MIL light is on

[tejr]

Car has been sitting for a few days so thought I'd wash it, then thought I'd take it out for a spin a few hours later to find the MIL light won't go out! Now it was idling ok and i took it round the block in case it was going to decide to sort itself out but once warmed up it started idling a little rough like it was missing on 1 or 2 cylinders and is now a little hesitant between 1-2krpm.. after a while the idle sorted itself out and under acceleration or deceleration the MIL momentarily dissapeared but is now constantly on again and still hesitant below 2krpm..

I'm thinking maybe water in coil packs? If so, and I leave it be will they dry themselves out? or do they need some sort of intervention/assistance to dry out? Unfortuntaly I've lent my ECU cable out thinking I won't need it for a while as I'm getting married tomorrow and will be on my honeymoon for a few weeks, but now I know this will just be on my mind Checked the ECU itself and its dry, the coil packs have a little water around them but nothing more than usual? Though its the first time I've washed it since the rebuild.

[tvrgit]

I've just had exactly these symptoms and it turned out to be one of the connectors to a lamda sensor - once I'd cleaned it and put some waterproof contact grease in, it was fine. I only fixed it yesterday!

http://www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?h=0...

you might still need the ecu cable to reset the fault log and the adaptives - mine were all over the place as the working side tried to adapt to compensate - nut on mine at least, the MIL light went out without resetting.

[tejr]

Hmm, that does sound very similar, and thinking about it the car did pop a few times more than it does.. But then that could just be down to a misfire? In which case coil packs are still suspects! Oh well, can't do anything for a few days now, hopefully will get the ECU cable back by tues and can take a quick look before flying out on the honeymoon! lol

[tvrgit]

I'm not sure that the coil packs would make the MIL light come on - but the lamdas do - if it loses the signal for one, it uses the other for both cylinder banks and puts the MIL on.

[tejr]

Ah I see.. where abouts are the lambdas? I'll clean then up when I'm back.. I remember the garage having trouble with the lambdas after the rebuild, so i'll have a look and maybe its time for new ones if they haven't already been replaced...

[tvrgit]

The lamdas themselves are in the top of the manifolds right at the back joint- right in front of the cats. The connectors are cable tied to the loom right behind the big fuse - right where water running off the screen will drip onto them...

They're an absolute bugger to reach though - I ended up taking the fuel rail off to get my fat paws in, and even then it was fiddly.

[tejr]

Thanks for the info, I'll keep it in mind when I eventually get round to taking a look!

Edit: can I get to them from underneath the car?

[ukkid35]

tejr said:

Edit: can I get to them from underneath the car?

Yes, but there may be a cable tie that stops them from being easily accessible, snip the tie (carefully) so they drop down.