Swordsmith
242hp/252 ft-lbs BNR EFI
I have had an ongoing problem for the past three months. I took my car in early for inspection, a month before it was due (it's OK, in PA you can take it in three months early). The garage was unable to get the inspection to complete. In PA, there are 8 flags in the computer that reset when you clear the check engine light, and at least 7 of those flags must set before the car can be inspected... but it also fails if the CEL is on for any reason.
They could not get 2 of the flags to reset without a CEL coming on. They would tinker around some, and then have me drive the car for a while, bring it back in, and see. My UG does not show the flags at all, all it shows is CELs and pending CELs, so I could not see if it was setting the flags. I could see when the CEL's came back up though.
Due to their past experience with this sort of issue, they said the most likely way it would work would be to reset CELs, then start the car cold in the morning, let it warm up for ten minutes, then drive 100 miles or so without shutting the engine off, and bring it in. Busy time of year, I only managed to do this every few days, and on more than one occasion either was forced to go without warm up, or to shut off at some point in the drive, or even forgot what I was doing and shut it off a split second before groaning that I forgot!
The two CEL's I was consistently getting were p015B and p0172. After some fiddling they changed the spark plugs out for new irridium ones, and cleared up the p015B problem. This also cured a very annoying stuttering problem I had whenever boost went over 12, which much rejoicing and gave me my "sports car" back.
The two flags which would not reset were O2 sensor and Evap sensor. Changing the O2 sensor did not help. Nothing seemed to help.
They loaned me their $8000 diagnostic machine a couple times on weekends, so I could drive around while watching the two flags to see if they would reset... they would not, except once when the O2 sensor set... and simultaneously threw a p0172 CEL.
Finally, now a month past inspection due date, they told me there's a waiver procedure in PA, you get an inspection, fail, spend $150+ on repairs aimed at getting the emissions problem corrected, inspect again, fail, and you get a waiver. So they ran the actual inspection machine... and weirdly got p2227, which we had never seen before, along with P0172. Left the CEL on and had me drive it for the weekend, plan being to reinspect and waiver out.
Monday morning, the CEL was off. They didn't turn it off, I didn't turn it off, it was just off. I drove around. Put over 100 miles on it. Brought it in still running. They put it on the machine, and saw a pending p0172, and actual codes p0172 and p2227... and no CEL. And the 02 sensor had set! Machine said that was a pass, there was much rejoicing, and I'm out of there with a not-waiver sticker.
First time any of them had ever seen trouble codes and no CEL...but my heavily modified Sonic has been a lot of firsts, I guess this one is no real surprise either. Maybe it heard I was going to waiver it and decided to behave itself for a while.
Ooh, and I drove it around today with lots of stops, never once threw a CEL. UG agrees trouble codes p0172 and p2227, although it doesn't see the additional pending p0172.
They could not get 2 of the flags to reset without a CEL coming on. They would tinker around some, and then have me drive the car for a while, bring it back in, and see. My UG does not show the flags at all, all it shows is CELs and pending CELs, so I could not see if it was setting the flags. I could see when the CEL's came back up though.
Due to their past experience with this sort of issue, they said the most likely way it would work would be to reset CELs, then start the car cold in the morning, let it warm up for ten minutes, then drive 100 miles or so without shutting the engine off, and bring it in. Busy time of year, I only managed to do this every few days, and on more than one occasion either was forced to go without warm up, or to shut off at some point in the drive, or even forgot what I was doing and shut it off a split second before groaning that I forgot!
The two CEL's I was consistently getting were p015B and p0172. After some fiddling they changed the spark plugs out for new irridium ones, and cleared up the p015B problem. This also cured a very annoying stuttering problem I had whenever boost went over 12, which much rejoicing and gave me my "sports car" back.
The two flags which would not reset were O2 sensor and Evap sensor. Changing the O2 sensor did not help. Nothing seemed to help.
They loaned me their $8000 diagnostic machine a couple times on weekends, so I could drive around while watching the two flags to see if they would reset... they would not, except once when the O2 sensor set... and simultaneously threw a p0172 CEL.
Finally, now a month past inspection due date, they told me there's a waiver procedure in PA, you get an inspection, fail, spend $150+ on repairs aimed at getting the emissions problem corrected, inspect again, fail, and you get a waiver. So they ran the actual inspection machine... and weirdly got p2227, which we had never seen before, along with P0172. Left the CEL on and had me drive it for the weekend, plan being to reinspect and waiver out.
Monday morning, the CEL was off. They didn't turn it off, I didn't turn it off, it was just off. I drove around. Put over 100 miles on it. Brought it in still running. They put it on the machine, and saw a pending p0172, and actual codes p0172 and p2227... and no CEL. And the 02 sensor had set! Machine said that was a pass, there was much rejoicing, and I'm out of there with a not-waiver sticker.
First time any of them had ever seen trouble codes and no CEL...but my heavily modified Sonic has been a lot of firsts, I guess this one is no real surprise either. Maybe it heard I was going to waiver it and decided to behave itself for a while.
Ooh, and I drove it around today with lots of stops, never once threw a CEL. UG agrees trouble codes p0172 and p2227, although it doesn't see the additional pending p0172.
