How to DePAX Honda Odyssey Touring

2005 Honda Odyssey Touring was sold with Michelin PAX tires, which are rather expensive to replace. For this reason many people seek to replace them with regular tires. There are many pages on internet discussing the problem, but none of them gave me the information I was looking for: how to de-PAX with original Honda parts. In particular, I wanted to preserve TPMS functionality. Here's what I chose:

• Original 2005 Odyssey TPMS sensors: 06421-S3V-A04 SENSOR ASSY., TPMS
• Original Honda TPMS wheels for 2008-2010 Honda Odyssey EX: 42700-SHJ-L81 DISK, ALUMINUM WHEEL (16X7J) (TPMS) (ENKEI)
• matching wheel caps: 44732-S0X-A01 CAP, ALUMINUM WHEEL CENTER
• 235/65R16 tires, as recommended for 2008-2010 Odyssey

The sensors fit into the wheels perfectly, but the Honda dealer who was installing the tires on the wheels wanted to charge me over $300 to properly initialize the sensors and the car computer. I thought that was ridiculous and declined, asking them to only install the TPMS sensors, tires, and balance the wheels. They warned me that I will continue to get TPMS system warning, and I said it was fine.

When I drove off on the new wheels the TPMS warning never came on and the system appears to function normally. Searching on the internet I found some opinions that the car initializes the sensors every time it is started, which appears to be the case, so I am not sure why the dealer even suggester the procedure, unless they did it anyway without charging me, which is unlikely.

The only concern left is that if a tire pressure drops below the threshold the computer will be displaying a message that it is safe to drive for a while, because it will be thinking that the car has PAX tires. I think it is still better than not knowing that a tire is flat.

Good luck with your DePAX!

Is Your Honda Ready For The State Emission Test?

Last time I had to test my car emissions I did a little work on it, which involved resetting check engine light (clearing the DTC trouble code). The car did not pass the test because a few systems were not ready. How can you tell if it is ready?

The answer is very simple and can be found in the service manual: turn the ignition key on, without starting the engine, and wait 20 seconds. If the car is not ready the check engine light will blink 5 times after 20 seconds. If it is ready it will just turn off. Typically you would need to drive about three days for the computer to do its thing and set the readiness codes.