Error codes

[paulharper]

I had 200 cel sports cats, along with new lambda sensors and a valved exhaust fitted to a Boxster 2.7 last week. After about 80 miles the CEL came on. Returned to the garage and the fault codes were 420 & 430 warm up below threshold. I spoke to Top Gear who were very helpful who said it rarely happens but they will send me some Lambda sensor eliminators and that would sort the problem out. I have the car booked in for a weeks time to have this done, in the meantime I obviously want to use the car.
I have done some research and am finding a bit of a minefield! Some say don’t drive the car, some say it’s ok. The thing I’m concerned about is once the eliminators are fitted, is that a solid permanent fix, or is it just a trick to keep the CEL off, and could it cause future damage. Any help and advise is much appreciated.

 

[malarcy]

My 2p worth....

Check Engine light is typically is triggered when things go "out of spec" - and that's "powertrain" stuff - so misfires and to lean/too rich type stuff that affects the running of the car- but is more often that not "emissions" things that have gone out of spec. Since you gave changed the "cat" setup in the car then the observed behaviour of the cats ( are they working basically ) can trip over the tolerances.

Seems the standard way of resolving is to fit "extenders" on the lamda sensors, moving their effective sensitivity back into range. Not sure what they have supplied you but "eliminating" the lambda's likely requires more than just an adapter or a bolt on part. If its extenders that all it does is make the sensors less trigger happy about boundary conditions and as such all you are stopping is the car telling you "the cats are not operating to spec".

I read that many folks find they still get the occasional CEL thrown, and the usual fix is a 20 quid code reader from Amazon and read, confirm its the "usual" code (whatever that is) and then reset it yourself.

fwiw - my previous daily threw a CEL about 3 months out of warranty - dealers read / cleared the code and declared - lamda sensor issue - fix it now or the cat is destroyed - I reasoned the light would come back on if the error was permanent, so decided to roll with it - I ran the car for another 12 years and 180K miles - the light/code came back maybe once every year - I read and reset and above. Car is still going, in the hands of a mate - now at 200K - 17 years old and still got the original cat in place - and no emission issue at MOT.

So my (internet and therefore effectively worthless) opinion - That's the approach I would take if it was my car, take notice of the CEL if it comes back and check to see if it's a typical emissions related trigger, and reset if it becomes a problem. In general I doubt there is an invisible "issue".

 

[paulharper]

Thanks for your reply. I’ve now had the eliminators fitted and so far so good but have only driven it back from the garage, about 8 miles. I’m going to give it a long run on Sunday so I’ll know more then.