CEL is blinking **HELP please

M

Metal MP5

Member
:
07 Speed6, 95 Talon TSi AWD, 86 RX7
i put my car away for the winter about 2 months ago. A week or two after i parked it, i wanted to start it and let it run a few minutes. So i went in and as soon as i started it, the CEL started blinking. I'm used to see the CEL on (no CATs, higher boost, FCD and mpi tuner) but this time, it wasn't solid, it just kept blinking. I don't have access to an OBDII Scanner so i can't really check what's the code, but it's the first time i see or hear about the CEL blinking so i'm thinking it means something specific unlike the regular CEL that has 1000 possibilities

Any idea ?
 
last time i had a blinking CEL it was "multiple clyinder misfire". my impression is that blinking ones are more severe than the others and you'll want to have that checked out asap
 
Yes, blinknig CEL's are severe. The last time I had one, was when I had multiple cylinder misfires. When you put your car away for the winter, did you add gasoline stabilizer?
 
LinuxRacr said:
Yes, blinknig CEL's are severe. The last time I had one, was when I had multiple cylinder misfires. When you put your car away for the winter, did you add gasoline stabilizer?
Click to expand...


thanks guys for the quick replies.

I didn't add anything ... the gas tank was empty on that day but i put like 10$ in just so i wouldn't run out of gas during the winter.

My assumption was also that a blinking CEL is more important ... i'll try to find a scanner i can use to see what it means.

I had a weird code once ... crankshaft sensor malfunction or something like that. We cleared it and it never came back. I always get things like Catalyst malfunction or Bank x too rich/lean.

What would cylinder misfire mean ? I mean, how did you guys fixed it ?

At first, i thought it might have to do with my oil cuz i'm running on full synthetic and probably the kind of oil you should only use during the summer, so i thought maybe the engine didn't like that kinda oil mixed with -30 degree temperature ... so i'm only starting it when it gets closer to 32F. duno if that would cause this CEL
 
A misfire could be from a lot of things. It's bad, nonetheless.
 
My car has done this before. I just reset the ECU and let the car sit for a little while. Everything was fine afterwards.
 
ill try unplugging my battery tonight and put it back tomorrow ... we'll see how that goes. If it comes back, i'll see if Focus can get the scanner

EDIT: the only thing i notice is that it idles weird when i start it, but it only lasts a few minutes. I think it's running alot richer than my MPI screen says cuz i can see black smoke and it stinks ... but that all goes away after 2 or 3 minutes. We had really nice weather last weekend, around 40F with sun. So i started it and drove it to the gas station to put a bit of gas and make sure the wheels are still turning. It drives fine and i don't hear anything weird ... would i be able to hear anything in the case of cylinder misfire ?
 
Last edited:
I had a blinking CEL due to a vaccum leak. Turned out I had a tear in my IM gasket that I had over looked when I installed my spacers.
 
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