A few days ago, I got the dreaded 'check engine' light coming on. I checked my gas filler cap, and suspected that I might not have tightened it at the previous gasoline fill up. I did carefully re-tighten it, but the light still did not extinguish. Went to the dealer, and told them about the light, sat in customer the waiting room, reading and considering the consumption of a free donut.
About a half hour later, the service advisor ( a pleasant, but not necessarily highly technical, lady), came out and told me that the problem was fixed, and that the gas cap had merely been loose. I took the car without arguing, since they were very nice, and even gave the car a quick wash. My guess is that the service tech extinguished the light and cleared the code, and now that the gas cap was properly seated, the light remained off. I noted that when I experienced the problem, the check engine light came on as soon as the ignition key was in the full on position, and obviously showed no sign of going out. When the dealer returned the car to me, the light went out on its own after the ignition was in the on position for about 2 seconds, and of course it did not come back on after the engine was started.
My best conclusion is that if I had not gone to the dealer, the light would eventually have gone out on its own, after several engine restart cycles, but how many I have no idea. 10?? 20?? Does anyone have any idea, or actual experience, on how long it takes that light to reset after the gas cap has been properly re seated?

 

somewhere on here i heard it's supposed to be something like three times before it goes out on its own. it didn't for me, but I suspected it was supposed to be for a loose gas cap. i reset the CEL myself, and the light never came back on again.

save yourself a trip next time, the instructions on how to reset are on the board.

-= joe =-

 

I've had this same problem with the gas cap. The light will reset itself after a few drives. I've asked Honda what would cause it to come loose, no answer has been give to this day. Easy fix though

 

My gas cap kept coming loose by itself, causing gas fumes to leak into my garage and eventually the dreaded light came on. Fortunately, it was on the way to an oil change and my local Honda dealership reset it and put a brand new gas cap on from one in the showroom - under warranty of course! I have not had any problems since. I believe that Honda recognises that this is a problem.

 

I'm on my 3rd gas cap from Honda. My cap still gets loose on me.

The first time the CEL came on, it took about a week to shut off on its own, now when I get the same problem, I just reset the ECU.

I remember hearing once, that there have been many faulty fuel fillers.

 

yeah.. i'm with ap1bydesign.
my check engine light kept coming on, i kept resetting the ecu (STUPID STUPID ME), then would tighten the gas cap & i would be fine. few days later it came back on. finally after paying a lil attention to what i was doing i realized that my cap was getting very easy to remove. so went to honda & bought a new cap, works like a charm, no more light !

 

The secret to the Honda gas cap is to grasp the rim of the cap and twist not the bump on the top of it. Try that and notice how much more solid the seal feels.

fltsfshr

 

Check out service bulletin 04-002. If your vehicle has DTC P1456, it may be because of a deformed fuel filler neck. Some filler necks on 02 & some 03 S2000's were improperly manufactured causing the gas caps to bind as they're being tightened. The cap clicks, and one assumes that it's fully seated, but it's not. If your cap seems tight going on, spin till it clicks, than try grasping it on the sides and turning some more. If it tightens some more before seating then you have a deformed filler neck. If your vehicle is still under basic warranty, this repair is free. If not, see if your dealership will do a good will repair. Also, when you go in for the repair, you should have less than 1/2 tank of gas. Takes about 20-30 minutes to replace filler neck.