Hi all,
Just thought I'd post my results. My "Check Engine" light had been on since the day after I bought my car (the diagnosis from the guy I bought it from was the computer was detecting the car running either lean or rich for a very small time, but enough to trip the light).
Anyway, with the help of my friend's Palm Pilot with OBD software installed (quite awesome, actually - you can track pretty much anything - horsepower, torque, engine performance, etc. with graphs), I found that the front and rear oxygen sensors weren't performing. They're supposed to return a voltage of .3 to .9 (if I remember correctly), and they were returning nothing.
So, I replaced the front sensor (easier than I thought it was, thanks to other posts on this board). The one I took off was coated in carbon, which made the job pretty messy. I used a third party 02 sensor, and spliced it in (ran into a little snag - there were four wires on the original (two black, one white, and a grey), and three on the new one (two black and white). The gray one was a ground, and so I just put on a crimp ring connector, and attached it to a bolt nearby). The rear O2 sensor is just used to check the Cat, so I didn't bother replacing it.
I also cleaned out the MAF sensor with this stuff .
Anyways, I put everything back together, and started the car. It started out fine, and then the car idled down almost until it stalled, and then oscillated up and down until it found the correct idle point (the ECU working itself out I assume).
Since then, everything's been fine (gas mileage has improved, at least!)
Just thought I'd put this out there for anyone else with similar problems looking for a solution (like I was several weeks ago). It's been two weeks, and no "Check Engine" light!! *knocks on wood*
Just thought I'd post my results. My "Check Engine" light had been on since the day after I bought my car (the diagnosis from the guy I bought it from was the computer was detecting the car running either lean or rich for a very small time, but enough to trip the light).
Anyway, with the help of my friend's Palm Pilot with OBD software installed (quite awesome, actually - you can track pretty much anything - horsepower, torque, engine performance, etc. with graphs), I found that the front and rear oxygen sensors weren't performing. They're supposed to return a voltage of .3 to .9 (if I remember correctly), and they were returning nothing.
So, I replaced the front sensor (easier than I thought it was, thanks to other posts on this board). The one I took off was coated in carbon, which made the job pretty messy. I used a third party 02 sensor, and spliced it in (ran into a little snag - there were four wires on the original (two black, one white, and a grey), and three on the new one (two black and white). The gray one was a ground, and so I just put on a crimp ring connector, and attached it to a bolt nearby). The rear O2 sensor is just used to check the Cat, so I didn't bother replacing it.
I also cleaned out the MAF sensor with this stuff .
Anyways, I put everything back together, and started the car. It started out fine, and then the car idled down almost until it stalled, and then oscillated up and down until it found the correct idle point (the ECU working itself out I assume).
Since then, everything's been fine (gas mileage has improved, at least!)
Just thought I'd put this out there for anyone else with similar problems looking for a solution (like I was several weeks ago). It's been two weeks, and no "Check Engine" light!! *knocks on wood*