Slow Down Light????

I went out to dinner last weekend, drove about 8 miles to get there and had no problems. About 1.5 hours later I started the car up and before I got out of the parking lot the slow down light started blinking. I went a couple of blocks to a place I could pull over and looked it up in the owners manuel. When blinking you can drive far enough to get where you need to go, but if it stayed on you must stop immediately. I sat parked for about 10 minutes and tehn proceeded home. About 5 miles down the road the light stopped flashing and stayed off. I did not notice any noise, odor, rattle, fluid or any other problem and the car drove fine. Should I just drive on and see if it happens again or take the car and get it checked out. I am in LR, AR so it is not that simple to just go get it checked out. The nearest place would be Dallas. What would cause the problem?

 

It's an either/or thing.

Either an exhaust-monitoring ECU is acting up,

or

You have a fuel/air problem.


Speaking broadly, shining the light from a cheap $20 laser thermometer onto each catalytic converter should tell you if you have a cat that is in danger of overheating (a very real fire danger, if so).

If a cat isn't overheating, then you typically end up replacing at least one cat ECU (some tests can be done to see if that's the right course of action).

 

I only had a slow down light once, when I had the heat shield under the air cleaners off while I was messing with the exhaust valve. First thing I would do is plug in an OBDII reader and look for any check engine codes, those could point you in the right direction.

 

Sounds like it is simply a cat ECU that has failed. There are plenty of threads on fchat for diagnois and replacement. If I weren't on this iPhone (which has no cut-and-paste) I'd offer up so links.

Other chaps can help I'm sure.

 

Silicone those bad boys up and don't look back!!! I did all 3 of them when I installed my X-OST so I wouldn't have to worry about them...Black silicone

 

+1 on that, while doing the engine out I found them and all three are cracked. Time to seal them up and save $500 each (IIRC).

 

After you seal them up..the only "slow down" light your gonna see is the "Slow the @#$% down" light mounted on the police car.

 

iPhone----must be nice, I am still using my bag phone from 1989...

 

I hate seeing that light...

 

WOW - never heard of this. I've had this happen a couple times, even found one that installed backwards. I'm calling my guy and requesting this. Super Idea!

 

+1... I had one cracked ECU I siliconed it and installed it in the 'bypass' valve position.... !!

 

Why does that not surprise me.............lol.....