Handy hint for owners of VH V8V
Discussion
This week I took my trusty old V8S for a good spin out and the weather turned so a bright day became a thunderstorm. Maybe relevant maybe not - I baby all the AM these days and avoid rain if possible.
Coming out of an alley (or a 'shambles') in Kendal up popped orange engine light. I'll just investigate when i'm home I thought.
Off to see a lawnmower (rock n roll these days - JB would be proud) and then family and friends and after the fourth stop the 'check engine' went red. The alert went red. Oh s
t thinks me. I've no display since the panel packed up a year ago it will get done when the car goes for service over winter. So I've no idea why red lights everywhere.
I check the essentials - fluids, noises, engine and transmission feel. No problems. Red lights remains. It means 'stop and walk home' to many these days but i'm from a different era. If all sounds good, runs good and nothing leaking then there's no problem - maybe the nannies are disabled so don't go crazy - been there and all that...
So i drive home, carefully. Keeping close ear on noises and close eye on temp. All is good.
At home I plugs in my £10 chinese OBD and there's two codes, 136 and 150. Both are lambda sensors codes. Out of range. Different banks. One post cat one pre cat . Turns out one code is an orange check engine. Two at same time is a red - panic stations.
I get car on ramps - wiggle the wiring, pull connectors off, squirt of WD40, clean, snap the plug back on. The £10 chinese thing cancels the codes. All sorted. No issues on a blast the next day.
Was it the rain? Dust? just a very slightly dodgy contact upset by something it doesn't see much of these days (water)? Dunno. Maybe. Probably.
An el cheapo £10 generic OBD reader might be limited but wow - that thing paid itself 20x over with this one use...
Coming out of an alley (or a 'shambles') in Kendal up popped orange engine light. I'll just investigate when i'm home I thought.
Off to see a lawnmower (rock n roll these days - JB would be proud) and then family and friends and after the fourth stop the 'check engine' went red. The alert went red. Oh s
t thinks me. I've no display since the panel packed up a year ago it will get done when the car goes for service over winter. So I've no idea why red lights everywhere.I check the essentials - fluids, noises, engine and transmission feel. No problems. Red lights remains. It means 'stop and walk home' to many these days but i'm from a different era. If all sounds good, runs good and nothing leaking then there's no problem - maybe the nannies are disabled so don't go crazy - been there and all that...
So i drive home, carefully. Keeping close ear on noises and close eye on temp. All is good.
At home I plugs in my £10 chinese OBD and there's two codes, 136 and 150. Both are lambda sensors codes. Out of range. Different banks. One post cat one pre cat . Turns out one code is an orange check engine. Two at same time is a red - panic stations.
I get car on ramps - wiggle the wiring, pull connectors off, squirt of WD40, clean, snap the plug back on. The £10 chinese thing cancels the codes. All sorted. No issues on a blast the next day.
Was it the rain? Dust? just a very slightly dodgy contact upset by something it doesn't see much of these days (water)? Dunno. Maybe. Probably.
An el cheapo £10 generic OBD reader might be limited but wow - that thing paid itself 20x over with this one use...
You won't really know until the conditions are right for the diagnostic routine to re-run - which in general requires a warm engine and relatively modest driving. Mike from BR did a video about this. Not suggesting you did , but 'driving like you stole it' will inhibit the diagnostic. BTW, your codes should be four digits to make sense.
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