey.
MJ

It would drop into 4 banger when I was keeping a constant speed (CC) and not having to either hit the brakes or accelerate. Now I but my tuner on shortly after getting my Passport only because of the horrible experience I had with my 2013 Accord, so I can't say how it was before and plus I didn't really have a way to monitor it as I do now. Now granted it may have been in 4 banger more than I thought because I had to keep my eyes on the road because of all the rain and not on the ScanGauge and when my wife drove I did take a nap (like I said I think is comfortable).

LOL, never mind Deep Scarlet Pearl I didn't see another Passport the whole vacation! Plenty of Pilots and Odysseys though. And thank God no "Hills Have Eyes"

 

[pshadoa]

I thought the current version of VCM in the Passport turns off 3 cylinders. I believe the older version turned off 2 or 3 depending on the situation.
Please see below:

Last week my wife and I went down to Punta Gorda, Florida from Charlotte, NC. to visit her brother. First and foremost I need to say I know where we're retiring to and it ain't Charlotte! This was the first decent trip that we put on the PP other than the daily racking up of mileage of every day living like going to work. All in all put on about 1300 miles between highway and tooling around down there and the Passport did great. Really comfortable for a 10 hour trip (which we spit the driving between us), both drivers and passengers seat were great. Plenty of leg and head room with great butt and back support. I turned the VCM tuner off via my ground switch and was surprised how little the Passport used the VCM being I was able to monitor through my ScanGauge II. Averaged 22-24 mpg at 80 mph (that is with 265 18" tires). My only beef was with the Garmin navigation. On the return trip somewhere near Stark, Fl. the navi completely wigged out and had us in the middle of nowhere, not on a road and repeating recalculating over and over. Ditched the Garmin hooked up my Samsung and used Waze for the remainder of the trip. I also have to note that on the trip down it rained from the minute we left Charlotte till about an hour of arriving at Punta Gorda, and I mean it poured to the point I though we needed an ark; and the Continental Terrain Contact AT did fantastic, never hydroplaned and tracked dead on. Absolutely no question I would get these again. Which is good because when I retire, Florida is known for it's pop up thunder storms!

Hi, Could you please tell me what gauge or codes you use on the ScanGauge II to monitor VCM?
I feel I am pretty "tuned" in what the engine/tranny are doing but after 15k miles, including a 2500 mile road trip on all kinds of roads/highways, I have never felt the VCM engage or disengage. I would like to have the ScanGauge II show me.
Thanks!
I believe the current version of Honda's VCM system used in the PPs and other models only deactivates 3 cylinders. From I have gleaned, the older systems turned off 2, or 3, depending on the conditions.
Please see VCM info below:
To help improve fuel efficiency, Honda’s i-VTEC V-6 engines use the latest version of Honda’s innovative Variable Cylinder Management (VCM).

• When high power is required, for example during startup, acceleration or when climbing hills, the engine operates on all six cylinders.
• During periods of moderate-speed cruising and at low engine loads, the system operates just one bank of three cylinders, thereby maximizing fuel efficiency.
• To smooth the transition between activating or deactivating cylinders, the system adjusts ignition timing and Drive-by-Wire throttle position, and turns the torque converter lockup on and off.
• The transition between three- and six-cylinder operation is usually unnoticeable to the driver.

 

[pshadoa]

Just found this info re. VCM:
*Starting with 2013 Model, VCM operation is 3- or 6-cylinder mode, no longer 3, 4, 6-cylinder operation.

 

[Gray_Beard]

I thought the current version of VCM in the Passport turns off 3 cylinders. I believe the older version turned off 2 or 3 depending on the situation.
Please see below:

Hi, Could you please tell me what gauge or codes you use on the ScanGauge II to monitor VCM?
I feel I am pretty "tuned" in what the engine/tranny are doing but after 15k miles, including a 2500 mile road trip on all kinds of roads/highways, I have never felt the VCM engage or disengage. I would like to have the ScanGauge II show me.
Thanks!
I believe the current version of Honda's VCM system used in the PPs and other models only deactivates 3 cylinders. From I have gleaned, the older systems turned off 2, or 3, depending on the conditions.
Please see VCM info below:
To help improve fuel efficiency, Honda’s i-VTEC V-6 engines use the latest version of Honda’s innovative Variable Cylinder Management (VCM).

• When high power is required, for example during startup, acceleration or when climbing hills, the engine operates on all six cylinders.
• During periods of moderate-speed cruising and at low engine loads, the system operates just one bank of three cylinders, thereby maximizing fuel efficiency.
• To smooth the transition between activating or deactivating cylinders, the system adjusts ignition timing and Drive-by-Wire throttle position, and turns the torque converter lockup on and off.
• The transition between three- and six-cylinder operation is usually unnoticeable to the driver.

pshadoa, appreciate the feed back and info. Attached are the codes for ScanGauge II VCM monitoring.

 

[stevenD]

Great to hear how the Continental Terrain Contact A/T's did on a long trip and in the rain, took a 100 trip on Saturday on mine - same thing - super sure-footed on the highway...!

 

[Cilles]

So the Scanguage II can tell you when it is in VCM mode? Can someone tell me what setting as I didn't see that when I went through the manual and settings.

 

[pshadoa]

Please click on the attachment in the above post that Gray Beard posted. It has the SG code for VCM solenoid on/off.

 

[Cilles]

pshadoa, appreciate the feed back and info. Attached are the codes for ScanGauge II VCM monitoring.

Interesting that those are different codes for Trans Temp than I am using. They may be the ones I used at first from online but that wasn't working for me most of the time so I switched to these.

Automatic Transmission Temperature
TXD 1EF1229023
RXF C32200000000
RXD 3808
MTH 00090005FFD8

Has anyone else had issues with the ones in PDF above?

And thanks for the VCM codes, I hadn't thought to try those before and have a slot open on the gauge for just that.

 

[pshadoa]

I just entered the VCM codes gray beard sent and they work!
I am using the ATF codes you are using. I never tried the other ones.

 

[bruceharper]

My only beef was with the Garmin navigation. On the return trip somewhere near Stark, Fl. the navi completely wigged out and had us in the middle of nowhere, not on a road and repeating recalculating over and over.

I'll bet you were on the new bypass around Stark on U.S. 301. Up until the kids moved from Apollo Beach last year, we made regular trips between Southwest Virginia and Tampa and waited with anticipation for the new road to open. Garmin was slow with the update to add the new road, so for a couple of trips, in both our Odyssey and one in the Passport, the nav system went berserk and kept wanting us to turn on every road we crossed. I think the last update solved that but now the kids are in Baton Rouge so there is no way to confirm the fix.

Bruce in Blacksburg
Proud owner of a 2019 Passport Touring model

 

[CAJack42]

Has anyone else had issues with the ones in PDF above?

Yes, TFT didn't work for me. I worked with ScanGauge engineer and ran a data logger and they couldn't come up with a code that worked. So I started playing around looking at the GER code and Jeep codes (they had the ZF since around 2013 as I recall) and came up with the 1E... code. Engineer was still scratching his head as to why it worked base on info from the data logger.