check engine light 96 windstar
Kyrose
12-26-2004, 10:34 PM
I have a 96 Windstar and the check engine light came on, it blinked off and on about 56 times then came on and stayed on.Anyone have any suggestions of what could be wrong I could really use some help...:frown:
Dngrsone
12-27-2004, 12:23 AM
Take you van down to Autozone and get them to get teh OBD II codes for you. Tell us what the codes arte and we may be able to steer you in a good direction.
wiswind
12-29-2004, 07:31 PM
A "blinking" CEL is an indication of a situation that can be damaging to the catalytic converters.
This would include the "misfire" codes.
I got the blinking CEL for misfire on Cylinder 4 (P0304)....and then another time for a missfire on Cylinder 1 (P0301). Different problems....that were not hard to fix....once I tracked them down.
In my case....I could feel the engine miss.....when the CEL started flashing. I was chasing the P0301 code for a long time before it was bad enough to light the CEL.....then it was easy from there.
When you have Autozone or whoever read your codes.....get the code number(s). The first time....all the guy said was "misfire"....I was watching over his shoulder.....and saw the P0304 code that I looked up on alldatadiy.com to tell me the cylinder. P0300 is misfire that the computer has not determined any one cylinder.....I.E....multiple cylinders.
My issues were clogged EGR ports in the lower intake manifold (lots of talk on this site on that) and the other time was crud inside the plastic cup on the spray end a the fuel injector....easey to clean....had to remove the injectors....then spray cleaner to clean surface of the ends.
Oh....Please take note:.... The CEL will stay on until reset.....
A certain number of "drive cycles" without additional faults, Removal of the negative battery cable for 5 minutes (clears radio stations and "drivability" information...which the computer will relearn), or being reset with the OBDII tool.
The point is....if you correct the issue....and start it up....the CEL will still be on....until it is cleared by one of the above methods.
I have a few pics of my '96 3.8L at the following link.
You can click on "view full size" to blow them up for a better look.
http://community.webshots.com/album/201931518cScpNK
This would include the "misfire" codes.
I got the blinking CEL for misfire on Cylinder 4 (P0304)....and then another time for a missfire on Cylinder 1 (P0301). Different problems....that were not hard to fix....once I tracked them down.
In my case....I could feel the engine miss.....when the CEL started flashing. I was chasing the P0301 code for a long time before it was bad enough to light the CEL.....then it was easy from there.
When you have Autozone or whoever read your codes.....get the code number(s). The first time....all the guy said was "misfire"....I was watching over his shoulder.....and saw the P0304 code that I looked up on alldatadiy.com to tell me the cylinder. P0300 is misfire that the computer has not determined any one cylinder.....I.E....multiple cylinders.
My issues were clogged EGR ports in the lower intake manifold (lots of talk on this site on that) and the other time was crud inside the plastic cup on the spray end a the fuel injector....easey to clean....had to remove the injectors....then spray cleaner to clean surface of the ends.
Oh....Please take note:.... The CEL will stay on until reset.....
A certain number of "drive cycles" without additional faults, Removal of the negative battery cable for 5 minutes (clears radio stations and "drivability" information...which the computer will relearn), or being reset with the OBDII tool.
The point is....if you correct the issue....and start it up....the CEL will still be on....until it is cleared by one of the above methods.
I have a few pics of my '96 3.8L at the following link.
You can click on "view full size" to blow them up for a better look.
http://community.webshots.com/album/201931518cScpNK
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