Oopsie!! Cleaned throttle body, now engine light always on!!!

[SpaceYam]

Ok well I cleaned the throttle body (didn't do too bad a job considering it was my first go at it! heh heh) and eventually managed to get it all back together nicely.

Now, I have two problems.

The first one, obviously is that the engine light now stays on all the time. I've reset the ECU a few times (I accidentally did a couple of stupid things like losing the nut that goes onto the butterfly when I had to undo it again and took the thing for a test drive... oops... managed to replace it, but then I realised I'd forgotten to plug the biggest and most obvious hose back in :b: )

Ahh yes, in relation to forgetting that hose, is that bad? It's the most prominent one that has the little metal ring thingies around it. Not the intake hose, obviously, it's about 1.5cm in diameter and plugs in vertically on the 'front' side of the throttle body. I discovered it eventually because I was thinking... hang on, I'm sure I've forgotten something!

On the bright side, the car IS much more responsive ... and to be honest, it scares me hehehehe . I think the combination of no bellmouth, K&N pod with makeshift CAI, 2.5" exhaust and BP Ultimate - and then resetting the ECU has done quite a good job!!

So yeah... That engine light worries me though, is it something I should be worried about? Is it likely to go away after driving the car for a bit? I just can't afford to be without the car, that's all!

Urgent help would be appreciated . I'm about to go to a fault code test thingy if I can get it right!

 

[SpaceYam]

Ok well I tried to do the diagnostic test - connected the black terminal to the white terminal the plug hanging from the ECU, nothing happened?

Basically what happens is when you turn the car on, the engine light turns off, then when it settles down to idle, the engine light comes back on.

I'm thinking I might have muddled something up with the IAC? I'm positive it's on properly, I made an effort to make sure it was all good.

The only thing I can think of is that there might be residue or fumes from the WD40 I used to clean it with.

That seems to be the only problem, I took it out for a test drive again and it's responding REALLY well. The temperature didn't go up unusually or anything, but the engine light just stayed hard on.

One thing different I have noticed though, is when I switch off the intake only sucks in for half a second instead of taking about 1 1/2 seconds like it did before. On my mum's car with the normal airbox + paper filter it's always had a short sucking noise when you switch off which I'm guessing is normal, but my car has always had the longer noise with the pod filter...

Any ideas?

I'm going to stop by at Hunter Holden while I'm at work tomorrow (it's just around the corner!) and see if they'll have one floating around just so I've got the exact right nut instead of some random one pulled from a tin.

 

[Ultima RB]

You're gonna wanna get those fault codes happening in order to find out where the problem is. I can't imagine WD40 can be too good if it was to get inside the engine, maybe stuffed the Oxy sensor.

 

[SpaceYam]

Yeah I've tried to do the test but I can't get it to work. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong, I've used a piece of wire with plenty of strands and they're definitely making contact in the right places... I've tried it with the ignition on and off.

 

[Nikkojoe]

Maybe try using a paper clip instead of a wire, they plug in nicely

 

[OSL-060]

Dave, check that the MAP sensor hose is secure and sealed at both the TB and the MAP itself (MAP= thing screwed to the firewall just to the right of your TB)

Then check that the TPS harness/plug is inserted ok with decent contact, same goes for the IAC mofo.

Above is all that could be tripping the CEL after a TB clean. Well provided you don't have a massive gasket leak, but you say it's running ok.

 

[AirStrike]

And for future reference use carby/throttle body cleaner

 

[OSL-060]

I totally missed that, WD-40 won't chop through carbon deposits.............it 'may' have disturbed a sensor too.

 

[SpaceYam]

Ok I've checked all the plugs and I'm pretty sure they're in properly.

I can't turn it on to check now (it's currently covered in newspaper because I just painted the dash) but tomorrow I'll test it again, if the light still comes off I'll take the throttle body off and use some compressed air or something to try and dry it all off as best as I can. I'll also make sure I put the IAC back in properly, I have a feeling that that is where the problem lies.

It certainly did take a lot of scrubbing to get all the carbon off . Since that's the case I might stop by Repco on the way home tomorrow and pick up some carby cleaner anyway just to give it a once over while it's out.

 

[dodgy]

An old toothbrush is a good tool with the carby cleaner!