IF YOU DISCONNECT THE CAR ECU ON 348 WILL THE 1/4 LIGHT STAY ON

The light will not come on. I have had the cat ecu's inplugged from my 348 for over a year, and it runs fine, and no light. However you will get a silent code stored in the ecu, that says you have no signal for the exhaust ecu. Other than that, you can unplug it.

 

Ernie knows what he's talkin about.

I would say this, though... if you have factory catalytic converters, I would recommend against disconnecting these ECUs. If your cats overheat, they can cause serious damage, and you'll never know.

Conversely, I would recommend against having factory catalytic converters in the first place.

Are you running factory catalytic converters? If so, fix the problem that you're having--don't just put a band-aid over it by pulling a cat ECU. Fix whatever is causing the cat ECU to give you a problem because it shouldn't give you any problems.

 

Now that Dave has mentioned it. Did you try swapping the exhaust ecu's from one side to the other, and see if the light came on for the other bank? If you did and the light came on for banks 5/8 then yeah you have a screwy ecu. But if you didn't I would try that test before you unplug them. There are other factor that will cause the slow down light to come on. One of them being that the catalytic converter really IS hot. The other could be that you have a thermocoupler going bad. That is the little wire coming off of the cat that goes to the exhaust ecu, basicly a cat temperature sensor. If that has gone bad you'll get the slow down light. You could have a good ecu and a bad thermocoupler. So swap the ecu's and see if you get the light on the other side, or if it still comes up on the same side. If it comes up on the other side THEN unplug it, until you can get a new one.

 

The electrical tape solution is much simpler, and much more effective long term. Place a two-inch strip of black electrical tape over the "check engine" lights. You will never have a problem again. Plus, the tape matches quite nicely with the light panel.

 

Yes you have ABS, replace the burnt bulbs . Here is how to pull the codes and reset them:

1) Remove the covers behind the seats so that you have access to the ecu's.

2) Place the key in the ignition and turn it to the (on) position, but do not start the car. You will see the lights on the instrument panel illuminated.

3) Push and hold down the button, located next to the ecu, for 5 seconds, then release it. When you are holding down the button, you now should see the check engine illuminate for the ecu you are on. (check engine 1/4 or 5/8)

4) When you let go of the button you will see a pause then a long flash for 2 and 1/2 seconds, pause with no flash for 2 and 1/2 seconds, then begin the flashes of the engine codes. The long flash indicates the begining and end of the code. Then it repeats the same code, until you move on to the next code.

5) Each number of the code is flashed for 1/2 second followed buy a pause then the next number in the codes is flashed. For example you will get the long flash indicating that the code will start, a pause, three flashes, pause, two flashes, pause, one flash, pause, four flashes, pause, a long flash indicating the code is finished. If this were the series of short flashes you got, the code would be 3214.

6) After you pull a code you will notice that it just keeps repeating. To get to the next code what you want to do is wait until the long flash comes on after the code. When the long flash comes on you want to hold down the button for the whole flash and let go of it in the middle of the pause. You should then see the check engine light give you another long flash to indicate the begining of the next code.

7) When the last codes has been pulled, you will get nothing but long flashes telling you that there are no more stored codes.

8) Now that all the codes have been pulled you will want to clear the ecu of the stored codes. When the ecu's is giving nothing but long flashes, you need to push and hold down the button for 10 seconds to clear out the old codes.

9) If needed, repeat the process for the other ecu.


I stole this from a PM that was sent to me. I think it was written by ERNIE but I'm not sure

 

LOL, yeah I did write that. But that's what it's for, to help each other out.

As for changing the lights in the instrument console, that's pretty easy.

There are two screws on the bottom corners of the instrument console, one on either corner. Unscrew and remove them.

Now what you will want to do is lower the stearing collum all the way down. This gives you a little more room to work with. There is a lever on the bottom. Pull that down to unlock the collum.

Okay, now you should have a little more room to lift the console up. The back of the console is just sitting on a lip, so nothing is holding it down. Get a hold of the sides and lift it straight up. When you do have it off be careful not to pull it all the way off. The control wire ribbons are still connected to the backs of the instruments.

Tip the console to one side and disconnect the ribbons.

Now you can remove the console all the way out of the car.

Looking on the back of the console you will see were the bulbs are located. To remove them, all you have to do is turn them counter clockwise. The Check Engine lights, for 1/4 & 5/8, are on the bottom row. The Slow Down lights will be on the sides. Looking at the back side of the console, the 1/4 slow down will be on the right, and 5/8 on the left.

When you have them out be careful not to scratch the copper contact line that is on the strip. If that gets scratched it can cause the lights not to work, and it's big bucks for a new one.

While you have the light/s out make sure that the metal on the strip is nice and clean. Sometimes moisture get's in there and causes rust to form. If there is rust it won't let the lights function properly, or not at all. You can get a good electrical contact cleaner, to clean up the strip.

Once your done, plug everything back together and test it before you screw it back down. This way if you still have a light that's out you don't have to unscrew it all over again.

You can test the lights by putting the key in the ignition and turning it to the on possition, but don't start the car. They should all come on.

NOW, once you have the lights working, I would go ahead and pull the codes out of each Motronic ECU, and reset them. THEN, go ahead and swap the exhaust ecu's from one side to the other.

P.S. Frank, you can "steal" all that too. LOL!

 

No problem. Glad I could help.