I drove my car around with a completely open pipe, exhaust isn't going past any of the o2 sensors, lo and behold later that day I got a CEL.

Yesterday I put a 360* band clamp over the two ends, the exhaust now flows as it normally would, past the o2 sensors. But the CEL is still there. What do I do now? Should I drive it around? According to the code it throws me, I'm running lean. Perhaps because the O2 sensor tells the ecu how much fuel to give the engine, I don't really know.

I just called the nearest Mitsubishi service department, the guy just insists that I tow it in so they can "see what the problem is" ...

He says that once the "problem" ( even though I told him exactly waht I think it is, he insists that what I say is NOT it.. lol ) is fixed, the CEL should go away IMMEDIATELY.

Meaning, If the exhaust 'leak' is my problem, the CEL should have gone away immediately after throwing my clamp on there. This is jsut a little hard for me to believe.

Ok well.. Someone else at Mitsu just returned my call, he says something about as many as 150 key starts, 150 CYCLES (like.. start car, drive around) will have to be performed before the computer would recognize the normalized conditions and get rid of the light, realize that it isn't running lean any longer.

Thoughts?

First off, don't run your engine without the front O2 sensor, ever.

Next it takes time for the ECU to clear the CEL it stores it for a while. You can pull the power to the ECU and reset the ECU that way.



15.9 @ 86.7mph

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Cams, Hooker Header, ERT/Catco Cat, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

Okay so ... disconnecting the battery overnight should reset it,, then it would go about detecting any problems again (including the one causing 51?)

Can I please get some help here?

Just pull battery cable for like a min or 2, should reset it. And it will detect problems if they exist.

Yeah, reset the ECU. It'll erase the code. If you don't get the CEL again than your clamp fixed the problem. If you do get the CEL again then the clamp didn't fix the problem.


95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

Didn't fix it.

And now my battery is too low to start the car up.

God bless the holy union between chrysler and mitsubishi. I get all the problems of both companies.

FYI, the cel is not gone.

Oh... and because the car is modified, I won't want to take it to just any shop.. I have to take it to a specialty shop where they'll a: Not freak out at the sight of so much extra shit under the hood, but b: Charge me twice as much as any other mechanic.

They will go down the list of potential causes, charge me for every ''attempt'' until I'm broke. Shit. I already AM broke. This is fucking ridiculous. How can it possibly know that it's running lean when the engine has only been started for a few seconds? It has to be a damaged sensor. Which sensor you ask? Who knows?!! I'll have to replace every single one just to find out.

Why me?

Try changing the fuel filter. If it's clogged, then you can get that code.


95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

have you actually pulled the codes for the CEL using a scan tool??
Sounds to me like you have a CEL and your trying to fix everything you can think of but not actually fixing what the CEL is tellin you to fix

using the scan tool (autozone scans for free if you dont have one) will tell you exactly which o2 sensor is bad, and if your getting a code for runnin lean you should check lots of things like fuel pressure, injectors,pull your plugs and see if a cylinder is runnin lean or if its the whole fuel system causin the problem.

Yeah it's just 51 "running lean" , gotten by doing the key dance and counting the blinks

I'm afraid to drive it anywhere, i mean if I boost under lean conditions... detonation and... boom... heh

I think I may just take it to a shop, tell them all that I've learned here and hopefully they won't replace everything else before they fix the problem... =-\

heh, i wish i would have seen this thread earlier. My CEL came on today while i was driving, came home looked for like a half hour in the service manuals couldn't find anything, then i just disconnected the battery, no more light.

Or you could always just drive the eclipse off a cliff and jump in your vette...

did you try getting a new upstream o2?

Yeah I may try that, it's just that for some reason the parts dept I go to seems to despise me... Unless I get a certain guy, they NEVER hook me up with the Dodge parts (which cost like half, but come from the same supplier)

lol

It's your O2 sensor. Drive it to autozone and let them do a voltage test. That clamp of yours is not enough to hold all the exhaust gas in. Your O2 is not cycling all the way.