A damaged air filter may let some debris get its way to the throttle body; so, if the filter was damaged, the throttle body would need cleaning too.

A dirty air filter will probably not be the cause the of trouble code. Usually, when checking things, even if not the cause, still good to change things that may need to be changed (that is why I mentioned that part).

 

Thank you for your help, I'll go to the mechanic's next week and get it checked out. In a interesting turn of events, when I went down to my car this afternoon i tightened my gas cap ( I read that this might cause the light), and now the check engine light is off. Could this have been the evil culprit?

 

Probably not due to the fuel cap loose. If it was the fuel cap loose, it usually will show a trouble code of P0442: Evaporative Emission (EVAP) Small Leak Detected or P0445: Evaporative Emission (EVAP) Large Leak Detected.

It may still be due to something like a dirty throttle body, for example, the throttle body butterfly may have been sticking previously and caused the trouble code.

You have what Honda terms an "intermittent failure" which means a system may have had a failure, but checks OK now. If the check engine light was on but then went out, the original problem may have been intermittent.

On many cars, depending on the type of failure/problem detected, the computer will store a pending trouble code the first time it is detected and no check engine light will be on. If the same failure is detected on 2 consecutive drive cycles, then check engine light comes on. The check engine light may turn off after several other drive cycles if the same failure is no longer detected.

What this means is that on your car it is was an intermittent failure. Does that mean it will come back? Possibly, yes or no. So, just drive as normal and if the check engine light comes on again, read/scan for the code(s) to see if they are the same or one or more different one.