Flashing Check Engine Light
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 79
Likes: 0
From: Calgary, Alberta
Flashing Check Engine Light I took my car out to the strip today. I was on it pretty hard in 3rd and missed the 4th shift and hit 2nd!!! 
It happened once before with no real issues.
Anyways the car is not running very good now. It idles rough and doesn't always start right away. While driving at a constant RPM (ie. highway speeds) the check engine light flashes. Once on the clutch it just goes solid...
The worst part is I am about 3 hours away from home and I'm not sure if it is okay to drive home in the morning. It is sunday and nothing can scan the codes for me here... So its either pay a premium for a flat deck, or risk it and drive home.
Can anyone give me an idea what to do here?
It happened once before with no real issues.Anyways the car is not running very good now. It idles rough and doesn't always start right away. While driving at a constant RPM (ie. highway speeds) the check engine light flashes. Once on the clutch it just goes solid...
The worst part is I am about 3 hours away from home and I'm not sure if it is okay to drive home in the morning. It is sunday and nothing can scan the codes for me here... So its either pay a premium for a flat deck, or risk it and drive home.
Can anyone give me an idea what to do here?
TECH Senior Member
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 7,036
Likes: 1
From: Lake Zurich, IL
flashing SES means misfires are being detected.... when it goes solid the code is P0300 ...
3-2 shift under load is hard on the motor... most likely you bent 1 or several pushrods ( on the bright side.... on a stock car.... you have cam to lifter to pushrod to rocker to spring to valve....
The weak link is the pushrod... it'll bend and there's less of a chance of valve or psiton damage ..... now if you have hardened pushrods.... )
I'm not going to say you can drive it or not... but it's prolly a bent pushrod.... if youre commute is realively close you'll prolly be ok....
if you can get your hands on a large screwdriver.... place it (the tip) on various parts of your engine (focusing on valve covers and heads) and put your ear on the other end.... it acts as a ghetto stethescope.... see if you can hear any weird noises on certain cyllinders.....
but my guess is you bent a few pushrods... depending on how badly bent... you can make it the 200 miles you need to go if you take it easy... but if they're (pushrods) bent badly ... could cause some damage
3-2 shift under load is hard on the motor... most likely you bent 1 or several pushrods ( on the bright side.... on a stock car.... you have cam to lifter to pushrod to rocker to spring to valve....
The weak link is the pushrod... it'll bend and there's less of a chance of valve or psiton damage ..... now if you have hardened pushrods.... )
I'm not going to say you can drive it or not... but it's prolly a bent pushrod.... if youre commute is realively close you'll prolly be ok....
if you can get your hands on a large screwdriver.... place it (the tip) on various parts of your engine (focusing on valve covers and heads) and put your ear on the other end.... it acts as a ghetto stethescope.... see if you can hear any weird noises on certain cyllinders.....
but my guess is you bent a few pushrods... depending on how badly bent... you can make it the 200 miles you need to go if you take it easy... but if they're (pushrods) bent badly ... could cause some damage
Last edited by horist; Sep 18, 2005 at 03:06 AM.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 79
Likes: 0
From: Calgary, Alberta
Thanks guys... I appreciate the responses. (and the lack of "learn to shift" posts)
I've decided to give it a try. I also believe it is a pushrod problem and I am misfiring on one cylinder while under load. But the trip is an easy one and I'll just drop it in 6th and take it slow. My plans were to upgrade the valvetrain this winter anyways, so even if I break a few other things in there, so long as it doesn't wreck pistons etc. I think I will be okay. I suspect the worst of the damage has already been done.
I will advise if I make it!
I've decided to give it a try. I also believe it is a pushrod problem and I am misfiring on one cylinder while under load. But the trip is an easy one and I'll just drop it in 6th and take it slow. My plans were to upgrade the valvetrain this winter anyways, so even if I break a few other things in there, so long as it doesn't wreck pistons etc. I think I will be okay. I suspect the worst of the damage has already been done.
I will advise if I make it!
yeah i just recently had a plug wire burn out on me and i was getting the flashing ses light, which was a misfire. i swapped out the wire for the stocker to make sure and it fixed it right up...now i gotta see if the wire company will hook me up since ive only had the plugs for less than 700 miles
Staging Lane
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 73
Likes: 0
From: SC
I did the exact same thing as you and missed a few shifts and over reved a little. After that at high rpms I had a lose of power and the flashing SES light. Ends up my valve springs were badly worn. I new set of 918s and all my problems were gone. I would check your pushrods also.
Thread Starter
Staging Lane
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 79
Likes: 0
From: Calgary, Alberta
Well I made it home with no fireworks.
The car still had the flashing light and was running rough. But I just sorta found a "sweet spot" around 1600 RPM that seemed to run smooth. So I left it there for the 2.5 hour trip and made it fine.
It is frustrating, but at least I can leave it for the winter and fix it when I get time.
I am going to look into setting up CAGS to enable around 80 MPH to prevent this from ever happening again. Not sure if anyone else has done this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
The car still had the flashing light and was running rough. But I just sorta found a "sweet spot" around 1600 RPM that seemed to run smooth. So I left it there for the 2.5 hour trip and made it fine.
It is frustrating, but at least I can leave it for the winter and fix it when I get time.
I am going to look into setting up CAGS to enable around 80 MPH to prevent this from ever happening again. Not sure if anyone else has done this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
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Originally Posted by JohnnieMo
I am going to look into setting up CAGS to enable around 80 MPH to prevent this from ever happening again. Not sure if anyone else has done this, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.
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