All the time. Some pending codes for the O2 sensors come & go. But never trigger the CEL. Not surprising as I have headers, high flow cats and a Tubi sport.
I've never personally looked, but I'm sure the inspection folks would let me know if something popped up. (It would fail). Last inspection was 2 months ago.
Eric I would suggest you get an obd reader and have a look youself at whats going on. The CEL is just a light triggered by a code. If you have never had any CEL it is possible that the bulb is dc. A simple OBD reader will let you know if this is the case or not. Keeping an eye on fuel trims through the scan is also helpful to keep your car running properly. I use this wifi transmitter: Amazon.com : Arrela® ELM327 WiFi Wireless OBD2 Car Diagnostic Reader Scanner for iPhone iPad iOS PC : Electronics and Dash Command on your phone: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dashcommand-obd-ii-gauge-dashboards/id321293183?mt=8
My CEL light works. It turns on when I turn the key on like it should. If it didn't work, it would fail inspection and if it stored a code, it would fail as well. I have a old wifi reader and I use torque pro. I'll take a look for the fun of it.
Reverse for me, I never seem to get SDLs...(jinx). Now that the weather is cooling down, I guess the winter gremlins will come out. I drive the car pretty frequently during the winter so I wonder if a new set of codes will pop up. A common occurrence for my car during the winter is my right turn blinker blinks really fast. Goes away once summer hits.
First year of ownership I clocked just under 4,000 miles; a little less than 3,000 this year as the parking garage at my office is under construction. I use a wireless OBD reader (kiwi) and Dash Command application, great investments!
The thing is, a CEL means something is not right. I know all the talk about ghosts and connectors, but if you look at a diagnostic path for any car it will generally talk about a bad component and or a bad connection. Taking the attitude that you can ignore or just reset the codes and move on just means you aren't fixing the source of the problem. If you reset the codes it's true that you may not see it again for some time. The reasons are that some of the monitors take time to come back on line so even if there is an error the monitor won't see it. The other is that OBD II is smart. On many things it has to see the error 2 or 3 time before setting a CEL. And it has to see the error under the same operating conditions. All this means you can reset a code and may not see it for a few hundred miles. That doesn't mean the problem wasn't there the entire time.
Yes, exactly, it would have been better for me to say there should have been a category for never getting CELs after fixing the causes of the original errors. For me the only CELs I had were after I installed Hyperflow cats. Right angle platinum O2 sensor extensions completely eliminated the CELs.
When I got my car it didn't have any codes until I put a bulb into the CEL slot!. Then I had a bunch of codes. I kept plugging at them and finally got them eliminated. Each code was an adventure and a learning experience. Some of my issues were, exhaust ecu and TC, vacuum leaks, bad connections at injectors, and leaky exhaust before CATS. I keep a bluetooth OBD2 reader hooked up and check every few drives. No pending codes for a few hundred miles. I need to drive it more.
Same here... now going aftermarket with the ECU, so there go all my CEL's My CEL's were mostly benign once I had the car running decent until I lost the cam belt. Things went horribly wrong from there.... Horribly wrong.
I'm just surprised 5 codes were generated from a faulty vacuum canister (speculation). But I was really surprised to see that they actually go away on their own, I was always under the assumption that you had to clear them once you fixed something.
It depends. With OBD II certain codes will come on as soon as an error is sensed and will stay on until the code is cleared even if the problem is corrected. An example would be a CEL due to a failed O2 sensor heater. On the other hand, some errors need to be sensed several time before the CEL is turned on. Depending on the code, if the error is not sensed again after a certain number of "trips" the CEL will be turned off, but the code will (should) remain in memory. An example of this is the Evap system purge valve. On my 96 BMW 328i the purge valve would occasionally stick closed. After a while the CEL would come on. Then the valve would start working correctly and the CEL would turn off. But the code would remain. Even though the valve started working again, it was faulty and should have been replaced. FIY, I had posted an OBD II doc link in the 348/355 master sticky. Here it is again. http://www.lbcc.edu/attc/documents/OBD2.pdf
Mine never would throw a cel with stock cats. When i changed to tubi headers and capristo twin valve it would throw one about once evry 15 to 30 drive cycles. Once i put in the minicats for the 02 sensors the only time it has thrown a cel is when an o2 was bad. An extention for the o2 sensor seems to do the same or the 90 degree one also seems to work as does the minicat I have.
