Okay, so yesterday the check engine light came on again. Not worried this time, but am going to get it scanned again ..sigh

My front drivers main light keeps going on and off, if I turn my fogs on and then off back to the first postion on the dial and it lights up, this has been happening from last year when i reared ended a saturn by accident...any ideas?

Also im going to go over the engine and try and figure out whats going on, theres a werid niose coming from the passenger side far back of the engine, and its only audilbe witht eh hood open.

The car gives off a white smoke out of the exhuast when turned off, but only from the drivers side.

The codes i got from last time was a p1111 which is system ready and a P0420.

 

Dude if your not experiencing any major running problems im sure its something sensor wise or vacuum. I would seriously change those IMT o-rings. These computers are really sensitive.

Your light bulb may be loose. Loose connection or the bulb may be goin bad. Maybe a chewed wire? Ya really gotta look close at these cars as most of its stupid crap. LOL.

Just tryin to help. Gettin the codes read helps a lot.

 

Disco, as for the headlight issue, are you running halogen headlights or HID bulbs? halogen bulbs I would be venturing to guess you are having issues with the connectors on the back of the bulb. If it is HIDs, odds are it is the ballast starting to go.

As for the noise/smoke issue, the white smoke is what makes me the most concerned. Normally white smoke means water in the combustion chamber. So, mixing this with your valve rattle issue, it is very possible you are looking at a bad head gasket issue. I know this isn't the words you want to hear. I would say to first do a compression check of the engine. That will tell you a lot about what is going on. All cylinders should be reading about the same PSI reading and they should all be up around 150-165 PSI. If all are down around 140 or even less, don't worry. If they are down under 100, then you need to worry (this would be very worn rings). If you have a bad head gasket, you will notice that side by side cylinders will tend to have the same pressure. If you only have 1 cylinder that is low, then what you need to do is to put your ear next to the open intake and the exhaust pipe to see if you can hear a "chugging" sound. Obviously, if you can hear something in the intake, you have a problem with the intake valve. If you hear something with the exhaust, it is an exhaust valve. If you don't hear anything, then it is most likely a problem between the cylinder and a coolant channel.

Hopefully this helps narrow things down for you and I am hoping that I am wrong.

 

Okay Halogen lights gotch, ill take a closer look at that.

There seems to be a small space, you could probaly fit a canadain penny in there in to the o rings. So Im going to start with that, the tranny is good though, however im still going to change the oil and the transfer case is next up.

And theres a hissing coming from the area, also made a video of the sound, not clear though. it sounds like something is rattling.

Are you sure Thermo, cuase the smoke is only coming from the one side, but when the car has been running for 5 minutes ( except winter) theres no smoke at all.

And for a bad head gasket, shoudn't my car be over heating, rough idle, coolant lost, water in oil etc etc. I guess i wont know till a compression test. where can i have one done?

 

Disco,

There may be a small gap. Thats not where the o-rings are. That gap is there from the o-rings. You will see when you take it out.

The smoke....is it white or a blueish color? Sometimes condensation builds up in the exhaust and gets burned off on initial startup. If your not low on coolant or losing oil level i wouldnt worry about it. White smoke is usually coolant. Blueish is usually blow by through the piston rings. Plus weak valve guides. Black is to much fuel. And if its white try to have someone start it up or start it and run back there and see if it smells sweet. Can tell sometimes that way too. But if she runs good and no loss of fluids or power i wouldnt worry to much.

 

No sweat smell, just the sour like smell of NO as it fills my nostrils and slowly poisions me......haha

Okay, ill open and see

 

HAhaha...i didnt mean take a nap in it. Just a quick whiff. I always do that when buyin a car. Check the dipstick for burnt spots and whatnot. Even the X i just bought a few months ago took a crap on me and im puttin a new engine in. The guy used a honey thick oil to disguise a knock. But cant win them all. Good luck man.

 

Thanx, yes I read your post about eh blown engine. Man tht sucks, and the seller changed his number, I would pursue him, theres a lemon law I believe that prevents him from doing that, you can probaly track him down if your country enforece the law. good luck to you, this car is great, well when you have a engine lol jking haha.

Yea who needs sleeping pills when you have a xtype giving off NO, much better to plus, thats my dream death haha.

"Today a old man passed away after using his jaguar as a sleeping medication, there will be a statue erected for his awesomeness"

jking people no need to call the suicide hot line..yet

 

LMAO...Yea im not goin to bother with the dbag. My car had 110000 miles anyway. And if this engine doesnt work or something else goes wrong i think we should make a NO pact!!! LOL

 

Disco, condensation in the exhaust system is normal on start up and for the first few minutes of operation. But, you were saying that it was occurring after shutting off the car. That is what lead to me say what I did. It may be condensation in the exhaust system, but I would be asking why so much is collecting in there. once the car is up at temp, all the moisture should be flowing out of the car as part of the exhaust.

 

How much white smoke are we talking about here? A billowing plume of white smoke or just some vapors?

If you predominantly take only short trips and don't get up to operating temp very long you could have some residual moisture in the exhaust system that isn't completely dried up from a short trip. As I'm sure it's getting colder up in Red Deer this problem has probably only sprung up in the last month or two eh?

 

Thermo and Chris are right too. I mean you be more specific on how much smoke is coming out. Just cuz its the "driver" side could just mean that side may be easier to "escape" from. as these cars are not "true" dual exhaust. Meaning one side of the engine exhaust header comes all the way back independently. So what may be happening as Chris said... there may be residue left over after the car is shut off then just burned and "seeping" out of the driver side as it may be the easiest escape route.

Let us know a little more detail.

 

Sounds good with me I <3 x type,

Say about one cigarette puffs worth, i dont smoke but when you see a smoker in take a long in hale of the cigarett and blow it out, its less then that. But the vehicle smokes, stops and then comes for a bit more before completely gone.



In the summer months, its noticable, even at start up just ont he drivers side, in winter, its normla for both. Im wondering if the cats have anything to do with this, my friends going to take a look since he is a mechanic and i have no idea.

 

Yea that pretty normal. The cats may have some play with that as its job is to help burn the excess fuel and stuff. I would be a lot more concerned if it did it in the summer while driving or got worse with acceleration.

Any luck on those IMT rings?

 

Okay, just got back from the auto parts store.

P1111, which is normal.
P0420 - effienciey with the cats is below threshold or something. Car is running good, but Ive noticed my fuel consumption going down, i filled up friday and im already at half a tank wtf. it says im getting 24.5mpg.

Now according the the dude at the auto place, he seemed nice and iIgot some freinds to opionions on the shop and its a good shop.

He said ethier the o2 sensor is burnt out in front of the cat, and is causing the sensor down stream to read as effienciey is bad, or the cats clogged up good.

He also said he recommends i get it checked out, preferably by a exhuast shop, before going anywhere else. he said if left it could cuase other components to act up, such as the sensor downstream could get carbon covering it, cuasing the computer to adjust the fuel air mixture causing more problems.

What do you guys think, and there is condensation in the drivers tail pipe, it only happens maybe once in a week with the smoke. Im ordering the rings this weekend I <3 xtype.

 

Cool. Yea the cats can be troublesome and what he is telling you is correct. Get the cat checked out by an exhaust shop and see whats goin on. But usually when a cat is clogged it really bogs performance. It will feel like your towing a vehicle. But the o2 sensors, def make a difference in performance and gas mileage. Not sure if you know what they do but basically they meter the exhaust fumes to make sure your getting the perfect air/fuel ratio. So really, you can have the cat checked to be sure. But if its givin you codes towards the o2 i would change that first. They should be able to tell you if its the primary or secondary o2.

 

Yea I do undertsand lol, they basically teach you the theory behind this in high school chem classes. Now i Know the cats going to be a expensive replace, cuase of the "precious" metals used.

How much are the front and rear o2 sensors

 

What was the year and engine size?

 

Either way i believe your looking at about 80 to 100 bucks for o2 sensor. Around 200 for a cat

 

2002 2.5l, yea and how hard are they to install, the sensors