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^xcalibur^
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engine check light on

Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 23rd, 2007, 6:02 am

what causes this? noticed it cam on yesterday but car seems to work fine...any suggestions?

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kes_vtec
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Postby kes_vtec » October 23rd, 2007, 7:20 am

any number of things, still have it looked at...

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cjawahir
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Postby cjawahir » October 23rd, 2007, 7:27 am

you need to get a scan with diagnostic tool to see fault code
the reason for that light is to let you know when to take the car to the dealer before it stops working all together .

cj

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Hook
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Postby Hook » October 23rd, 2007, 10:34 am

under what conditions did it come on in the first place?

answering this will give u some vague indication of what went wrong, whether or not u take it for a diagnostic scan...plus it'll help u compile a list of things NOT to do with your car :lol:

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cjawahir
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Postby cjawahir » October 23rd, 2007, 4:52 pm

Hook I see that you have 1667 tech post , you of all person should know the reason for using scan tool .

once a check light is on you would get the fault , and then you can work from there.

post the fault code here


cj

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xxSTAY TUNEDxx
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Postby xxSTAY TUNEDxx » October 23rd, 2007, 6:22 pm

what year is it?

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^xcalibur^
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Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 23rd, 2007, 7:42 pm

2002 mazda 323....drove the car under normal conditions from st augustinte to arima and then to pos. light came on when i reached just b4 trincity. drove all the way to pos and back to arima with it on. car worked perfect and still working good. any body know where i could get the car scanned within the st augustine - arima area? someone reliable?

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cinco
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Postby cinco » October 23rd, 2007, 9:43 pm

whats the mileage on the car?
100+k?
most probably o2 sensor
zm engine?
diconnect the battery press the brake for about 10 secs reconnect the battery
see if it comes off

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^xcalibur^
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Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 24th, 2007, 5:08 am

disconnected battery for 5 mins and started car after. light is off now.

problem experienced once with the car holding back in rainy weather. started it ...drove for on average 5 minutes in traffic...... the engine sounded like if it was choking and not wanting to accelerate further than that point.

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Hook
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Postby Hook » October 24th, 2007, 2:38 pm

cjawahir wrote:Hook I see that you have 1667 tech post , you of all person should know the reason for using scan tool .

once a check light is on you would get the fault , and then you can work from there.

post the fault code here


cj


what's that have to do with anything?

if he's aware of the condition that caused the fault, then he may not have to spend the $150+ to have a fault code pulled...and even so, once the problem is solved (whether or not he spend the dough to scan it) he'll know what not to do so it doesn't happen again :idea:

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cjawahir
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Postby cjawahir » October 24th, 2007, 5:23 pm

hook may be you dont understand what the check light is place on the instrument for .

a person should not be driving a vehicle with a check light on ,unless he knows the reason for the light on.

what if you are trying to save the man 150+ dollars and the vehicle just shutdown in some crazy place?

cj

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Hook
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Postby Hook » October 24th, 2007, 6:08 pm

MAYBE u have a stick up ur butt and YOUR check light eh come on yet :roll:

sometimes fault codes are survivable and don't require the kind of urgent attention that say an oil pressure light might require...so every time u get a problem, u run off to a mechanic like if ur wallet burning a hole in yuh pocket? no desire to learn about what u driving?

*sigh* anyways...for example, when I got my transplant, my CEL kept coming on and staying on after accelerating hard beyond 2000rpm, car drove fine and the light seemed to reset itself at every start-up (aaahhh...see, I identified the symptoms and thus realized the threshold rpm), did some research and realized it might've been the vehicle speed sensor...put the ECU in diagnostic mode (fortunately I downloaded the service manual) and sure enough I was right! did some more research, wired it in myself and voila! no more error codes!

http://forums.trinituner.com/forums/vie ... p?t=125952

now I'm not saying everybody has the aptitude or the time to learn all these things, but a little sense goes a long way and identifying the cause of your problem rather than just sending it off to be repaired, helps the driver better understand his vehicle :idea:

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^xcalibur^
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Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 24th, 2007, 6:38 pm

so what are the pros and cons of this sensor going bad? what can cause it to go bad etc?

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cjawahir
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Postby cjawahir » October 24th, 2007, 7:43 pm

ok I will leave this thread to mr hook , to give all the good advice .

mr right.


cj

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De Dragon
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Postby De Dragon » October 24th, 2007, 7:55 pm

cjawahir wrote:ok I will leave this thread to mr hook , to give all the good advice .

mr right.


cj

With your attitude you better! Not every check light is cause for concern, and he did state that the car was driving fine after the CEL came on.

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Hook
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Postby Hook » October 25th, 2007, 8:50 am

*sigh* I done...like cj have a scanner he wanna pimp out

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^xcalibur^
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Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 26th, 2007, 6:37 pm

somebody help nuh...... i dont want no enemies over this issue but i need to find out the possibilities of this unit failing on me if it ever does.

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De Dragon
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Postby De Dragon » October 27th, 2007, 9:11 am

^xcalibur^ wrote:somebody help nuh...... i dont want no enemies over this issue but i need to find out the possibilities of this unit failing on me if it ever does.

Oxygen sensor? You will burn pig rich, and your gas mileage will nosedive!

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De Dragon
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Postby De Dragon » October 27th, 2007, 9:12 am

^xcalibur^ wrote:somebody help nuh...... i dont want no enemies over this issue but i need to find out the possibilities of this unit failing on me if it ever does.

Oxygen sensor? You will burn pig rich, and your gas mileage will nosedive!

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cinco
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Postby cinco » October 27th, 2007, 12:40 pm

^^ am no
i have a bj 323 wid ah facked o2 sensor for about a year and absolutely no change in fuel efficiency at all
once the car reaches 100k the computer needs the sensor changed once u reset the computer it thinks its changed and there you no more problems.

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De Dragon
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Postby De Dragon » October 27th, 2007, 1:52 pm

cinco wrote:^^ am no
i have a bj 323 wid ah facked o2 sensor for about a year and absolutely no change in fuel efficiency at all
once the car reaches 100k the computer needs the sensor changed once u reset the computer it thinks its changed and there you no more problems.

The man asked IF it fails on him! The ECU goes to a failsafe mode where it adds extra fuel since it does not read any oxygen sensor input.

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^xcalibur^
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Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 27th, 2007, 10:51 pm

i'll be hittin the 100k in a couple days....guess its the life time for that o2 sensor to go. but is there any harm with driving with it not sensing anything besides burning fuel.

another thing..... would having the catalytic converter help the performance of a vehicle in any way?

and if so can it be replaced if its removed?

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Hook
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Postby Hook » October 28th, 2007, 5:57 pm

^xcalibur^, this is taken from this site http://www.picotech.com/auto/lambda_sensor.html

A lambda sensor's normal life span is 30,000 to 50,000 miles. But the sensor may fail prematurely if it becomes clogged with carbon, or is contaminated by lead from leaded petrol or silicone from an antifreeze leak or from silicone sealer.

As the sensor ages, it becomes sluggish. Eventually it produces an unchanging signal or no signal at all. When this happens, the Check Engine Light may come on, and the engine may experience drivability problems caused by an overly rich fuel condition. Poor fuel economy, elevated CO and HC emissions, poor idle, and/or hesitation during acceleration are typical complaints.

If the average voltage from the lambda sensor is running high (more than 0.50V), it indicates a rich condition, possibly due to a bad MAP, MAF or Air Flow sensor or leaky injector. If the average voltage reading is running low (less than 0.45V), the mixture is running lean possibly due to a vacuum leak or because the sensor itself is bad.

If the lambda sensor continually reads high (rich), it will cause the engine computer to lean out the fuel mixture in an attempt to compensate for the rich reading. This can cause lean misfire, hesitation, stumbling, poor idle and high hydrocarbon emissions (from misfiring).

If the lambda sensor continually reads low (lean), it will cause the engine computer to richen the fuel mixture. Injector pulse width will increase causing fuel consumption and carbon monoxide emissions to go up. Constant rich fuel mixture can also cause the catalytic converter to overheat and it may be damaged.

If the lambda sensor's output is sluggish and does not change (low cross counts & long transition times), the engine computer will not be able to maintain a properly balanced fuel mixture. The engine may run too rich or too lean, depending on the operating conditions. This, in turn, may cause drivability problems such as misfiring, surging, poor idle, and high emissions.

If a heated sensor has a faulty heating circuit or element, the sensor can cool off at idle causing the system to go into open loop. This usually results in a fixed, rich fuel mixture that will increase emissions.

Sometimes an apparent lambda sensor problem is not really a faulty sensor. An air leak in the intake or exhaust manifold or even a fouled spark plug, for example, will cause the lambda sensor to give a false lean indication. The sensor reacts only to the presence or absence of oxygen in the exhaust. It has no way of knowing where the extra oxygen came from. So keep that in mind when diagnosing oxygen sensor problems.

The lambda sensor is also grounded through the exhaust manifold. If rust and corrosion of the manifold gaskets and bolts is creating resistance, it may affect the sensor's output. To rule out a bad ground, use a digital volt meter to check for a voltage drop between the sensor shell and the engine block. More than 0.1v can cause a problem.

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blackNshine
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Postby blackNshine » October 28th, 2007, 7:46 pm

check the sensors along with air flow

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^xcalibur^
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Postby ^xcalibur^ » October 29th, 2007, 5:46 am

how am i doing that or who can i get to do it for me?

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Langdon
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Postby Langdon » November 2nd, 2007, 11:41 am

cjawahir wrote:you need to get a scan with diagnostic tool to see fault code
cj


Yup must

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boogy
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Postby boogy » November 5th, 2007, 8:52 am

Diagnostic scan, too many possible problems to distinguish for the average man!!

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blackNshine
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Postby blackNshine » November 6th, 2007, 5:53 pm

takes time and patience

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Rush
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Postby Rush » November 7th, 2007, 1:04 am

u said in st. augustine

check Bobs auto clinic,
they are on the street with gateboys leading to the highway...

at the very end
tell him the scene, he'll check it out for u
and tell u what needs to be done

or u can ask him what he gonna check so u can see how much u might have to pay
before anything

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