Idle, coolant buzzer, car stalls
Passenger
Posts: n/a
Idle, coolant buzzer, car stalls
Alright it gets worse.
It started out with a simple coolant buzzer light a few weeks ago. My car was parked about five minutes after it was discovered. My diagnosis was a faulty AST -- a small amount of coolant pooled around the edges of the tank. After replacing that a few days ago, the light would come on when it started up but would go away when the car was warm. I thought it was just air bubbles trapped in the coolant system and would go away in a little bit.
Now when I start the car will not idle any more, it would just die out after about 30 seconds. If I hit the throttle so that it would not die out the car/engine would shake. There is a faint boiling/bubbling noise near the left side of the intake manifold.
Other facts: There is no smoke coming out of the car. My car has 63k miles and its electronics (sensors, wires, etc.) look fairly new. It no longer leaks. CEL every now and then flashes on very briefly (sometimes for about 30 seconds) and shuts off on its own. Coolant buzzer is on. The car has more than enough coolant (the overflow tank overflowed a bit, I unintentionally overfilled the coolant the other day because the coolant light was on.
I don't know what's wrong anymore.
Any help?
It started out with a simple coolant buzzer light a few weeks ago. My car was parked about five minutes after it was discovered. My diagnosis was a faulty AST -- a small amount of coolant pooled around the edges of the tank. After replacing that a few days ago, the light would come on when it started up but would go away when the car was warm. I thought it was just air bubbles trapped in the coolant system and would go away in a little bit.
Now when I start the car will not idle any more, it would just die out after about 30 seconds. If I hit the throttle so that it would not die out the car/engine would shake. There is a faint boiling/bubbling noise near the left side of the intake manifold.
Other facts: There is no smoke coming out of the car. My car has 63k miles and its electronics (sensors, wires, etc.) look fairly new. It no longer leaks. CEL every now and then flashes on very briefly (sometimes for about 30 seconds) and shuts off on its own. Coolant buzzer is on. The car has more than enough coolant (the overflow tank overflowed a bit, I unintentionally overfilled the coolant the other day because the coolant light was on.
I don't know what's wrong anymore.
Any help?
Since the CEL lit, you should check to see what codes are posted.
Then I'd do a full ECU reset, in case it's in limp mode. Also check the MAP sensor hose.
Ironically, I had similar symptoms last summer after doing some rats nest/ injector work. I accidentally left the tb hose unconnected, and shot coolant all over the brake boost and ignitor for a few seconds. After I fixed that and cleaned up the mess, the engine got the nasty shakes and it barely ran. It turned out to be the fuel injectors leaking - replacing the injectors finally solved the problem. I'm not telling you to run out and pull your injectors, but to keep an open mind and realize sometimes FDs will throw a fastball at your head when your looking the other way.
Dave
Then I'd do a full ECU reset, in case it's in limp mode. Also check the MAP sensor hose.
Ironically, I had similar symptoms last summer after doing some rats nest/ injector work. I accidentally left the tb hose unconnected, and shot coolant all over the brake boost and ignitor for a few seconds. After I fixed that and cleaned up the mess, the engine got the nasty shakes and it barely ran. It turned out to be the fuel injectors leaking - replacing the injectors finally solved the problem. I'm not telling you to run out and pull your injectors, but to keep an open mind and realize sometimes FDs will throw a fastball at your head when your looking the other way.
Dave
Passenger
Posts: n/a
Dave, I'm glad you mentioned that. I also did some work where I had to remove the throttle body, and went right there to look for problems. After awhile I noticed one of the vacuum hoses underneath the elbow came loose, the source of my problem! I hooked it back up, assembled everything together again and fired it up.
For future reference for anyone doing a search: the idle problem is gone, and there is no more stalling. There is a coolant buzzer still, and the cel flashes randomly (very quickly! we are talking seconds here) but overall the car runs and drives well. There is a small wet coolant area underneath the air nozzle part of AST too, it is not very much but it's there. Next time I will see if I can get a reading on that cel, it disappears too quickly but I will watch it.
Cheers
For future reference for anyone doing a search: the idle problem is gone, and there is no more stalling. There is a coolant buzzer still, and the cel flashes randomly (very quickly! we are talking seconds here) but overall the car runs and drives well. There is a small wet coolant area underneath the air nozzle part of AST too, it is not very much but it's there. Next time I will see if I can get a reading on that cel, it disappears too quickly but I will watch it.
Cheers
You need to jump the GRN and TEN points in the diagnostics box, in the engine bay, to get the cel number. When the cel light comes on, it just says ENGINE. Check this out:
http://www.fd3s.net/engine_codes.html
This will tell you how to get the code from the cel light.
BTW, to reset the ECU and clear out all the codes, you need to disconnect the ground terminal from the battery then press on the brakes for 10 seconds. But do this AFTER you get the cel code.
http://www.fd3s.net/engine_codes.html
This will tell you how to get the code from the cel light.
BTW, to reset the ECU and clear out all the codes, you need to disconnect the ground terminal from the battery then press on the brakes for 10 seconds. But do this AFTER you get the cel code.
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