"Service Engine Soon"UPDATE-Light cleared

[Caveman Charlie]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

I'd put a piece of tape over the light and ignore it myself. New cars are built like toasters. You use them till the first time they brake and then throw them away and get a new one.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Or a very tiny drill bit. Go through the plastic into the bulb till it pops the glass. That oughta fix it.

 

[MikDee]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Ok...the cat was totally wiped out. When I took it off you could hear the chunks of whatever the honeycomb is made of rattling around. Before I removed it the noise was very very loud when the engine was running. Everyone keeps stressing "if it was fixed right". I mean how can you mess up replacing the converter? Only fits on one way, 3 bolts in front, 3 in rear. If the o2 sensor was also bad would that not set off a different code? As I stated earlier the scan only shows one code. 420 which is "Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold". I sure appreciate all the help.

Did you go to the link I sent you to? There's a TON of information there, just go there and search if need be. It might be the after cat O2 sensor was damaged? another thing I would do myself, is find the after cat sensor wire,& temporarily unplug it, then see if it throws another code, or still the same one? You can't do any damage, it's a fact that sensor is only there to detect if you have a working Cat, or not? Now, the O2 sensor right in front of the Cat, that's a different story! It controls air/fuel mixtures along with the ECU, I know because I replaced that one a few yrs ago, when I first got my truck, been fine ever since.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

I clear codes all the time with the scan software I have for my laptop.

autoenginuity.com

Like Dolluper said you will more likely need multiple cold starts. For GM that usually means that the engine temperature has to be below 20 degrees above the air intake temperature or there is a set temperature. For example, if the ambient air temp is 80 degrees, the engine temp will have to be below 100 degrees. There is also a default temperature which is in the area of 100 degrees so that once the engine gets below that temp, it will be considered a cold start no matter what the outside temp is. My scan tool will read the number of cold starts since a code reset.

Some states will not smog your car until there are certain number of cold starts since the last code clear. This prevents someone form clearing the code and driving it right in for a smog test.

 

[SuperNova]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Ok...the cat was totally wiped out. When I took it off you could hear the chunks of whatever the honeycomb is made of rattling around. Before I removed it the noise was very very loud when the engine was running. Everyone keeps stressing "if it was fixed right". I mean how can you mess up replacing the converter? Only fits on one way, 3 bolts in front, 3 in rear. If the o2 sensor was also bad would that not set off a different code? As I stated earlier the scan only shows one code. 420 which is "Catalyst System Efficiency Below Threshold". I sure appreciate all the help.

You're probably right and you probably fixed it.....but any pro tech can tell you that when the cat is replaced, the O2 sensors are usually dead within a week or so even if they aren't throwing a code when the cat is done. No big deal, just a thought.
--
Stan

 

[bruceb58]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Not sure how many miles you have but if you have enough to go through a converter, you probably have enough to be ready for O2 sensors anyway. I would just replace them even if they aren't throwing codes. With today's fuel prices, the cost of new sensors won't seem as bad if you consider that your engine will be running more economically.

 

[javsam]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

i had that same code in my 96 taurus, turned out to a bad egr sensor that was throwing a cataltyic malfunctioning below efficency thresehold.I replaced the egr sensor and the car worked fine.So sometimes the real problem can be masked by a code for something else.The egr system is related to the cats because the egr systems sends back unburned emissions back to the engine to reduce emissions and reduce combustion temps.

 

[Ralphy]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Thanx for all the additional info. I am gonna give it a few days and if it doesnt reset will get ahold of a scanner. Really hoping I dont have to replace the o2 sensor as that is another Benjamin :-(

 

[PierBridge]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

GEEEZZZ!...LOL.

It could be upwards of 50 key cycles to clear the FREAKING code if the problem is still not present and if it's a hard code it WONT clear.

Go to to a shop and pay them to read and clear the codes.

 

[Big Bubba]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Yes, I bought a OBD 2 reader about 1 and a half years ago and I got it off ebay for about 30 dollars shipping included in that price to. Good luck to you on clearing that code.

 

[dolluper]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

My guess on this one is we have not been given the complete facts,like how it ran prior to the code and cat replacement,lkie what killed the cat old age hehe,I have an 89 with the original cat and I'm in salt and rust country

 

[Ralphy]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Re: "Service Engine Soon"

Well the light has reset itself and my wife (it's her ride) says it has never run better. Have no idea what killed the converter, it was kind of a slow developing problem. Started as a rattle and at first I thought it was the heat defelector vibrating, but it was good and tight. After a month or so the rattle turned into more of a grumble and then into a full fledged deep throated rumble. It was at that point that the light came on. When I banged on the converter you could hear the loose particles inside rattling around. The truck still ran fine, no stumble or noticable loss of power (not that the GM 2.2 had a lot of power to begin with). All seems well now and will continue to monitor and post back if any more problems arise. Thanks for the support.

 

[SuperNova]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"UPDATE-Light cleared

Good deal. It's possible that it just failed internally and nothing external actually caused the failure--it's been known to happen. I just didn't want you to wait too long for the light to reset--that's why I said give it two weeks max and if the light doesn't reset then there is something else wrong.
--
Stan

 

[dolluper]

Re: "Service Engine Soon"UPDATE-Light cleared

Good stuff...Maybe all those short trips caused it to rust from the inside vehicles exhaust didn't get hot enough to get rid of all the condenstation