My wife and I bought a new 2025 Honda Pilot Elite in May of this year. We just got home from a round trip to Wisconsin and I realized, I don't know what the Pilot should "feel like" when the VCM is engaged. The one thing I felt on the trip was like the new winter tires were out of balance, but only intermittently, and usually when going up a long grade at highway speeds at just the point before the transmission would downshift. This out-of-balance feeling was in the butt, throughout the entire vehicle, including steering wheel. It was noticeable enough for me to mention to my wife I needed to take the car to Discount Tire while in Madison and have the tires rebalanced. And then I wouldn't feel it again for a while.
The type of road surface didn't seem to matter. I've felt tires out of balance, and what I was feeling just didn't make sense.
What does the Honda J35Y8 engine feel like when VCM is active?
This is the third long trip since we bought the car, and the last OCI I noticed the AMSOIL Signature Series with 5.6k miles was very dark and there was quite a bit of carbon in the oil filter when cut open. There was speculation on BITOG and elsewhere this could be due to having switched to running 87 octane, Top Tier fuel instead of a diet of mostly Shell premium. I made a conscious effort, and a few route deviations, to use only Shell premium with V-Power blah-blah-blah. Octane varied between 91 and 93, with two places showing their premium was ethanol-free. Only once did the car see a different brand, and that's because the Kansas Turnpike Authority has lined their pockets and gave a contract to Love's Travel for ALL the service centers along the turnpike between Oklahoma and Kansas City. I wasn't going to make it to a Shell, so filled up with their premium. On the way home, I filled with Shell right before the turnpike and barely made it to the first Shell station in Oklahoma. The Pilot seems to get about 20-22mpg at sustained highway speeds and an unfortunate headwind (going last week and coming home yesterday and today).
Can extended VCM activation cause carbon deposits? The Amsoil had 150 miles on it before we left on the trip and it's getting noticeably darker (not horrible) in the 2600 miles this past week.
This was the range remaining when we made it to the first Shell station in Oklahoma. I'm not sure the effort to use only Shell premium was worth it. I guess we'll see. Took 16.889 gallons to fill the Honda specification 18.5 gallon fuel tank. I continually preach to my wife about not waiting to fill the tank. This time we both engaged in the "experiment". Glad she was driving, had it failed and we ran out of gas.
The type of road surface didn't seem to matter. I've felt tires out of balance, and what I was feeling just didn't make sense.
What does the Honda J35Y8 engine feel like when VCM is active?
This is the third long trip since we bought the car, and the last OCI I noticed the AMSOIL Signature Series with 5.6k miles was very dark and there was quite a bit of carbon in the oil filter when cut open. There was speculation on BITOG and elsewhere this could be due to having switched to running 87 octane, Top Tier fuel instead of a diet of mostly Shell premium. I made a conscious effort, and a few route deviations, to use only Shell premium with V-Power blah-blah-blah. Octane varied between 91 and 93, with two places showing their premium was ethanol-free. Only once did the car see a different brand, and that's because the Kansas Turnpike Authority has lined their pockets and gave a contract to Love's Travel for ALL the service centers along the turnpike between Oklahoma and Kansas City. I wasn't going to make it to a Shell, so filled up with their premium. On the way home, I filled with Shell right before the turnpike and barely made it to the first Shell station in Oklahoma. The Pilot seems to get about 20-22mpg at sustained highway speeds and an unfortunate headwind (going last week and coming home yesterday and today).
Can extended VCM activation cause carbon deposits? The Amsoil had 150 miles on it before we left on the trip and it's getting noticeably darker (not horrible) in the 2600 miles this past week.
This was the range remaining when we made it to the first Shell station in Oklahoma. I'm not sure the effort to use only Shell premium was worth it. I guess we'll see. Took 16.889 gallons to fill the Honda specification 18.5 gallon fuel tank. I continually preach to my wife about not waiting to fill the tank. This time we both engaged in the "experiment". Glad she was driving, had it failed and we ran out of gas.
