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[Kieran]

Ok i have had this light coming on for about two months now and i am completely baffled.I have checked it with a handheld diagnostic with no faults coming up so have reset it a couple of times. The light then stays off for about two hours then comes on again. After getting slightly pissed off with it i decided to book it into a garage which has all the right equipment to diagnose the fault. They found an air leak in one of the pipes and replaced it then reset it. About two hours later the light came on again  .Booked it in again and they found another pipe needing replacment so changed it and reset the fault again.Two hours later hey presto light came back on . Booked it back in with the garage,they had it for a whole day rigging it up to a variety of diagnostics and couldn,t find a fault so ended up giving me my money back. Has anyone got any idea why this bloody light keeps coming on. The car runs lovely and seems unaffected. It is a 2001  2.6 estate

Thanks

[VXL V6]

If the EML comes on then there must be codes.....

[Kieran]

No definetly no codes that is the annoying bit. If there was it could be fixed.Why does it stay off for a couple of hours then come back on again

[VXL V6]

If the EML comes on and there are no codes then something sounds wrong with the ECU.

My only other thought is that the code reader can't read some of the ecu's on your car (Some of the ecu's on 2.6/3.2 use a different protocol) but I don't then understand how it is able to reset them.....  

Really need an experts advice (Hopefully Marks DTM or The Boy will be along soon).

[Kieran]

Thanks i don,t understand why the light keeps coming on and the equipment at the garage was top notch so i am happy with them trying to find the fault but to no avail

[Entwood]

Is your code reader OBD2 (OBDII)  ??  I believe this is required for 2.6 /3.2 .. the older OBD/OBD1 won't work ......

I could be wrong .....

[TheBoy]

I'm guessing their code readers couldn't read it, or they didn't know how.

Can you describe the light?

[Kieran]

Hi ya
The light is the orange engine shaped one. I am unsure what reader the garage have but it seemed a modern garage  with all the equipment :-/

[Kieran]

My only other option is taking it to a Vauxhall garage where they will charge me a small fortune to check it on their diagnostic equipment and may not even find the fault either

[VXL V6]

That's the emissions lamp, The Engine management lamp is the one with the spanner through it.

[Marks DTM Calib]

Hi ya
The light is the orange engine shaped one. I am unsure what reader the garage have but it seemed a modern garage  with all the equipment :-/

Hmm....some of these generic readers are not as good as they claim.....

Whats the mileage/history?

Run it on cheap supermarket fuel all the time?

[Kieran]

Ok we could be getting somewhere. The book says it is the engine electronic indicator but if you say it is the emissions lamp it must be. So why is it coming on all the time?

[Kieran]

It has done 105000 miles and fully serviced including good quality oil new fuel filter fitted on last service,breather tubes cleaned last week and running on the best fuel Tescos can buy. I would doubt it will be fuel because when i bought it i ran it on supermarket fuel and the light didn,t come on.

[Marks DTM Calib]

It has done 105000 miles and fully serviced including good quality oil new fuel filter fitted on last service,breather tubes cleaned last week and running on the best fuel Tescos can buy. I would doubt it will be fuel because when i bought it i ran it on supermarket fuel and the light didn,t come on.

Right, we need the REAL codes reading.....

My suspicion is that you will have a cat/o2 sensor related code and the Mot emissions will be the same as a new car...i.e perfect.

In which case, its the pre cat getting tired, nothing to worry about and wont ever cause any problems.

You might try running a bottle of Cataclean through or try running it on a quality fuel at the right price for a few tank fulls.

[VXL V6]

Tesco's finest still doesn't have the cleaning properties of Shell or BP normal 95 RON. Tesco can sell petrol cheap because it buys it cheap.... read into that whatever you like!

Basically the emissions lamp comes on (2.6/3.2) when an efficiency threshold is reached, the ecu counts up the out of efficiency range readings and when the total adds up to a certain level the light is illuminated.

3.2/2.6 cars have four catalytic convertors (two per bank), the first catalytic convertor really isn't up to the job that it was expected to do as they get older (especially on the 3.2) and hence the first Lambda sensor reads higher than expected readings. If you take the vehicle and have it emissions tested it will probably pass easily, this is because the second (main) cat is perfectly capable of doing it's job and the emissions are therefore within spec.

It is worth running some cataclean through the system at the correct concentration and putting a few tankfulls of higher quality fuel through.
It would also be worth checking all four sensors to be sure that they are OK. Codes that are being generated are P0420 and P0430, if just one of the codes is generated then only one side has the problem.....

Edit: Mark you can type far quicker than me! LOL