HELLOM8

Driving home last night, in a bit of a rush so doing a steady 95, I noticed the check engine light come on. The light was on permanently so I immediately slowed down and pulled into a conveniently placed service station. As soon as I stopped the light went out, it was permanently on for about 3 minutes.

If I connect the two black connectors together will I get an error read out?. Do you plug the connectors and just turn on the ignition with no engine start?.

I'm also getting a metallic buzzing noise at 3500 RPM, really notice it in first gear, I'm guessing/hoping this the heat shield what do you think.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.
All The Best.
Ian.

Pete Croney

Ian

What year car is it?

The buzzing is probably a heat shield.

HELLOM8

Yeah sorry,
The car is a MY96 UK Turbo. Invoices say its had the 3mm adjustment.
Cheers
Ian.

Pete Croney

Plug the two green and two black connectors together (under dash, near steering col, yellow/orage bigger plug on same aprt of loom), turn ignition on and it will flash error codes through the check engine light.

long, long, short, short, short is code 23, for example.

Post your codes up (there may be more than one) and we'll let you know what's wrong.

HELLOM8

Just plugged the black to black and green to green and turned the ignition on. The engine light stays permanently light and it perform the cycle of whooshing ticking noises, but no flashing codes?.
It seems you can only plug the 4 connectors in this way and I checked that both blacks and green were firmly pushed together.
Any ideas?.
Cheers.
Ian.

Pete Croney

It will need to go on a diagnostic unit to check the codes in its history.

HELLOM8

Thanks for the help Pete. I will book her in.
All The Best.
Ian.

wightey

sorry to correct but theres three modes with the connections under the dash.

ecu read: with just the black connectors connected, turn ignition on but dont start. this will read the ecu and display any old codes stored and flash them out to you. if its clear it will give the all clear signal.

ecu check. with green T ones only connected this will do a system test. fans will come on, solenoid cycles etc. the ecu will flash any codes it finds if theres a fault present. please note that all clear here doesnt mean theres not a problem. just not in the few things it checked out.

ecu check and clear. with all connectors connected, black and green and engine at normal operating temp. turn ignition on. depress throttle fully, release and hold at half way for a couple of seconds then release fully. start car. ecu may flash all clear or stay on. regardless of this. drive around a bit, time depends really. sometimes it clears instantly, sometimes after a minute. once the system has been checked over and the code memory reset, the CEL light will flash the all clear, repeated constant flashing or will flash you codes of faults that are present. (long flashes for first digit, short for second, pause and then go on to other faults or repeat).

if theres a fault, check it against the code list or post here and i am sure people will tell you what it is.

disconnect the connectors and car should be back to normal with ecu reset. if you suspect a fault then check with the black connectors each night, it only takes a minute as Take That once said. any codes presented will only have occurred since the last clear

hope this helps

HELLOM8

Cheers Wightey,
I'll try just the black connetors and see if I get any readings.
Cheers.
Ian.

HELLOM8

Just did the two black connectors and I'm getting two codes.
45 and 32.
I have a table which says 45 can be two things:-
1. Atmospheric pressure sensor / Faulty sensor, which give a fail-safe of "Sets sensor to 760 mmHg".
2. Pressure sensor and pressure exchange solenoid valve / Faulty sensor or pressure exchange solenoid valve inoperative, which give a fail safe of "Prevents abnormal supercharging pressure using "fuel cut" in relation to engine load".

32 says Oxygen sensor / Oxygen sensor inoperative with no fail-safe.

Do these code translations apply to MY96?. What is actually wrong, guessing it’s the boost solenoid and Lambda sensor?.
Should I re-set the ECU and see if the codes come up again?, are these codes ones that usually come up?.

Any feed back would be great.
Cheers.
Ian.

wightey

sorry for the delay, the code 45 is the boost solenoid (very common code) and usual symptoms are a temporary loss of power when accelerating before it all comes whoosing back. have you noticed this?
best thing is to clean it out. most people say to use brake cleaner in it. mine worked fine (touch wood) by taking off the hoses and letting it cycle in the test mode (green connectors fitted) for a minute or so then doing it all back up.

as for the oxygen sensor, never had that.....yet. although i never had a CEL come on with the boost solenoid problem. it may have just taken a funny turn and be ok again or the code may have been in there for a while.
best thing to do if the light is off now is to clear the ECU and then keep monitoring it nightly and hope that it continues to give you the all clear. if not you will be on top of anything untoward as it happens which will give you some peace of mind.

good luck and let me know if you have any more questions or cant get the ecu to reset.

HELLOM8

Thanks for the reply Wightey.
The car doesn’t seem to run the same twice to me. I know that can be the charactistics of a Turbo, but some days it pulls and others it runs like a dog.
The ECU was reset 6 weeks ago at service, so it must be a new set of codes (assuming they did reset it).
I’ll do the ECU re-set, If I get the all clear flashes then great and I’ll keep an eye on it memory, if I get any errors on the re-set, then I’ll have her looked at.
I’m hoping its nothing that will dent my pocket too much.
Cheers.
Ian.

HELLOM8

Re-set the ECU Saturday and I got the steady ½ flash for the all clear.
Pretty relieved about that and she’s going like a rocket as well.
Cheers.
Ian.

wightey

glad to hear it, keep an eye on the stored codes though just to be on the safe side.

HELLOM8

Had a look at the code store last night and the same two codes have come back.
What would cause these errors?. I wonder if its some thing like a dirty air filter or something similar.
I'll probably book it in at the dealers, but I don't want to have my pants pulled down on how much it costs.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
All The Best.
Ian.


[Edited by HELLOM8 - 7/31/2002 1:12:48 PM]