SES light?
07-03-2011, 12:45 PM
#1
SES light? This is kind of strange. My car runs fine but the service engine soon light came on today. I added full exhaust about a year ago with high flow cats. Those are the only mods. I was thinking it could be bad gas so I filled up the tank but when I started the car the light was still on. Any thoughts?
07-03-2011, 01:46 PM
#2
you need to have the codes pulled from the computer to find out what is wrong. autozone for one will do this for you free of charge. oh and the light most of the time wont go out on its own for many key cycles. need to have the codes erased after repair to make it go away
maybe it's your 02's caused by the high flow cats
07-04-2011, 09:05 AM
#5
TECH Junkie
O2 sensors can be a culprit without affecting performance too bad. When my SES light came on, the dealership was fairly certain that would be the problem but it was the catalytic converter, and it was replaced for free under the 10 year GM warranty. You have to have the codes competently read or otherwise it is a guessing game, and one that can get costly. Hope your issue is minor and not the new cats, but I think that would have shown up as a problem earlier.
07-05-2011, 10:30 AM
#6
Well guys it was caused by the high flow cats wearing out. Funny the magnaflow cats only lasted 3 thousand miles 
So my mech reset the code, but it will probably come back on soon. I could either have it reset everytime I need to pass emissions or I could have a tuner tune the code out? If so how does that work??
Or I could replace the cats.
Thanks everyone
So my mech reset the code, but it will probably come back on soon. I could either have it reset everytime I need to pass emissions or I could have a tuner tune the code out? If so how does that work??
Or I could replace the cats.
Thanks everyone
07-05-2011, 11:00 AM
#7
I doubt ur cats are already bad... code is probably coming on cause of the rear o2s. The simplest thing would be to have them tuned out as you said. Any speed shop with an HP tuner or similar should be able to this for $150 or less. OR you could try running o2 sims. I am not sure where/if you can buy them nowadays, but that might be a cheaper route to go if money is a major issue.
Tunning the codes out is simple... though not cheap if you want to do urself. You would have to buy a tuner first (popular one being HP Tuners). That alone is $500 or more, so if the only thing you will be doing is tuning out the codes once, it might not be worth it to buy one. To tune your car you have to unlock it by entering the VIN into the tuner, which costs credits. Its generally $100 to unlock a car if im remembering correctly, though a new HP tuners comes with 4 credits (2 are needed to unlock a car). This is what I recall from last time I used HP Tuners anyway, I hope its still valid nowadays. Anyway once you have a tuner and have the car unlocked, its quite simple after that. Plug it in to a lab top, load HP tuners software, and you literally set the code from On to Off, or Delete, or whatever i forget the exact wording. PCM wont even scan for it after that. You could do so many other things with HP Tuners too, but you would really have to know what ur doing to mess with it.
Tunning the codes out is simple... though not cheap if you want to do urself. You would have to buy a tuner first (popular one being HP Tuners). That alone is $500 or more, so if the only thing you will be doing is tuning out the codes once, it might not be worth it to buy one. To tune your car you have to unlock it by entering the VIN into the tuner, which costs credits. Its generally $100 to unlock a car if im remembering correctly, though a new HP tuners comes with 4 credits (2 are needed to unlock a car). This is what I recall from last time I used HP Tuners anyway, I hope its still valid nowadays. Anyway once you have a tuner and have the car unlocked, its quite simple after that. Plug it in to a lab top, load HP tuners software, and you literally set the code from On to Off, or Delete, or whatever i forget the exact wording. PCM wont even scan for it after that. You could do so many other things with HP Tuners too, but you would really have to know what ur doing to mess with it.
Last edited by udienow; 07-05-2011 at 11:10 AM.
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07-05-2011, 05:26 PM
#8
I doubt ur cats are already bad... code is probably coming on cause of the rear o2s. The simplest thing would be to have them tuned out as you said. Any speed shop with an HP tuner or similar should be able to this for $150 or less. OR you could try running o2 sims. I am not sure where/if you can buy them nowadays, but that might be a cheaper route to go if money is a major issue.
Tunning the codes out is simple... though not cheap if you want to do urself. You would have to buy a tuner first (popular one being HP Tuners). That alone is $500 or more, so if the only thing you will be doing is tuning out the codes once, it might not be worth it to buy one. To tune your car you have to unlock it by entering the VIN into the tuner, which costs credits. Its generally $100 to unlock a car if im remembering correctly, though a new HP tuners comes with 4 credits (2 are needed to unlock a car). This is what I recall from last time I used HP Tuners anyway, I hope its still valid nowadays. Anyway once you have a tuner and have the car unlocked, its quite simple after that. Plug it in to a lab top, load HP tuners software, and you literally set the code from On to Off, or Delete, or whatever i forget the exact wording. PCM wont even scan for it after that. You could do so many other things with HP Tuners too, but you would really have to know what ur doing to mess with it.
Tunning the codes out is simple... though not cheap if you want to do urself. You would have to buy a tuner first (popular one being HP Tuners). That alone is $500 or more, so if the only thing you will be doing is tuning out the codes once, it might not be worth it to buy one. To tune your car you have to unlock it by entering the VIN into the tuner, which costs credits. Its generally $100 to unlock a car if im remembering correctly, though a new HP tuners comes with 4 credits (2 are needed to unlock a car). This is what I recall from last time I used HP Tuners anyway, I hope its still valid nowadays. Anyway once you have a tuner and have the car unlocked, its quite simple after that. Plug it in to a lab top, load HP tuners software, and you literally set the code from On to Off, or Delete, or whatever i forget the exact wording. PCM wont even scan for it after that. You could do so many other things with HP Tuners too, but you would really have to know what ur doing to mess with it.
