When this light comes on, what does it usually mean??
Ive booked the car for full service and tune on Next Tuesday and he quoted me $400.

it means theres something wrong with your engine and you should take it to a mechanic.

it only came on for a short time whilst driving (thats what my girl says)

as far as i know it means there are problems with your oil system... i.e. you might be losing pressure there.

The Check engine light can come on for any reason, Low coolant, Oil pressure, Oxygen sensor ... Heck mine came on when I was Close to road works.. on the highway Both times so it could have been CB interference., The Engine computer will record a Fault code that will need to be checked to find out why it came on...

The Check engine light can come on for any reason, Low coolant, Oil pressure, Oxygen sensor ... Heck mine came on when I was Close to road works.. on the highway Both times so it could have been CB interference., The Engine computer will record a Fault code that will need to be checked to find out why it came on...


the check engine light or SRS (service engine soon) will NOT come on when you are close to road work.. wut u think it is, a warning system DOT put in for warning drivers... i think not

SRS is supplimentary restraint system - ie. your airbags...

Cheers
Heath Young

SRS is supplimentary restraint system - ie. your airbags...

Cheers
Heath Young


SES... sorry typo

When this light comes on, what does it usually mean??



Is your car a manual? If you were taking off with not quite enough revs at the time, the oil and or engine lights light up for a couple seconds because the car thinks it is about to stall...

Is your car a manual? If you were taking off with not quite enough revs at the time, the oil and or engine lights light up for a couple seconds because the car thinks it is about to stall...



Never mind, im stupid.... i just realised you said your car was auto :nuts:

Is your car a manual? If you were taking off with not quite enough revs at the time, the oil and or engine lights light up for a couple seconds because the car thinks it is about to stall...

Just got the full story from my girl... It is basically what FFEEkY said, she was at the light and it felt like it was about to stall then when she took off, she found it hard to get the power after a couple of seconds the light went out and everything was back to normal. The machanic said that it could be the oxygen sensor giving my car a too rich fuel mix.

Generally speaking the ecu light will come on if there is a sensor problem.
The oil light will come on if there is low oil pressure

The ecu light is there to let you know that there is a sensor fault or failure, and thats pretty much all it does. CB/mobile phone interference is quite common for making the light come on as it interfers with the ecu.

It wont come on if you have low oil or coolant there is seperate lights for them same goes with ABS or SRS they have there own lights.

Dude dont stuff around.. its a warning that something is wrong.. get it checked out.. while it might be nothing now but may turn in to something major if you leave it..

The light comes on when one of your sensors have picked up an error.. :D

Dude dont stuff around.. its a warning that something is wrong.. get it checked out.. while it might be nothing now but may turn in to something major if you leave it..

The light comes on when one of your sensors have picked up an error.. :D


:stoopid:

Yeah,
Ive booked the car in for next tuesday (thats only when the machanic is free) he has quoted me $400 atm. So hopefully it wont cost too much more.

I just thought I would get a idea of what "could" be wrong. This machanic is a new one im taking my car to.. so I dont know if he is any good or not.... the best thing about this machanic is that I live in next door to it.

Yeah,
Ive booked the car in for next tuesday (thats only when the machanic is free) he has quoted me $400 atm. So hopefully it wont cost too much more.

I just thought I would get a idea of what "could" be wrong. This machanic is a new one im taking my car to.. so I dont know if he is any good or not.... the best thing about this machanic is that I live in next door to it.



$400 for what? to check the codes? you can do that for free. tell him to :gtfo: :bowrofl:

$400 is a bit expensive! The check engine indicator comes on when there is a problem with your emission control system , this could be oxygen sensor, cat coverter, throttle position sensor or another sensor affiliated with air/fuel system. It's nothin to do with oil, coolant, or any other major problem. If the car runs fine with it running, good chance it's the oxygen sensor, and it may not cause serious damage. This is what it sounds like to me, I had this in my old TR.

*Edited

$400 for a full service (car is at 150kms, so need that done anyhow) and to check the problem out... the good news is that the Education Department is technically footing the bill (if my gf drives our car for work, she gets a $$$/per kms from the edu dept).

Ah yeah thats a bit more acceptable, full service for $400. Make sure they ring ya if they find anything further, I've been done like that, Mitsu quoted $300-$350 for a service once and when I picked the car up it cost $680. I was spewing. But if ya have someone footing the bill then good stuff!

If there was a major problem the ecu would have gone into limp home mode anyway.

The ecu light covers all sensors and them only, has nothing to do with your cat converter.
Its electrical only, unless your car has a wire running from the cat converter to the ecu.
highly unlikely, magnas dont have cat temp sensors like some jap cars, even then theres a seperate light for that.

If there is a sensor problem then its well worth getting it checked out as it may run the engine to lean or if its the crank angle having issues it may f$%k with the timing.
its best to get it checked and not guess.

To those on here that think because it only flashes on or because its only a sensor and that you should ignore it, i hope your car stops out in the middle of nowhere with no phone reception. Its dumb a$$ attitudes like that and offering dumb advice like that to peeps that will end up costing them alot of money when the car dies on them. If your car has a problem of any sort take it to a professional and let them decide whether its safe or not.
If your not a mechanic and your not qualified keep your opinions to your self.
trying to diagnos a problem over the net without any REAL mechanical knowledge is pointless and dangerous.

Yes i am a mechanic and yes i do work at a workshop and have done so for the past 9 years
so unless you are a mechanic or are well versed with mechanical knowledge keep your mouth closed.
Yes i know its a forum and thats what its meant to be for but please dont lead people astray
:rant: :rant: :rant: :rant:

Yeah come to think of it, each situation could be different with that light. I'm only going by my experience I suppose, but when it first appeared I did have it checked at mistubishi straight away and they told me it wasn't a worry, so that's why I ignored it a bit more cos they said it was okay. But yeah see what they come up with on the fault code test and get them to fix it if possible, and as said, the light comes up for a reason and it indicates something is wrong.

Sorry for going off but when theres something wrong with your car its best not to guess at it cause it could become very expensive or dangerous.

I see it all the time at work cars coming in with dodgy repairs done by DIY backyarders and most of the time there dangerous.

if you hadnt guessed its one of my pet hates

$400 is a bit expensive! The check engine indicator comes on when there is a problem with your emission control system , this could be oxygen sensor, cat coverter, throttle position sensor or another sensor affiliated with air/fuel system. It's nothin to do with oil, coolant, or any other major problem. If the car runs fine with it running, good chance it's the oxygen sensor, and it may not cause serious damage. This is what it sounds like to me, I had this in my old TR.

*Edited


not true.. the check engine light came on with me for a tranny problem.. and as far as i know, tranny has NOTHING to do with emissions.

not true.. the check engine light came on with me for a tranny problem.. and as far as i know, tranny has NOTHING to do with emissions.

Quite strange, I've never heard of that. :S. We'll get some opinions I'm sure about that.



Sorry for going off but when theres something wrong with your car its best not to guess at it cause it could become very expensive or dangerous.

I see it all the time at work cars coming in with dodgy repairs done by DIY backyarders and most of the time there dangerous.

if you hadnt guessed its one of my pet hates

All good mate I can understand itd your pet hate, when I was detailing I helped mechanics here and there and saw some dodgy things too so yeah I can see your point fully

Quite strange, I've never heard of that. :S. We'll get some opinions I'm sure about that.




All good mate I can understand itd your pet hate, when I was detailing I helped mechanics here and there and saw some dodgy things too so yeah I can see your point fully




i know what ur sayin, just lettin you know what happened from experience.

With the auto causing the light to come on, no doubt there would have been an electrical fault in the "box". The ecu controls the auto. Its seen as a sensory problem to the ecu.

Was it a solenoid or "neutral safety switch"/inhibitor switch problem in the box that caused the light to come on??

With the auto causing the light to come on, no doubt there would have been an electrical fault in the "box". The ecu controls the auto. Its seen as a sensory problem to the ecu.

Was it a solenoid or "neutral safety switch"/inhibitor switch problem in the box that caused the light to come on??


actually it was only a blown fuse but doesnt the ECU control the TCU?

IIRC the magnas only run the one computer for engine and auto,

Which fuse did it blow??.

Would love to go back to the old days when all this technology was non existent and cars were much simpler. All you needed to fix them was a shifter and 2 screw drivers :bowrofl:

Ah yeah thats a bit more acceptable, full service for $400. Make sure they ring ya if they find anything further, I've been done like that, Mitsu quoted $300-$350 for a service once and when I picked the car up it cost $680. I was spewing. But if ya have someone footing the bill then good stuff!

Mate, you wer sucked into that one, if Mitsu quotes $300-350, then thats what you pay, if they have replaced parts or done work that you didnt ask to be done, or they didnt confirm with you that it was ok for them to do further works to your car, you have evry right to only pay what you were quoted, and drive away, sure they will threaten you with legal action and all that, but when it comes down to it, they do not have a leg to stand on, cause they are not allowed to do anything you didnt authorise, it's thier loss, not yours!!

Mate, you wer sucked into that one, if Mitsu quotes $300-350, then thats what you pay, if they have replaced parts or done work that you didnt ask to be done, or they didnt confirm with you that it was ok for them to do further works to your car, you have evry right to only pay what you were quoted, and drive away, sure they will threaten you with legal action and all that, but when it comes down to it, they do not have a leg to stand on, cause they are not allowed to do anything you didnt authorise, it's thier loss, not yours!!



Very true.

Ah yes, back when I was weak and didn't stick up for myself. lol. But I went over what work they did and thought to myself, It's done, the car needed the work they did and at the end of the day it turned out being for the best i think.

If your not a mechanic and your not qualified keep your opinions to your self.
trying to diagnos a problem over the net without any REAL mechanical knowledge is pointless and dangerous.

Not being a mechanic does not make you an idiot nor does being a mechanic make you an expert.

Just to prove my point here are two classic examples.

1. My car would not idle up with the A/C turned on. I took the car to a Mitsubishi dealer who "diagnosed" the problem as the idle speed control (ISC) motor and preceded to quote me $400 for a replacment. I went and got an aftermarket one from REPCO and installed it and it didn't fix the problem. I have a resonable knowledge of electronics and mechanics but no formal training so i decided to look at the problem myself. After extensive invesitagtion i found that one of the tracks on the ECU board had gone open circuit. I fixed the track, reinstalled the old ISC motor and problem fixed. (cost to fix = $0)

2. Fault code came up on the Transmission Control Unit (TCU) for a lock up clutch problem. I took the car to a Mitsubishi dealer who test drove the car and hooked up the MUT to test the TCU. I was told that the TCU had gone faulty and i should replace it at huge $$$$. Once again i looked at the problem myself. I tested the outputs of the TCU and could see that it was trying to lock up the clutch. As it turned out when the transmission was rebuilt they didn't install a lock up clutch torque converter. So the TCU was trying to lock up the clutch but couldn't because there wasn't one there. (cost to fix = $200 for new torque convertor)

In both these cases i would have handed over many $$$$$$ to an "expert" and would still have had the same problems.

The idea of the forums here is to share experiences and hopefully help others. Just because the ideas shared may be obscure doesn't mean they may not be useful to somebody. It is the things you never think of that may be the thing that helps you solve your problem.

Its more on the way people word there posts that bothers me.
If you use words like this was what happened to me or imho or iirc,

Alot of the people on here state there answer as a fact. And if you had have read my post properly instead of just reading what you wanted to see i said if you have no real mechanical knowledge, If youve been working around/on cars for awhile then theres no problem with that.

It would seem to me that some of the people on here start a thread read whats told to them then all of a sudden there experts in every field.

All im trying to say and do is stop people taking what they read on here as gospel.
Get your self a workshop manual and go through the problems with your car using that.

And yes there are alot of mechanics out there that get it wrong aswell, hell even i've misdiagnosed a car or 2, because there are so many variables and several things on a car can have the cause the same reaction.

Look at it this way you say you were told the wrong thing by a mechanic and it bothered you, But you say its ok for peeps with little mechanical knowledge to offer "advice", That most of the time could be wrong. Hmmm little bit hipocritical.

Just wanted everyone to think abit before following the info given on here, even mine.

When you post up a reply to a problem start it with "this is what happened to my car and this is what they found wrong". Then people can go oh ok i'll keep that in mind.


peace

brad

Hi, I am new to this forum. I have a 91 TR Magna with a 2.6 4 cyl motor. I had an oil leak and changed the tappet cover gasket and cleaned the motor. It was runnung fine for the day until later that afternoon when it started runnung very rough and coul barely idle and the check engine light came on. I unplugged every thing, gave them a clean and left it to dry all the next day. I put everything back together, started it up and still ran rough and would not idle. The check engine light did not come on. Took it to mechanic yesterday he checked it over although it was running very rough he could not find the problem. He changed spark plugs, fuel filter and checked to see that all connections were dry. I picked the car up and it seemd to be runnung ok but was idling at about 1400rpm. Took it for a 50km drive and it ran great. Started up this morning ran fine for about 2mins and ran rough again. Check engine light came back on and stayed on. Will barely idle, runs ok after a couple of revs, then revs drop down and nearly stalls. Driving from a standing start coughs and splutters at low revs and at about 3000rpm seems ok but with slight surge. Check engine light still on. Could it be a sensor. I am not too mechanically minded.
Any help woul be great.
Thanks, Duane Barrow.

read this to check the fault codes coming from the ECU

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18397

this will tell you what is causing the check engine light to come on.

read this to check the fault codes coming from the ECU

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18397

this will tell you what is causing the check engine light to come on.


This is the sort of response we need keep up the good work :thumbsup:

cheers

brad

Its more on the way people word there posts that bothers me.
If you use words like this was what happened to me or imho or iirc,

Alot of the people on here state there answer as a fact. And if you had have read my post properly instead of just reading what you wanted to see i said if you have no real mechanical knowledge, If youve been working around/on cars for awhile then theres no problem with that.

It would seem to me that some of the people on here start a thread read whats told to them then all of a sudden there experts in every field.

All im trying to say and do is stop people taking what they read on here as gospel.
Get your self a workshop manual and go through the problems with your car using that.

And yes there are alot of mechanics out there that get it wrong aswell, hell even i've misdiagnosed a car or 2, because there are so many variables and several things on a car can have the cause the same reaction.

Look at it this way you say you were told the wrong thing by a mechanic and it bothered you, But you say its ok for peeps with little mechanical knowledge to offer "advice", That most of the time could be wrong. Hmmm little bit hipocritical.

Just wanted everyone to think abit before following the info given on here, even mine.

When you post up a reply to a problem start it with "this is what happened to my car and this is what they found wrong". Then people can go oh ok i'll keep that in mind.


peace

brad

totally agree with you, more people need to say "this is what happened to me" "in my opinion" etc when they post their experiences.

read this to check the fault codes coming from the ECU

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18397

this will tell you what is causing the check engine light to come on.

Thanks for your help. I am getting it checked out this afternoon. Hopefully nothing too major.
Regards, Duane.

Hi tfv630

Quote
Yes i am a mechanic and yes i do work at a workshop and have done so for the past 9 years

Great advice
I was hoping as a qualified mechanic you could offer an opinion on the practise of bypassing the TB coolant circuit in an attempt to lower manifold temps.

Thanks, Barry :cool:

Hi tfv630

Quote
Yes i am a mechanic and yes i do work at a workshop and have done so for the past 9 years

Great advice
I was hoping as a qualified mechanic you could offer an opinion on the practise of bypassing the TB coolant circuit in an attempt to lower manifold temps.

Thanks, Barry :cool:


I can honestly say i have never done the coolant bypass on the magna. Never been asked to. And have no intentions of doing one sorry. PM el3ment or cthulu they may have some info on what to do

Hi tfv630

Quote
I can honestly say i have never done the coolant bypass on the magna. Never been asked to. And have no intentions of doing one sorry. PM el3ment or cthulu they may have some info on what to do

I didn't want to know how to do it. I was just hoping to get an informed opinion as I have noticed some previous posts where owners were doing this.

The idle would be artificially high and probably give poor fuel economy.
It's particularly relevant to members in that suppliers of some thermal TB insulating blocks were quoting very low temps, but only after bypassing the coolant

Barry :cool: