i took the honda rep for a drive last week and he confirmed my car was pinging and said he will log a job with honda in japan. He confirmed honda japan were aware of the problem and that they were working on a fix, no timeframe given. he said it affected a small number of cars.

if anyone else has the problem ask your dealer to get the honda dsm down and test drive your car so they can log a fault with honda japan. the more the better for us.