I took apart my air box to clean it out -- which included taking off the MAF wiring harness to get at one of the screws, and when I reassembled it, I got interrupted and forgot to put the wiring harness back on the MAF.

Well, when I started the car and saw the CEL, I immediately turned it off and reconnected the harness. I started the car again, but the light was still lit, so I decided to reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery.

About an hour later, I reconnected the battery and started the car, but the CEL was still lit.

Since I have never had a CEL before, I was wondering if it will go off by itself after some time has past, or do I need to have it checked out?

 

I would think it would, if you have the patience. However if you're anything like me, waiting for that is going to drive you nuts so, I would probably try resetting the ECU directly. This is in the stickies for future reference but here you go...

http://vbxmaxima.8m.com/ecu.html

The very last procedure on that page. Hope that helps...

 

You need to actually reset the ecu as instructed in the stickies.

 

There you go. So ignore what I said initially and just do the second thing I said..

 

your MAF fault is stored into you ECU because you started the car up. It will remain stored untill reset. Even if its corrected it will be stored as a past fault or a sprodic.

 

Same **** happened to me, I just went to Autozone and had my friend reset/clear the code. The screwdriver thing should work fine.

 

Thanks, guys. I'll go do the AutoZone thing today.

 

I've started many times with the Maf unplugged, but after I plugged everything back in the cel was gone.

Just reset with the screw, you'll be fine.

 

Right, not sure where the Auto Zone thing came from.

Is the unplugging of the battery a complete urban myth? Or is anything accomplished by doing that? I would think that if anything, say the battery fails/dies, you don't want to lose fault codes. Just like if your power source went out for your pc, you'd want to pc to recover if possible, not lose information.

Definitely do what you said, reset with the screw. But don't be lazy like me, I left the ecu exposed and can't find that interior pieces anymore to cover it back up...

 

batter trick does work but it needed to be for longer than an hour. Overnight usually does the trick.

Reseting with the screw is faster and you dont loose all your radio pre-sets.

 

The guys at AutoZone cleared it for me...also w/o losing my radio and heater settings.

 

Did you slip him some $? Because I heard doing this is illegal, but my friend didn't care he just did it anyway.

 

why would it be illegal? if your car still has problems the cel will just come back on. once everythings fixed, even an experienced mechanic will reset the ecu.

 

Not sure but the AZ manager told me that, so....

 

Yes, it is illegal, it's tampering with federally mandated emission system.
Although AutoZone used to reset CEL.

 

NOT IN FLORIDA!

Not even close...

Here's the law:

"Tampering" means the intentional inactivation, disconnection, removal or other modification of a component or components of the emission control system resulting in it being inoperable.i. "Tampered motor vehicle" means any motor vehicle in which the emission control system is inoperable because of tampering.

I might add that the CEL was caused by the MAF wiring harness being disconnected. If I left that harness off, then that would be "tampering."

Even if the AutoZone guy cleared the ECU, specifically, to clear the P0100 code, and if the MAF was still disconnected, then the CEL would reappear on restarting the car.

Since the ECU troubleshooting codes are related to the whole car, and not just the emissions controls, then there is no direct connection between resetting the ECU and tampering with the emissions controls.

AutoZone offers FREE TESTING...plainly advertised throughout the store, so slipping the AutoZone worker some money would be extremely suspicious in this circumstance.

I mean, it is not like tipping the pizza delivery guy!