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Check Engine light

1656 messages, Last post on Nov 10, 2009 at 6:37 PM
You are in the Maintenance & Repair Forum. Your Host is mr_shiftright
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Replying to: wb2eqe (Aug 04, 2008 3:11 pm) |
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Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Dec 20, 2008 12:00 pm) They will ALWAYS say..." It's probably a loose wire or something minor" Yeah, right! A store HAS to assume the worst because that's usually what it is. It can be a bad transmission, bad computer or a bad converter. We will appraise the car accordingly and so will any smart store. Had a trade in last summer with an air bag light on. A Volvo naturally. The Volvo Dealer charged us 1200.00 to fix whatever it was. It wa NOT a loose wire! |
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Guangdong P.R.C Hmm. Chinese spam. Sweet sour.
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Replying to: obyone (Mar 13, 2009 8:26 pm) |
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My check engine light was on, code checked & cleared by a local mechanic. The code indicated PCM problem. The light came back on so I took it to a dealer to have PCM replaced (under warranty). The dealer checked & confirmed the PCM code and agreed to replace it at no cost. However, while at the shop, another code appeared that was not there before. This code indicated knock sensor and the dealer said this would cost $340. My question is, why did this code suddenly appear at the dealer? Is there a way to program this code to show up falsely? I think they may have done this on purpose and there was actually no problem with the knock sensor until they did something to make it show up. Is this possible? Thank you for any advice. Trying not to get the run around by an unscrupulous dealer.
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Replying to: jeffreyb4 (Apr 08, 2009 10:51 pm) The engine computer is monitoring all of the sensors in the car, and using them to adjust other things and keep the engine running at optimal condition. Some sensors are always sending back a signal, and if you don't get a signal, you know something is most likely bad. For instance, each wheel has sensor, and when the vehicle is moving forward straight the computer would see 4 signals, all at the same pulse rate. If you only got 3, then it's relatively easy to figure out that either one wheel is locked up and skidding, or the sensor is bad. Some sensors, the computer has to deduce there are problems, by the process of elimination. Or, it can never know exactly and call out multiple possibilities. The knock sensor is a sensor where you don't normally get a signal, except when engine is heavily overloaded and starts to ping/detonate early. If the computer never receives a signal, the computer thinks that the engine is running okay....yet the engine could be severly overloaded and spark timings and mixture should be adjusted. The analogy I'd give you is a fire alarm. You don't normally hear a fire alarm in your building, and because of that you think it's a safe working environment. However, if you walk out of the office, and it feels warmer than usual, you may think the air conditioner is not working correctly. A little bit later, if you also see and smell smoke, then you now suspect there is a fire, and then realize that the fire/smoke sensor must be defective because it never triggered and reported a problem. So sometimes it is relatively quick and straight forward to figure out EXACTLY what is wrong. Most of the time, the engine can very quickly deduce there's only a couple of potential causes to the problem. Other times it takes more analysis or longer time to monitor multiple situations before it's able to figure out the cause. Sometimes the computer will never figure out the right cause, and it takes a humanoid to figure it out, by process of elimination or deduction. |
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Replying to: jeffreyb4 (Apr 08, 2009 10:51 pm) |
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when i turn the key nothing happens i get the dummy lights the battery is good i can jump the starter with a screwdriver and the car turns over but still wont start any sugestions on what might be the problem
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