Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2005 00:38:39 GMT From: "Dexter J" <lamealameadingdongnospamlamelame.org> Subject: TCS, Limp Mode, CEL fix and dear lord it was obscure.
Salutations: Right I think its finally flipping fixed, it was Col. Mustard with the Candle stick in the library! Basically, we have been irregularly tripping erroneous CEL alerts regarding oxygen sensors, learning modes, throttle body/TCS and limp home mode(s) since we bought it last year. The previous owner had appearently been experiencing much the same kind of problems for a couple of years himself before he agreed to sell it to me. At it turned out - it was a very slightly bent spade connector in the firewall Safety Valve by the MAP sensor. One of the two Safety Valve spades didn't centre on the female connector on the loom - instead scraping along the top lip edge of the female when pushed together. As the connector oxidized and the weather conditions changed this triggered several *different* but still erroneous and regular CEL's - almost exclusively when Mrs Dexter J was operating the vehicle, usually on a tight deadline to kid drop or evac. These were usually solvable by disconnecting the battery for varying lengths of time as befit the failure alert's importance to the engine protection system... But never, ever, permanently fixed by the replacement of the indicated failure part. After the fact, I am a little disappointed to consider that this very important (and extensively applied) sensor connector was not as carefully engineered as I would have hoped in what I hold to be one of the best SAAB's ever. Take a moment at pop off your own safety valve connector if you care to. At the loom end - it is two open female clips without an internal isolation shell to retain the ends in line. In this case, that allowed it to make a partial contact on the sharp upper lip of the female when you pushed them together. This made the problem *much* harder to figure out because once anyone disconnected the safety valve to confirm correct resistance, they would scrape any shorting material off the spade and female edge that was interfering with the signal when they put it back together and moved on to other, more expensive and complicated, engine systems. Once opened and checked - it would then work great for a couple of weeks - then signal anew with one of the failures noted above as the resistance across the now .5mm connection became cruddy. The only way I could tell the male spade was out of line was by removing the Safety Valve from the firewall (it's just clipped on) and looking straight down on the connection in good light. The only sign something was amiss was a clean scrap along the lower side of the spade (but not the top) - I then checked the loom female and confirmed it was missing the connection as indicated. Anyway - passed along with all the usual disclaimers and reservations. Happy motoring. -- Radio Free Dexterdyne Top Tune o'be-do-da-day Louis Prima - Oh Maria http://www.dexterdyne.org/888/160.RAM all tunes - no cookies no subscription no weather no ads no news no phone in no sign up required - all the Time
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