Question re Check Engine icon and Trac Off

[andtan]

Hi all,

Hoping someone knows what this issue is / was.

The missus rang me this arvo telling me the car (VY Series II S pack, V6 auto sedan, 160K on clock, serviced every 6mths) was having a 'problem',...... well that's not exactly the way she put it!!

Missus said she was reversing out of a carpark at the local shops and when she put it into 'Drive' it just stalled. It's not out of fuel (but had just hit the first low fuel warning), and there are no issues with the guage. After it stalled the dash had the check engine icon flashing and the message "Trac Control Off".

The missus drove the car home (about 3km) with the alerts still going, and didn't notice any unusual sounds, handling etc. When she pulled in the driveway she left it running and I tried the Traction control button - nothing, it just stayed off.
I turned the car off and back on a couple of times and each time it passed the system check, warned of low fuel, but didn't throw up any traction control, or check engine warnings.

I've had a bit of a search around but can only find a few references to fauly ABS modules, or batteries that died soon after.

Would be interested to know if anyone has has this happen to them and what the problem was.

Cheers,

Andy C

[H Bomb]

Ive read on here that the fuel gauges are not as accurate as we think and they can be a little misleading, maybe it stalled through a starve of fuel just conveniently when the power steering was loaded as well in the car park (mine shudders and the idle can mess up a bit) then panicked and threw the trac off and check engine warning. Especially if when you restarted it the check engine light hasnt returned? I also know when my Calais battery is dying I get all sorts of ghost (sometimes all of them) warnings which dissapear with a new battery as you have read here already.

[andtan]

Oh well,

I'll soon find out what the problem was - car died while I was on the way to work this morning.
There wasn't any warning, engine just stopped - and nothing on the dash apart from the battery light. I tried to start it but it just turns over with not even a hint of firing up, battery had heaps of kick so doesn't seem to be the battery.

Wondering if it may be a crank angle sensor or even the fuel pump, but I would have thought it would have coughed and spluttered if starved for fuel. No matter what it is I'm sure it will have to cost me big $$$$

[Dr HaxZaw]

yeah the feul gauges are as accurate as carpet bombing... mine says its completely empty with about 12 litres in the tank which is a nice safety margin however a bloke at work had his vt run out when it said it had 5km to go lol
ive had random abs warnings but thats only when the front wheels are stationary and the back are spinning (btw it was on a dyno and on a dirt track just so i dont get burnt) and they dont seem to have any affect

[Daggy082]

If u hadn't filled it up yet it will be out of fuel.... When the light came on I would hav put some fuel in it, funny how that works...

[andtan]

Well the word from the mechanics at this stage is Crank angle sensor - has an open circuit. They have one on order and will be in tomorrow - so it will be interesting to see if that solves the problem...

[andtan]

Final result was a a new Crank angle sensor and a new coil (DFI) module - apparently the CAS took out the coil module when it failed.