Check engine light

[calais06]

Hey guys,

Got a check engine light this arvo.. Drove car 2km down the road and was fine, stopped for 5 mins (car off) turned car back on and didnt wait for system check (I normally do, and when it starts I normally get check engine/ABS/Traction control flash on and turn off once engine has stopped cranking). So I put the car into drive and the check engine light comes on, put in park and turned it off, was fine until put into drive.

By this time the car is fully warmed up, Oil is exactly on the top notch, only thing i'm thinking that could be related is that I put an Oil Catch Can in on the weekend, but has been fine until now? Also, there is a bit of oil residue on the electrical plug that is for the MAF (has been there a while and not caused issues).

The last couple of days I have noticed a kind of knocking/whirring noise when turning right whilst i'm accelerating also (I assumed it was strut top bearings cos they needed replacing, but anything could be related)

Has 103,000km on it.
Does anyone know what this could be/checks I could do before taking it to a dealership to get the codes read?

Thankyou all.

 

[calais06]

CEL comes on about 5 secs after starting the car, fuel consumption has increased by approx 1L/100km and cruise control won't engage.

Getting it scanned today, will update

 

[Shorty33]

I had a similar problem this week, but half-a-litre of oil fixed it.
I look forward to hearing the result of your case.

 

[perositi]

I had this happen in my sv6 ute and it turned out in my case an oxygen sensor had a fault.

 

[Zerone_V]

For this sort of stuff, I cecommend getting a cheap ELM ODBII USB Scanner from eBay.
They cost around $25.00, and there is heaps of software support out there for them.

With that you can do you own scan, and get some idea of whats going on.
There are literally over 700 codes for the VE, and the Check Engine Light will come on with some of them, or a combination of one or more faults.
There are websites out there with VE Commodore specific DTC Codes that you can look up, and get diagnostic information from.
One such example is www.carmodder.com • Search Diagnostic Trouble Codes

You may only use the Scan tool once or twice during the life of your car, but if you use it just once, they will pay for themselves ten fold in terms of saving time diagnosing problems.

 

[calais06]

Got my mate to check the codes at his shop and it was abs/speed sensor codes.

Just erased the codes and it's all good.

 

[Zerone_V]

I dont know if this is the same case on the VE Commodores, but a common cause of ABS sensor faults on ED-AUIII Falcons was build up of brake dust on the wheel speed sensors.
On these models, the sensors used magnetic induction, and if there was a build up of dust, the sensor sometimes couldnt pick up a reading (even for an instant),
Which will log a code in the ABS module, and cause ABS to be disabled.
(The ABS module would not get a signal for one wheel, thinking the wheel locked up, but it realise the brakes were not applied, hence disabling ABS).

Easiest fix was to use high pressure water around the brake rotors (When the brakes were cold, to prevent warping), and this tends to do the trick.

Hope this helps