I thought the commercial for the CAVI all those years ago bragged about welding the hood shut and doing nothing for 100k miles....well my check engine light is on, been on for a week now. Took it to the dealer and he insisted it was just my gas cap, took it off, then put it back on, told me it should be fine and isn't any big deal, unless it starts flashing. He never checked any codes none the less. Without paying for them to plug in a scanner, or buying one myself, can I get some basic codes out of the car with a few turns of the ignition, or by sticking a paper clip in something? Those strategies seem to work for other cars. Or, can i reset the light somehow to see if it indeed was the gas cap and the problem has gone away?

A history might help explain my problem, or create a mystery to be solved for any fellow j-body owners. I bought the car 2 years ago from my sister in law, she bought it ALMOST new from a dealer (just 10k miles on it and a year old) she never had any problems with it, did the regular maint(tranny, coolant, oil, brakes, etc, etc.) I bought it with 70k miles on it and have put almost 40k on it since (99500 miles on it now) I've done the regular dealer oil changes every 3k and for the last year or so have been having problems with the car dying shortly after start up. Has never died under acceleration, mainly I will start it up, pull out of my parking space, drive a few hundered feet to the main road, and it will sputter a bit and die, a simple restart has it on its way. The problem has not gotten worse or better over the last year. I changed plugs, fuel filter air filter a few months back, and no fix. Also used more than a car owber should of that fuel injector cleaner stuff, tried every brand and mixed it with a lot of fuel, a little, and nothing seems to help.

In addition to that problem my high beam headlight switch does not work , I can flash em, but the switch won't stay clicked, unless i hold it for about 20 miles (lots of highway driving) my flashers work, all signals work and the DRLs work, but the headlight themselves don't work either, when I turn the switch to turn on the headlights, just the DRLs stay onmy fog lamps ar eplenty bright enough, so I've never worried about fixing it, sounds like its an expensive switch. In additino to that problem, my sunroof is finicky, I can sometimes open it up like normal, other times i will hit the switch it will open about 2 inches and just stop, i can re-close it w/o issue, but it will keep opening up onlt a couple inches, then magically work like normal again. My alarm is finicky to, but I won't go into that.

Any suggestions would be great, this car will be taking my from chicago to san diego this fall, so I want to make sure she is in great working order, or fairly close to it.

Thanks

There are no paperclip or ignition tricks to pull the codes. If you go to the local autozone however, they will pull the codes for free. Since the dealer didn't clear the code when you went to them, if it was indeed the gas cap, it will be there for a couple driving cycles until it goes away.

You could force reset the code by leaving the battery cable off the battery for up to 2 hours.





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yea drill a hole through your taillight bulb and run a piece of wire from there into the gas tank and then start the car.







j/k do what shifted said. autozone is free. get the code, come back here and check the sticky in the maintance forum. look the code up and then fix the problem

alright, I tried the wire to the gas tank, now the fire dept is here....and insurance said they won't cover the damage...

ok, went to AutoZone, and got the codes. Two codes were reported, both identical.
P0401 was the code, the scanner gave the message "EGR flow insuficient". The kid at the Zone said he cannot reccomend a fix, some legal mumbo jumbo, but a new EGR valve is 200 bucks. He said the dealer's scanner can tell exactly what the problem is, IE what wire , hose or part of the EGR "system" may be bad. He also said my stalling problem is probably not caused by this problem, but that this problem generally causes some rough running of the engine, so far I have had no problems, my MPG is still staying at 36!!!

Before I plop down 200 on a new EGR valve, any comments?

since I am new, what is the maint. forum?

Thanks Again

The EGR valve being bad could definately cause stumbling and stalling.

The maintenance forum is just below the newbies forum on the left side of the screen. Stickies are the posts that stay at the top (ironicly, they also have the word "Sticky" in front of them).





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Unplug the battery and press the brake for about 30 seconds to a minute, it will open the solenoids and clear the memory faster, but if a check engine light came on in the first place you need to get it checked.


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Use this routine:

- Remove the EGR valve.
- Visually and physically inspect the following items:
Pintle, valve passages and the adapter for excessive deposits or any kind of a restriction.
EGR valve gasket and pipes for leaks. Clean or replace EGR system components as necessary.

- Remove the EGR inlet and outlet pipes from the exhaust manifold and the intake manifold.
- Inspect the manifold EGR ports and the EGR inlet and outlet pipes for a blockage caused by excessive deposits, casting flashing or other damage