Hey guys,

Just the other day whilst driving the TCL OFF + ENGINE OFF lights both came on. After turning the car off and on again, they turned off. But now they are pretty much coming on constantly.

The car does not seem to running any different.

Reading on the forums, other members have mentioned the "TCL solenoids" on the firewall, alternator, wheel speed sensor and a few other little things.

I have checked for error codes, and got 12, 23, 22. Air flow sensor, Crank Angle Sensor and Top Dead centre sensor. I cleared the codes, and started the car again. The same codes returned.

I have swapped over the "TCL solenoids" form my dads KJ and also swapped over the MAF sensor. Lights are still turning on. I'm probably going to head to Mitsu next week to get them to have a look, but before I do, I figured someone here may have some insight.

Any help please?

Hi mate,
Mine does that every time the weather is warm to hot and I get stuck in traffic for 5 minutes or more. It also happens whether the Aircon is on or off.
Never happens when the weather is cold.
I replaced the solenoid, did wiring and sensor checks all over, Per the manual, even took the wheel sensors out and cleaned the ferrous material off them, as they are magnetic. No dice.
Took it to mitso and they didn't find squat as it didn't want to do it for them. codes a plenty though, they did a reset via the MUT-II, two weeks later the lights came back.
The car drives normally and doesn't do anything bad cept for the lights coming on the dash.
I'm thinking something either in the Engine ECU or the TCL ECU. Got sick of chasing it and spending money to no avail. Cost me over $700 in parts and labour to try and fix this.
If you or the boys at Mitso do ever find anything though, please share..
Steve

Thanks for the info bud.

I've got a spare Ecu so if that's the culprit I'll swap it over.
Regardless, I'm taking it to Mitsu this week. See how we go.

Thanks for the info bud.

I've got a spare Ecu so if that's the culprit I'll swap it over.
Regardless, I'm taking it to Mitsu this week. See how we go.

Check this out Onkytonk... Forgot about it totally!!
http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73633&p=1248604

I never changed over the Alternator... figured when it goes completely then it'll get changed.

Steve

Rather curious it was the alternator.

In my case, the first time it came on was a MEGA hot day, on the highway, with highway heat and hills, and my battery was at the end of it's life. (The trip was to get the 2 week old battery from my wrecked car which hadnet been delivered yet)

Since replacing the battery, the lights have never come on again and there have been some hotter days combined with highway.

Perhaps the TCL system is sensitive to voltage drop or instability.

If it is your TCL ECU, I have one spare for a KH sitting here.

Mike

Rather curious it was the alternator.

In my case, the first time it came on was a MEGA hot day, on the highway, with highway heat and hills, and my battery was at the end of it's life. (The trip was to get the 2 week old battery from my wrecked car which hadnet been delivered yet)

Since replacing the battery, the lights have never come on again and there have been some hotter days combined with highway.

Perhaps the TCL system is sensitive to voltage drop or instability.

If it is your TCL ECU, I have one spare for a KH sitting here.

Mike

Hey Mike,
I'm surprised it was the battery.. my battery is only a year old and it still kept doing it...
Steve

Hey Mike,
I'm surprised it was the battery.. my battery is only a year old and it still kept doing it...
Steve

It may not have been the battery, as I said, it simply hasn't happened again. My battery was 5 years old and absolutely everything in my car is electricaly operated and lots of it automatically without the engine running so this taxes batteries.

One of my cars (TJ2 Advance) has had issues with the voltage regulator in the past that was difficult to trace and actually resulted in the car cutting off it's own engine (and a small crash due to loss of brake boost and power steering)

Perhaps it could be an unexplored lead. My local dealer is a collection of strategically shaved chimps with caps on backwards, so they first cleaned the throttle body looking for this problem's cause. It appears it is difficult to trace.

But it could be the issue.

Mike

It may not have been the battery, as I said, it simply hasn't happened again. My battery was 5 years old and absolutely everything in my car is electricaly operated and lots of it automatically without the engine running so this taxes batteries.

One of my cars (TJ2 Advance) has had issues with the voltage regulator in the past that was difficult to trace and actually resulted in the car cutting off it's own engine (and a small crash due to loss of brake boost and power steering)

Perhaps it could be an unexplored lead. My local dealer is a collection of strategically shaved chimps with caps on backwards, so they first cleaned the throttle body looking for this problem's cause. It appears it is difficult to trace.

But it could be the issue.

Mike

Sorry I just assumed that it was the battery in your car. Since your battery was changed and it never happened again that's a great outcome!!
I was just thinking what battery did you get as a replacement?
Voltage regulator can send cars into a spin sometimes... could be worth me chasing my one up too!!

Steve

I am unsure of the replacement as I knew the battery was new in my wrecked car (my bro owned it before he wrote it off)

I'm sure the systems in this car would hate a faulty voltage regulator and so the ECU's would spit out tonnes of errors from all the components registering faults from it. It could be the TCL is more sensitive than others. Who knows.

I also replaced the TCL ECU with one from a KJ when I did my Tiptronic conversion as the KH one is not compatible with the KJ ECU. The wiring is the same (actually the KJ one has 2 less pins from memory) but the TCL internally is different.

Mike

Swapped out the ECU today and same problem.

So far have tried changing the TCL Vacuum/Ventilation solenoids, MAF sensor and ECU.

Anyway of checking the alternator without having to swap that over too?

I should probably mention that a few days prior to the first sign of the lights, I had my rocker cover gaskets and rear spark plugs replaced.

Alrighty, got my car back from Mitsubishi today. Problem was a loose earth connection at the distributor.

All fixed now, no more error codes or lamps! Woohoo!

Alrighty, got my car back from Mitsubishi today. Problem was a loose earth connection at the distributor.

All fixed now, no more error codes or lamps! Woohoo!

Woohoo Indeed!! What's the earth connection on the dizzy look like???
Thankyou for sharing that too!!! Much appreciated
Steve

Not sure Steve, they said it was the earth on the distributor harness. So maybe start there buddy.

Not sure Steve, they said it was the earth on the distributor harness. So maybe start there buddy.
Cheers mate... Will let you know if I find something!!

Steve

Umm there is no earth on the engine harness that goes anywhere near the dist, in fact there is no earth to the engine from the engine harness at all. There is one down under the air box which is the body earth, this comes from the battery, there is one on the fire wall to the manifold and one from battery to the motor. There are other earth in the engine harness but aside from one above your ABS module, the rest are inside the car.