jackflamer

Dear everyone,

I am experiencing some problem in my car, but really not so sure what is wrong. One day in late last year, my car started vibrating very bad as well as making a lot of noise like rattle sound, I knew it was something wrong with the engine, but not sure which was wrong. I thought it was the injector, so I used some Valveline SynPower injector cleaner and tried to clean the injector. After 4 bottles of usage, the vibrating was gone and so did the noise. My car went smooth until a month ago the same thing came back again. This time, it is the same thing but kind of strenge because sometime, it is smooth and powerful and sometime it is rattling and vibrating with no power. It can start at any time and gone in just a minute or stay there for a week. I have tried the same injector cleaner but no luck as last time.

I have found that my exhaust pipe has leaks at the area of oxygen sensor. Actually, it is inside the expandable pipe (or whatever you call it, it is like weaved metal wrap). Will a bad oxygen sensor cause this? Is the expandable pipe causing problem here? Any advise/suggestion? My car is old, and trying to same some money and do it myself. All your input will be appreciated!!!

Thanks
Jack

89maxSE

o2 sensor could possibly cause it but I can not say for sure. I'd say just do a full tune up on it. Plugs, wires, cap, rotor, o2 sensor, ect. check out internetautomart's site. He has everything you need for a tune up w/ d@mn good prices!
http://internetautomart.com/3rdgen.html

jackflamer

what about the leaking pipe? Will this causing problem? Because it's kind of instable, I suspect it is some electric malfunctioning. Today, I have experienced 2 minutes smooth riding and 2 hours rough riding and another 20 minutes smooth riding. This drives me crazy!
My rotor and cap as well as wires are relatively new, say 2 years. And I am pretty sure this oxygen sensor is the original one. What about the injectors? Do clogged injectors cause the same problem?
Thanks! I need more inputs on this. Help!

89maxSE

If the o2 is original then I would def. change it. Has your check engine light came on ever? Do you know how to do the self diagnostic mode and check to see if you have any codes??? Its a really simple process Lemme know if you want the instructions.

goodfella776

i am having that same exact problem, i wanted to know if i can change the oxygen sensor myself, or should i take it in

89maxSE

o2 sensor is an easy job. 17mm wrech and a screw driver. You'll need to jack up the car, put some stands under it (SAFETY!) the o2 is right b4 the cat. Might be a lil hard to break loose, just spray it w/ some wd-40 or pb blaster, let it soak for a while then have at it again. then unplug the harness and pop the 2 lil plugs out, put the new one in and voila, new o2 sensor good luck

jackflamer

My engine light has never come on. I am kind of know the self diagnose procedure, but not so sure. It's about turning the screw from left to right on the car computer under the right side dash glove case, right? I tried this, but not so sure about what code to look at, and even with the code, I have no interpretation of it. Can you please send me a link about the details?

Appreciated!

89maxSE

yeah....its really simple. Just get to the ecu, turn the small screw all the way clockwise for about 2 seconds then turn it back about 3/4 the way counterclock wise and watch the flashes. It will flash a number of times slowly then pause and flash a number of times quickly. Count how many times it flashed slow and how many times it flashed quickly. The slow flashes would be the first digit and the quick flashes are the second digit. For example, if it flashed 5 times slow, then 5 times fast, it will be a code 55. 55 means there are no codes. If you get a diff. code, let me know and I can tell you what it is. Make sure you turn the screw all the way back counterclockwise in the end. Hope this helps and good luck

jackflamer

Ok, I will try tomorrow and come back with the result. Thanks

goodfella776

aiight, thanks, im going to try it tomorrow when i come home from work!!!

jackflamer

Ok, here is what I found today.
The ECU on my maxi is different than the one you have explained. It has 2 lights, red and green.
I digged into some information about it, and found there were 5 modes to diagnose itself, and the mode 3 was the normal self diagnose mode.
So I entered the mode 3 by turn the screw clockwise to the end, wait both lights flashed together 3 times, then turn it back 3/4 counterclockwise. This made it started mode 3 self diagnose. I did this first without the engine on, just turned the key to "on" position, the lights showed me code 33(three red flashes, three green flashes). Didn't know what did it mean. Then I turned the screw counterclockwise to the end and turned off the ignition key which ended the diagnose procedure. I entered the mode 3 again after I started the engine using the above procedure. This time, the code was 55 (5 red flashes and 5 green flashes), didn't know the meaning, too. After this, I repeated the first procedure which was entering the mode 3 without the engine on, and this time the reading was still 55. This was all I did today. OK, 89maxse, can you please explain the meaning of these codes? Anything showing the oxygen sensor is wrong?
Thanks a lot!

89maxSE

ok, well someone is gonna have to help out on this one. My ecu has both a red light and green light but the green light never flashed. I know that a code 33 is o2 sensor. and 55 would mean no codes. So I'm not quite sure of what you go goin on there. I can try and make a video of me testing mine and show it to you.

jackflamer

Really? 33 is O2? Seems I need to change the O2 sensor. Would the reason for I didn't get the code 33 after I started the engine because I may reset the whole thing and there was not enough time for the ECU to generate a new error code for me? I will try this again tomorrow to see whether I will receive the code 33 again.
If the code 33 is O2, does this normally mean change a new O2 will solve the problem?

89maxSE

I can't answer those questions for ya. How many miles you got? Do you know if the o2 has been replaced somewhat recently? It probably wouldn't be too bad of an idea to replace it anyways.

jackflamer

My car has 250k miles on it. Isn't it cool? Never changed the O2 sensor after I bought it, that was about 100k miles. I don't think the previous owner had ever changed it. I decide to buy a new one to replace this old one. Besides this recent problem, my car is still running good over all thanks to my driving habits and regular maintainance.
Thank you 89maxse, I will comeback with my results of the replacement.

By the way, I ran the diagnose procedure again today, found the code 33 appear again, thought the O2 sensor must have some problem.

89maxSE

yeah...I'd def. say to replace the o2 sensor. 250K wow!!!! I was gonna shoot for that on my max, but I totalled it w/ 208K Hope the o2 fixes your problem. Good luck