Arrr, this hasnt happened to me before, had the car a year but its mostly been on off the road apart from the odd trip to a garage.

i was putting in my new heater core yesterday, the new one went in alright, had a bit of trouble getting the hoses back on because of all the wiring in the way but i didnt unplug anything, so after all that was connected back up i started the car up and let it run for a bit to let it warm up and test the heater which worked, hooray, however after about 4 or 5 minutes of the car running the service engine soon light came on. Any ideas ? the car sounded ok, after leaving it for a few minutes it sounded as if it was idiling at slightly higher rpm's though

also ive got no idea how to do those diagnostics and im not even sure where to do them from, unless its the black plug thing thats under the drivers side of the dash ? any help much appreciated !

Scott

 

Newcastle? Home of one of my favorite ales? Cool.

Yes, the diagnostic is invoked from that connector under the dash, although I'm not positive where it is exactly on a RH drive car.

All you need is a paper clip or short loop of wire, the ignition key, a notepad, and pencil/pen.

With the engine and ignition turned off, locate the ALDL connector under the dash:



Insert a tool as described above (paper clip) into the 'A' and 'B' terminals on the ALDL connector:



WITHOUT STARTING the engine, turn the ignition to the "RUN" position. Watch the Malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) - it will begin to flash. This is also commonly called the "Service Engine Soon" or "SES" lamp. The first code will flash three times, and will usually be a code '12'. This is encoded by one flash of the lamp, a brief pause, then two successive flashes of the lamp. Each code will repeat three times, so you should see a "Code 12" flash three times. Any other error codes will follow in numerical order, and each code should flash three times. After all codes have been displayed three times, the "Code 12" will again flash three times, then all other codes will follow as described earlier. This cycle will continue until the jumper is removed or the ignition is turned off.

After you have made a note of all error codes, turn off the ignition and remove the jumper immediately. If you forget to remove the jumper and attempt to start the engine with it in place, you could damage the ECM. For this reason you should remove it immediately.

Once you have a note of all error codes, check this file for the decoding:

GM Error Codes.pdf.

 

Hey thats great and very straight forward to follow, thanks very much. My car is still LHD, nearly all imports would be as us here in the UK are fortunate enough that we dont have to convert them over to RHD like Australia.

Yes i hail from the land of Newcastle Brown Ale, i like a few bottles of that when im having a night in the toon !

Scott