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Hi All, have been reading on and off on this forum for quite a while, never had posted before, but have always respected the enthusiasm that surrounded this place. I hope you can take time to educate another newbie (in posting)
I moved from the US to Europe, and took an 1997 (original US car) 993 with me.
very recently the much dreaded CE light came on, and when taking it to the local p-dealer, they confirmed, after the read-out, that it most likely was due to the SAI system.
As they do not have much experience with US cars, OBD2 and related SAI system, they do not know how to handle this.
Cars here are measured (at quite relaxed specs apparently as the 993 passed perfectly) for CO, CO2, HC, 02 and CO-correction.
I have no intend of taking the car back to the US, and as such I do not need the SAI to work properly, but I would hate it if the CE light comes on all the time.
Anybody any ideas on what to do with this, is there any way to remove or bypass the system, as said I do not have to worry about passing any emissions testing for which this system would be mandatory??
If there is really no way to solve this, what would be a good OBDII scanner to buy, so that I at least do not have to go to the dealer every week to do the reset?
It's not surprising the car passed easily, the SAI system is only active on cold start and has no effect on the emissions past the first minute or two.
The check engine light is a symptom ... removing it will accomplish what you're looking to do.
It's likely that worn exhaust valve guides are what has caused the passages to clog in the first place ... if the car is running well and not using a lot of oil, there is no pressing reason to attend to that, either. How many miles are on the car?
It's not unheard of to encounter worn exhaust guides on low mileage engines -- I know of a car with 8k miles that had worn out guides -- but it sounds like you don't have much to worry about at this point.
I have been driving short stints for the last ~3 years, because I, unfortunately, have been gone almost all of the time.
Then once in a while, I try to drive 25miles to at least have driven it.
Because of this I thought it might be good to drive longer (100miles or more), and then it would help if I could reset the CE light (before I really take the bulb out), so any recommendations what OBD2 reset to buy are still very welcome (off course if there are other options, I would love to hear as well).
This probably isn't for you, but I use this bluetooth OBD2 module with this software running on a Nokia smartphone. Quite handy and has the ability to store diagnostics.
Do not remove the CEL light or ignore it... It may give you a warning of a more serious problem that should be corrected. You still need a catalyst to pass your local emission test. Catalysts can be damaged by fuel injection that is not working properly. The CEL will warn of problems like this as well as erratic ignition problems.
A CEL warning from a failed SAI system can be bypassed. This is because the downstream O2 sensors are only used during the warm-up period to detect if the air injection is working. These two sensors show that the additional oxygen is present in the exhaust gas downstream of the catalyst. The engine computer can be fooled by shorting the grey wire to the black wire (signal to ground) on the two sensors during the time that the ECU is telling the SAI fan to operate. All this takes is to wire in a simple 12V double pole relay to short out the signal. Connect the relay coil in parallel to the SAI fan motor. This modification only needs four wires to connect to the car wiring, and permanently eliminates any more detection of SAI failure. All other functions remain stock. Once the SAI fan has turned off (a minute or two after a cold start), the modification has no function or effect. This modification is illegal in the USA.
yes, do not remove bulb. it will warn of other things, such as random misfires, which could indicate failing ignition wires. I would get a scanner, such as the Actron 9180 (which is the one I have) and keep it in the car. it is easy to read a code and reset it when you want.
thx again for the comments, especially 4X4SCHE, do you know if there is a DYI on how to do this bypass?
Also appreciate the updates on the scanners, I'll for sure read into those, as I think I might purchase one to see what the frequency of these CE light interupts is going to be (I understood from this post it is also interesting for other detections).
Hi, not sure if trying to revive such an old thread works, but let's see
My US spec 97 C2 is still in Europe, and I do not foresee going back. Since I have had to do some work on the gearbox (shift shaft guide bearing has failed), and there is some minor but annoying oil "mist" on the upper part of the engine which we want to fix, we have decided to pull the engine completely.
This went well, and the engine/gearbox is now outside the body.
This brings me back to my earlier question (and now I have more room to work on it). I would really like to remove the SAI functionality and not get any CEL errors anymore. Over the last years the CEL light has only surfaced once (about 4 years ago), and I have driven the car about 6k miles since. Car now has <50K miles on it, burns little oil. Having said all this, I do not need it here in Europe, and I would like to get rid of it (less complexity, and I guess it also saves a tiny bit of weight).
I have seen a write up on OBD1 cars here, but is there anybody that has experience removing it from an OBD2 car, and not have any issues with it, or point me in a direction?
Many of the tuners can remove the SAI warning with an ECU flash. I'd go that route and then you don't have to worry about it any longer. You can get the annoying immobilizer removed at the same time.
If you want the name of the tuner I've talked to about this, PM me.
07-11-2011, 05:50 PM
'97 OBD2 993 US car in Europe, remove SAI
