Good Morning! Yesterday on the way home from my office I noticed the "Service Engine Soon" light came on my 2K1 SE. Also, and this may be a seperate problem, when I cranked my steering it made a goofy grinding/slipping noise before noticed the SES light.

There seems to be "no" power loss of any kind and the car drives just fine. About four months ago I installed a Berk/Frankincar set up - could that have anything to do with it? I tried reseting my ECU by leaving my battery unpluged over night but it didn't do anything. Also, you all should know it's been -10 outside and I put on 800miles in two days. I did a search and all I could come up with was O2 sensor problems. If it was an O2 problem would I notice any performance issues?

I also installed Pilots last week but I don't think that would have anything to do with my steering even though it's ironic that it's making noises now.


Help

 

when you re-plug the battery does the service engine soon light turn on instantly when you turn your car back on. I had bad 02 sensors and i couldnt figure out why my light kept turning on. When i reset ecu it took ~50 miles to turn back on, nissan replaced the 02 sensors on warrenty and no more problems. Also your gas cap may not be tightened.

 

however i felt no loss of power or anything out of the ordinary with the 02 problem

 

Yes - It came on and stayed on instantly like it saved the problem in memory or something.

 

The easiest thing to do is to find out what codes you have. Go to Autozone for a free OBDII scan. I recently had the first ever SES light come on and the codes were P0138/P0139 (rear O2 sensor). My understanding is that the ECU tracks changes over the last 26 start cycles. I suspected that bad gas could have tripped the code and it turned out my wife put regular gas in it! After resetting the ECU for a few hours, the light went off and the car is running as smoothly as ever.

 

I took your advice and went to Autozone. PO135 is what I got. Heater Curcuit Bank 1??? I'm going to do a search.....
Thanks

 

I meant; O2 Sensor Heater Curcuit Bank 1?????

 

Well, at least you know now it's not your Berk intake that caused the problem. Ollie, I don't have a service manual to tell you more about the code but hopefully someone here would be able to help you. In any case, if the light doesn't go off after resetting the ECU, take it to the dealer.

 

Well I checked the service manual and that's the correct code for the Heater Oxygen Sensor 1 Front Bank. The manual says it could either be the connecting harness or the sensor itself. If you want to check you need to disconnect the harness and see if there is voltage coming through when the engine is on and the rpm's are below 3600. If the harness is giving voltage to the connection then you know its the sensor itself. Also have you noticed any change in MPG? That's a pretty good indicator of an O2 sensor problem.

I hear most people are having problems with the sensors themselves, and if you are still under warranty then take it to the dealer.

Oh yeah if you going to check it yourself, the Heater Oxygen Sensor 1 Front Bank has the black harness protector color. NOT THE BLUE!! That's the #2 sensor there.

Good luck!