Oh. Oh. OBD System Failure.

Anybody had one of these? Engine system failure warning light. OBD / Onboard diagnostic system malfuntion and or failure. Washed the car, took it for a spin and put it to bed. Next morning I crank the engine over. I get the everything okay light and then half way down the driveway I hear a little bell. Glance down at my screen and there it is in big letters. "Ignition/injection system and or emmission control system failure." Just what you want to see at 7am. on a sunny saterday morning. Turned the car off several times and started it back up. Nope. Not an ignition problem as far as I could tell. The next day I started it up and I got a clean screen and drove it most of the day. Absolutely no problems of any kind. The following day I start it up get a clean screen which goes to failure and back to okay and then back again to failure mode. Took it for a short drive the car drives and feels absolutely normal. This morning it goes directly to failure mode and stays. Again the car behaves perfectly. No shimy, no shake. No loss of power of any kind and all electrics completely normal.
It goes to the dealer first thing monday and Im hoping it is just a faulty sensor or possibly some kind of cat. converter problem. I'll keep my fingers crossed. Just wanted to know if anyone else has experienced this kind of issue. Just had the dealer perform a complete spring check up 6 weeks ago. No problems. Does anyone know if these sensors are considered to be a little too sensative sometimes and possibly inaccurate? I guess I'll get the answer to all my questions in a couple of days anyway. Was just hoping someone could provide some first hand experience and possibly some answers ahead of time. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Don. Funny you should mention that. But the last thing I did Friday before I put my car to bed was fill it up at the local gas station less than a mile from the house. My problems started first thing Sat. morning. So after reading your post I went out to the garage and checked the cap. It wasn't as tight as it should have been. Removed the gas cap and tightned back on till it gave me that click,click,click. I'll let it sit the rest of the night and try it again first thing AM. Would definately be a quick and painless fix. Thanks for the heads up Don and I'll keep everyone posted.

 

It was worth a shot. But tightening the loose cap did not fix the problem. I am however pretty convinced that a loose gas cap was the cause of the problem. In all probability the ECU needs to be reset. Still I am not prepared to take the chance that it may not self correct over time. Or more importantely that this may represent a more serious problem. In any case the dealer will have my car tomorrow and hopefully they will be able to sort it all out. I will however offer up all the advice and information that has been given to me by fellow members. Hopefully this info will help the dealer zero in and find a quick solution. I will keep everyone posted once I have some answers. Thanks.

 

Its an 07. Yes it does have the more modern gas cap that click,click ,clicks. Unfortuanately I don't think I tightened it properly the last time I filled it up. If that was the problem it should be an easy fix. Should have the answer soon.

 

Well. Good News. Just got the call from the dealer. The problem has been resolved. Apparently there are three temperture sensors built into the 599. Two in the engine conpartment and one underneath the drivers side view mirror. That little bump that I never paid much attention to. All three work in tandem and the side mirror sensor was either non functional or was not feeding the correct information to the engine conpartment sensors. If any of the three are inoperable or feeding bad information to the other two. You will get an engine system failure message. The code read "temperture failure" and the fault has been corrected. This was the first of this type of sensor fault that CAS has experienced to date in a 599. So I guess I win todays prize. The service dept. says that there are many critical and non critical problems that can trigger an engine systems failure warning. Currently there is no way to differentiate between the two. They hope that eventually the 599 will be built with two different color codings. That can tell the owner if the problem is urgent or something that can be handled in a less immediate fashion. Anyway I seem to be good to go. Appreciate everyones comments and advice. I guess we all just learned something new about the 599. I certainly did. Thanks to all.