456 Check Engine Light just Came on?

456 Check Engine Light just Came on?

Hi Guys any idea what it could be car does not seem to have anything wrong with it.

1999 456mgta has 15,000 miles on it had the 30,000 done back in May any ideas?

THanks

 

The first thing I would do is clean the electronic connections on the engine management system. I found slight corrosion in some of them and found that contact cleaner took care of the problem. It is very easy to do. Then, reset the system. If that doesn't do it, the dealer's computer is probably the next best way to solve the problem.

 

On an M, anyone with an OBD-II scanner should be able to read it, correct?

Anyway, you want to see what the code is.

 

Thanks going to take it in on Monday.

 

Gas cap tight?

 

+1, hopefully this is why it went off.

 

Gas cap is the usual culprit. Otherwise, check ignition wires for arcing. You could be running on 11 cyl and not know it (happened to me).

OBDII knows all, tells all. Shouldn't take a tech more than a couple of minutes to suss out.

 

Has the car be sitting in the garage for a while? We have found many Fcar's that go down on battery and start producing errors (low battery, missfires,...) in memory and causes the check engine to come up, and need to be erased/voided with a diagnostic system/scanner.

 

That is true! My 456 was having problems with poor running and check engine lights, and amazingly enough we eventually replaced the battery and the problems went away!

 

I had a '95 456 with the same issue. It turned out to be the connectors on the engine management system computers behind the driver and passenger foot well kick plates. The check engine light would come on, I'd reset it and it would be good for about 3-4 days and then come on again. After I cleaned the contacts I never had the problem again.

Rick . . . .

 

The gas station guy just pointed out that my gas cap is missing altogether!

Car runs fine, no check engine lights or anything else. Why would it be a problem if the gas cap is loose, but not if it's missing altogether?

 

Ferrari had limited manufacturer status until 1-1-02 and that allowed them to be exempt from certain testing requirements of the clean air act. One of those areas was in evap requirements. The 456 and 550 had incomplete evap systems for quite a while.