CEL came on out of the blue, details inside

[tunersteve]

Driving home from church tonight, about a minute after I started the car, the CEL came on. MS6 has 23,xxx on the clock, only MS CAI w/ Hydroshield and Forge BPV on it. I was driving about 25 mph, gave it a bit of gas (1/2 throttle), and the light came on steady and hasn't gone away. Ambient temp was ~40 deg, engine was warm, weather is wet and rainy.

After the light came on, the car did not act any differently than it had before. I drove it a little more spiritedly on the way to mass, and had no problems. When I got home, checked idle, oil, filter, etc....nothing appears to be out of whack.

Any suggestions on what it might be? I'm really confused and surprised by this. I do NOT have a scanner, so I'm stuck waiting to see what it could be until Friday 12/26 at the earliest. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[bgibb68]

wait till after xmas and goto autozone and have them read the code....if ya don't all your gonna do is chase your tail

 

[tunersteve]

I'm supposed to be driving to PA tomorrow, so I'd like to figure it out ASAP. My thoughts are if its a recurring theme, then the battery disconnect won't do anything. If it's something that was intended to pop up, then the terminal removal should clear it.

 

[bgibb68]

it could be a bad o2 sensor if it's running fine and no probs.....but with the cel on you're gonna be running richer than normal and blow through gas.....it could be nothing or something.....there is no way to knw without knowing the code

 

[tunersteve]

it could be a bad o2 sensor if it's running fine and no probs.....but with the cel on you're gonna be running richer than normal and blow through gas.....it could be nothing or something.....there is no way to knw without knowing the code

True. I wish someone close to me had a DH or code reader. This blows.

 

[bgibb68]

post a thread up for mich i'm sure there is someone around ya with one or the other

 

[tunersteve]

Quick update, started the car up today and CEL was gone. Temp was 25, dry weather. Drove it for 15 min and got motor to normal operating temp, still no CEL. Pulled the filter from the CAI and found about a third of it frozen solid. I'm thinking the lack of airflow caused the MAF to get a funny reading and throw the light. Pulled MAF and found traces of water on it. Ran hot water through filter and I'm letting it air dry in the house right now. I'll pull the code tomorrow to verify.

 

[ms6acton]

keep us posted!

 

[BOOSTR]

Since it wasn't flashing it most likely was not a big deal. I'd leave that hydro-shield off also. Reason being I've driven my CAI through hurricanes, severe thunderstorms etc w/o issue and never had one maf related cel, ever. Your engine was not up to opeating temps when you gassed it so the temps could have triggered the cel.

 

[tunersteve]

Why do you think leaving the hydroshield off would be beneficial?

 

[BOOSTR]

Why do you think leaving the hydroshield off would be beneficial?

I don't think its necessary for reasons stated in my post above and your geographic location winter conditions could allow the ice to form underneath it, thus the water on your maf when you pulled it. It acts as an insulator allowing the ice to form in the first place I would suspect.

 

[tunersteve]

I don't think its necessary for reasons stated in my post above and your geographic location winter conditions could allow the ice to form underneath it, thus the water on your maf when you pulled it. It acts as an insulator allowing the ice to form in the first place I would suspect.

Understandable. The other problem I noticed is that on my drivers side inner fender, there are slats facing the front of the car, which easily allow air(or moisture) inside. When I recently cleaned the filter, there was one noticeable 'bad' side, facing those slats.

At this point, if indeed the code is somehow related to this, I'm seriously considering picking up a SRI for winter duty.

 

[AWDTerror]

Since it wasn't flashing it most likely was not a big deal. I'd leave that hydro-shield off also. Reason being I've driven my CAI through hurricanes, severe thunderstorms etc w/o issue and never had one maf related cel, ever. Your engine was not up to opeating temps when you gassed it so the temps could have triggered the cel.

Flashing CEL only means random misfires detected, doesn't mean that a check engine light that isn't flashing is not bad.

You drive a protege, just because you have a CAI on your car doesn't necessarily mean that people that drive MS6s won't.

Back to the original topic. It's probably your swirl valve.

 

[BOOSTR]

Go get that code read today so you can know for certain what it was.

Idiotic comments aside, I doubt its a big deal. There's a reason why that light is often referred to as an idiot light.

 

[tunersteve]

I'm gonna swing by an Autozone on the way home from work today, I'll let you know what I find. Thanks to everyone for the help, I appreciate it.

 

[Boosted24]

My car did the same thing it could be your EGR valve getting clogged when the light came on were you mashing the gas?

 

[tunersteve]

Ran the code, P0301 - MAF VAF high input. This pretty much confirms the frozen filter issue I found yesterday.

 

[bgibb68]

nice...well you are good to go man....have fun