The "Service Engine Soon" light always seems to come under the following circumstances, never any other time:

Car always starts right up, never a problem. The freeway is about a mile from my house, and the car is decently warmed up by the time I get there. I merge onto the freeway and drive about a mile before hitting the transition to another freeway. My speed has stabilized at maybe 70mph and I ease off the gas as I begin slowing for the transition loop. And the light comes on.

If I stay on surface streets and catch a stretch of road where I can cruise at a steady speed for a while, when I eventually have to lift off the gas for a stoplight, the light comes on.

If I get on the freeway and can drive for an hour without having to fully lift off the gas, the light stays OFF. As soon as I have to fully get off the gas, the darn light comes on.

It always stays on until I shut off the engine, and it NEVER comes on when I first start the car, whether the engine is hot or cold. Only after that steady state cruising.

What gives?

 

Pull the codes, and lets start there.

 

I know how to pull codes on my other two cars, but not this one. Pointers???

 

my car does the same thing, it's egr. The light always comes on after I've gone above 40 - 50mph and when I start slowing down it comes on. I forget what holes you use but there's a port or whatever on the driver side, above the gas pedal, you stick a paper clip in 2 of the holes and it'll give you all the codes. I bought a book with all the codes in it and it came with a lil gadget to get the codes.

 

-Look under your drivers side dash for the ALDL connection. It has two rows of 6 terminals each.
-To retreive the codes, use a short jumper wire or paper clip to connect the two terminals on the FAR RIGHT of the UPPER ROW.
- Turn your ignition to the on position, but do not start the engine. The computer light will flash a code 12 three times and then flash any trouble codes. After the trouble codes have each been flashed three times it will once again flash a code 12 signaling the end of the diagnostic sequence.

Let us know what you find.

 

i bet yu have a cracked or unhooked vacume tube going to the egr

 

Thanks for the feedback guys....if it ever stops raining and I get a chance to check this I'll post back.

Stupid rain...this is SoCal.....what the heck is going on around here?????

 

aaww muffin.

3 feet of snow would learn you

 

He has a digital EGR like me so there are no vac lines goin to it. I have learnd to live with my ses light it does not do it all the time i bet its leaking around the gasket that GM does not make. They want you to buy a new EGR ad thats about 300 bucks that i refuse to spend. But in all hosety i would not worry about it. You might want to check the connector going ino the top and give it a good push in.

 

Yeah, I grew up in that stuff you see.....30 years of Detroit winters. Now I'm paying top dollar to live in the warm sunshine of SoCal and I ain't gettin' it dammit. Who do I talk to about a refund????

And who you callin' muffin????????????

 

Mike, Has to be the EGR is my guess. once the car is warm and up to speed (past 40mph) its suppose to operate and is probably bad throwing the code.

PS Mikes about 8 or 10 blocks away from where I live at most (I'm in Orange also) and the rain here in So Cal is the worst I have ever seen causing all kinds of mudslides and homes sliding due to soil satuation. I am a Cal native and have never see it so bad for so long- we are into record rainfalls. Hell, there was so much water on the freeways (4-5 lanes wide each way here) that there were actual streams of water flowing across them in various points. I have never seen this here.

Dean

 

probably not an EGR code because the light doesn't come on until he LIFTS OFF THE GAS. The criteria for the EGR code is steady cruise >35 mph, Throttle Opening >5%. Most likely gonna be a TPS code, O2 lean code, or VSS code.

 

Not true mine does exactly what his is doing mine comes on when i press the brake aftr doing highway speeds and throes a EGR code 32 i think it is.

 

My ses light comes on under the same circumstances as his and mine is code 32, egr. As far as the gasket goes, if you get a gasket kit for the intake, ya know, because you need to change the thermostat and they won't sell just that gasket, you need a $40 kit to get it, there's a gasket in there you can use on the egr. I used one from in there when I put my egr back on. Didn't leak till I all kinds of snapped one of the bolts.

 

The egr gasket i need is the one with the 3 holes in it not the one for the egr housing.