Engine light glowing!

[BenDiem]

Greetings all,

Hope you enjoyed your 4th...

Well, it happened for the first time for me. After three very reliable Vipers, with never one issue, my '09 Coupe decided to throw an Engine Light warning.

I guess I'm even more annoyed, b/c the car is 100% stock, and it has never been abused, nor has it ever seen redline. All the gauges are fine, but the Engine Light remains lit.

Has any other '09 model year Viper had an Engine Light come on at circa 1200 miles?

I tried the gas cap routine, and after tightening the gas cap, the light remains on...

Any ideas?

Tks,

BB

 

[plumcrazy]

bring it to a dealer and let him scan it for codes. probably nothing but better to be safe than sorry

once a code is thrown, you cant just tighten the cap, it wont go away till its pulled out by the DRB

 

[Flexx91]

This can happen at any time with any car regardless of how new, how old or how it's been driven. Drive it for a few miles and see if the code clears itself. If not, then take it to the dealership and have them scan it as Plumcrazy suggested.

 

[ViperGeorge]

It takes at least three run cycles for the car to self clear a code if it is a result of something like a gas cap. 08/09s will also throw codes if the battery has been disconnected or if it goes dead. You will get an "Engine off timer" code. Get a code reader, they're cheap and worth having. Every auto store and every Sears sells them.

 

[PAvenomRT/10]

My 09 ACR had the CEL come on during normal driving after about 300 miles. Car drove fine and I thought it was the gas cap routine as well. Turned out it was not, so I took it to the dealer and the code had something to do with exhaust. He cleared the code for me and I have been driving the car for a year without any reoccurence or any other problem. My advice, take it to the dealer and have it cleared and checked out, its under warranty.
PAVenomRT/10

 

[swexlin]

Have your gas cap pressure checked. My 07 SRT8 Bee, with 16,000 miles, just recently threw the CEL, and it was code P0456 - Evap Leak - Small. Which almost ALWAYS means gas cap. Well mine was nice and tight. Had it checked - yep, it was bad. New cap.

Go to any Pep Boys, they will read the code for free, then google it.

 

[Timnineside]

Yeah the dealership here says if its blinking be very worried, if its just on get it checked out asap.

If you jab at it with a screw driver you may be able to hit it just right!! J/K tho don't do that!

My GTS comes on for a few days then off for months. Thing is O so random but it still bothers the hell out of me when its on.

 

[MarcRoth]

Try any good parts store they will scan for free and save the hassle of not knowing untill you can get it into the Dealer.

 

[BenDiem]

^^^ Greetings all,

I finally took my car to my 5 Star dealership, and the "Check Engine Light" diagnosis revealed the following:

The Service Manager (25 year Chrysler employee) informed me that the left O2 sensor was plugged up. They replaced the left O2 sensor under warranty. The SM informed me that because of the low milage on my car (1240), and the fact that I seldom drive the car over ten miles, caused the O2 sensor to plug up. The SM told me to drive the car more frequently and to take it for longer drives in order to allow the car to reach higher temps. Longer drives, allowing the engine to reach higher operating temps should prevent future O2 sensor failures...

Morale of the story - Drive your Vipers!

Sounds plausible/FYSA

Cheers,

BB

 

[bluesrt]

o2 plugged up, thats a new one...

 

[Sonoman]

Oxygen sensors are one of the least reliable parts on a car... yet they keep adding more of them. I guess it makes sense that anything hanging in the exhaust stream would be somewhat subject to failing, but jeez.... The ironic part is that the O2 sensors after the cats just monitor the health of the catalytic converter-- basically, checking how well it is working and not providing any feedback for the EFI fuel mixture control loop. But on most cars what fails is the monitoring device (O2 sensor) and NOT the part it was supposed to be monitoring (the cat. converter). So the customer ends up paying for repair bills for parts that really add no value to the car. In states with smog checks, the bad cat would be found anyway at test time, so no need to monitor the cat with an (unreliable) sensor.

Yeah, they don't really "plug"; maybe coated with carbon from too many short trips or more likely just one of those electronic "infant mortality" kind of failures.

 

[BenDiem]

^^^ Sonoman,

I appreciate your thorough explanation of an O2 sensor. I learned something today... You are correct, the SM did in fact say the O2 sensor was coated w/carbon...
For the record, I did not explain the resolved issue/diagnosis correctly. Your explanation was spot on!

Inasmuch that I'm not mechanically inclined (perhaps others aren't either), my updated post was merely provided to other forum members as an FYI.

Tks a lot/Cheers,

BB

 

[Pappa Prich]

Good to hear

 

[EZ 2B Green]

You might want to consider trying a different brand of fuel. Stick with a top tier brand.

 

[bluesrt]

you might want to every now and then goose it on the hiway

 

[viperbilliam]

you might want to every now and then goose it on the hiway

Yeah, drive the dam thing will ya?!

 

[Leslie]

where do you live?

I would be happy to drive it at my next roadcourse event