EFI Warning...

[bhippy]

On starting the car I get an EFI warning.... No other indication. It doesn't clear and is accompanied by an annoying beep...

Knowing nothing about engines, I had a quick look and the vacuum pipe on the fuel rail didn't actually go anywhere - it was hanging. It looked like it should plug onto the airbox, so thats what i did... I've connected it to the air box, but the fault persists. Not sure if this is right - is it?

The car starts and runs fine...

Any ideas, or do I hot-foot it to the nearest specialist?

Thanks,
Bill

[NCE 61]

The vacuum should go to the air box , but as you have found this will not make ay difference to your EFI warning, you need to run the diagnostic programme to see what is actually causing the fault.

[Toady1]

Hi bhippy! Have u just washed it as water in the plug area and so can cause this. That vac pipe on the fuel rail you've put right.

[Cockey]

Had exactly the same issue and the same pipe was disconnected. EFI fault appeared just as I arrived home after having the clutch changed, so took the bonnet off and found the problem. The garage had obviously not connected it.

On returning the car to the garage they connected it to the laptop and said it was a loose connection on the air temp sensor on the air box which was causing the problem. Had to take their word for it although didn't necessarily believe them as felt rather ripped off from the £1,500 clutch bill. Especially after they charged me another £80 to sort this out!

[bhippy]

Toady1 said:

Hi bhippy! Have u just washed it as water in the plug area and so can cause this. That vac pipe on the fuel rail you've put right.

No, haven't washed it, so it's not water in it. In fact I drove it about 7 miles, parked up for 5 minutes and the fault appeared when I got back in it and drove off!

Will have a look at other connections and see if anything looks bad....

Thanks for the advice!

[Toady1]

Does it idle ok? Mine all of a sudden got the same EFI fault warning coming up and when cold idles at only 500rpm and sometimes stalls if I don't nurse the throttle. Once warm its fine, might be the coolant temp sensor but don't know why it'd turn on an EFI fault. I've had airbox and dash pod off a lot lately so it could be related to this.

[bhippy]

Idles and runs fine....

Got to be a poor connection somewhere, I'm sure. Shame as I should be tearing around in it with this weather..

:-)

[Cockey]

What I'm not sure of is whether if you repair the loose connection, will the fault go away? Or does it need resetting?

Long shot, but might be worth having a play with the air temp sensor. It's the wire coming out the air box.

[bhippy]

I think I've now done everything I can with my meagre knowledge of TVR. Upside is the sat nav no longer thinks its in Paris and the radio works...

Still has the EFI warning though.... Tried all connectors I could find. Unplugged and reconnected everything....

Time to drop it at a specialist me thinks.... Will look for someone in the Tadley/Basingstoke area tomorrow... Any recommendations?

Cheers,
Bill

[drivingfroggy]

I've got the same problem. Doesn't affect the weekend tearing around at all. I'm going to replace the air temp sensor plug, see if it helps

[gruffalo]

bhippy said:

I think I've now done everything I can with my meagre knowledge of TVR. Upside is the sat nav no longer thinks its in Paris and the radio works...

Still has the EFI warning though.... Tried all connectors I could find. Unplugged and reconnected everything....

Time to drop it at a specialist me thinks.... Will look for someone in the Tadley/Basingstoke area tomorrow... Any recommendations?

Cheers,
Bill

Take it Jason at STR8SIX, not much he doesn't know about the Speed 6 or TVR for that matter.

01844352735. There web site is down at the moment being updated so give him a call, he may fix it over the phone for you, has me many times.

[RyanW]

Cheapest and easiest option would be to use the (free) diagnostic software
available here: http://www.mytuscan.co.uk/downloads.php), you can buy a diagnostic lead from all the usual places, or if you a little more confident connect an RS232 lead to the ECU. These are about £2 on eBay. Good luck

[bhippy]

Ok, so I took it to Jason at Str8six today... Top bloke! They fitted it in between existing jobs to have a look and connected it to a laptop. The laptop showed nothing was wrong at all and a simple reset of the warning codes was all it needed.

There was a very knowledgeable engineer there (forget his name) but he explained how and why etc... They even made a cuppa while I waited! Can't say fairer than that.

Oh, and the drive there and back in the sunshine, through the A and B roads was so worth it.



Cheers all,
Bill

[Toady1]

Glad you got it sorted. If you have a laptop with rs232 connection you can get a lead for about £20, and install the diagnostic software to the laptop and do the resets, adaptives and see how sensors are working yourself. I just need to get an old laptop with male rs232 socket.

[Cockey]

I got this serial port converter. Works perfectly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000Z3MBG8

[Toady1]

Cockey said:

I got this serial port converter. Works perfectly.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000Z3MBG8

Good idea, but my laptop is windows 7 and I don't think the software works on that does it?

[Cockey]

No, apparently not. Well, not without going to a lot of trouble.

[twinreal]

Software will also run under Windows 7 in combination with an usb2serial-adapter. You only have to assign the correct com-port to the adapter as the software only supports COM1 and COM2. When the adapter is connected locate it in device manager and edit the com-ports.

[Toady1]

twinreal said:

Software will also run under Windows 7 in combination with an usb2serial-adapter. You only have to assign the correct com-port to the adapter as the software only supports COM1 and COM2. When the adapter is connected locate it in device manager and edit the com-ports.

erm....you've lost me now! lol!

[R7EBO]

Mate I have had an EFI warning showing on my Tuscan since September last year and hasn't made a single ounce of difference to the running of the car. I live in Hull and use my car as my daily for work etc so I haven't had time to get it over to a specialist to plug it in. So I wouldn't worry too much in future if it happens again!! :-)