mikemike

27,000 miles on my 200 MAX. Car is running fine but the Check Engine or Service Engine light came on today. Is this for routine maintenance or does it only come on when there is a problem? Any ideas on what it could be? O2 sensor? What have been some common problems effecting this light?

Sandman2K

The 2 most common (speaking from experience):

-Ignition coil (TSB issued)
-Catalytic Converter (TSB issued)

For the coils, they "should" replace them under warranty.

For the cat, they reprogram the ECU to accept wider readings from the sensors (as the components age, I've heard.)

mikemike

If it were the coil, wouldn't there be some sort of symptoms?

Sandman2K

At first, there's only slight detonation under full-throttle (at the top of each gear), but it degenerates into a sh!tty idle and loss of power.

The cat issue has little impact on driving performance, it's just the sensor values are too stringent as the cat gets some miles on it. Takes about an hour to reprogram (and a while for the car to re-learn the idle.)

noflash

The OM says check to make sure the gas cap is on tight. When I was a couple miles from the lot after just signing the paperwork my SES light came on. I freaked, pulled over, checked the OM, and realized that I had NO gas cap. I replaced it the next day and the light never bothered again.

Might not be your prob, but should be first thing to check.

mikemike

I have a feeling I'll need to give some of this feedback to the dealer. They would do themselves some good to spend a half hour a day on this forum!

Slickone

My girlfriend puts 89/90, or 92/93 octane in her AE. The check engine light came on twice before, but the first time, tightening the fuel cap made it go out. The second time she had put in 89, so once it go low, putting in premium made it go away.
Now, it has 29K on it. She had filled up w/ 90 octane (all other stations around here have 89 for their 'plus', but Cone has 90), not too long before it came on. Once half a tank was used, filling with premium didn't make it go away.
The dealer says it's the O2 sensor and ordered a new one. Did the occasional (and only in the winter) use of plus gas cause the premature failure of the O2 sensor? Or is it common on this car? Is this car really that picky about premium gas? In the mean time, they turned off the light and it hasn't come back on while waiting for the part to come in.

MaxedOut2g

hey sandman, is the TSB posted anywhere? im getting the SES light and i had the cpu thing hooked up and it gave me the code that the cat wasnt performing at effic level...or something similar...so b4 i take it in, i wanna know if thats what im getting.....its always recommended, but if its a TSB, should i take my FC intake out and go w/ stock box?
atw

Sandman2K

Depends on how lenient your service dept is with mods. But I see no reason why an intake would interfere with anything pertaining to the cat.

It's basically an ECU upgrade that widens the acceptable operating values generated by the cat's sensors. Rumor has it that they were set too 'tight' at the factory and didn't take into account the slight degradation in efficiency of the cat, which is still very acceptable under EPA standards.

I'd tend to think that many 2k Max's, as they cross the 40-50k mileage range, will probably get the SES light.

20th maxstyle

iTrader: (4)

Go to autozone. Free diagnostics.

mikemike

Thanks for the suggestions....the gas cap WAS loose. That's the price you pay for living in New Jersey where they pump it for you. The light is still on though. Will it go off or does it need to be re-set? Does anyone know if Nissan is replacing cats or just re-programing the limits?

noflash

It should go off in no time. Go drive around for 20 min. It has to build up pressure or something.