Engine Management light

[Crafoo]

Had an engine management light flash up last night on my way home last night, recently I have had issues with a loss of power occasionally, when I put my foot down there is a notable lack of power and most other times it's fine, so I'm assuming the light is related to this.

Last night I happened to have my adapter in the car and logged the fault code which is below

Fault log report generated by Torque for Android
=================================================
Vehicle VIN: Not present
Vehicle Manufacturer: Unknown
Vehicle Calibration ID: 06A906032QN 0020
Current Fault Log
------------------
ECU reports no current faults
Pending Fault Log
------------------
P2187: System Too Lean at Idle bank1
Historic Fault Log
------------------
ECU reports no historic faults
Other discovered fault codes
(possibly pending, current or manufacturer specific)
----------------------------------------------------
ECU reports no other fault codes logged
End of report.

Now I have recently purchased a replacement MAF (about 2 months ago) as I suspected my old one was causing this problem (the new one I bought was the cheaper version from Eurocarparts so I'm not sure if this one is just a bit crap and not fuly fixed the problem) I did notice a difference when swapping the MAF's but it didn't seem to have cured the problem 100%.

I am tempted to purchase the standard Bosch one but want to make sure that I'd be doing the right thing in buying it as it's £80 and don't really want to be throwing money away on something if it's not going to be worth doing.

Any ideas or advice would be appreciated.

 

[Crafoo]

Seen a few posts about cleaning the throttle body so think I am going to try that as a first step, hopefully it will do the trick as the symptoms I'm having are pretty much what others have described.

Just gotta go buy some cleaner now.

 

[oilcloth]

What's a MAF?

Now I have recently purchased a replacement MAF (about 2 months ago) as I suspected my old one was causing this problem (the new one I bought was the cheaper version from Eurocarparts so I'm not sure if this one is just a bit crap and not fuly fixed the problem) I did notice a difference when swapping the MAF's but it didn't seem to have cured the problem 100%.
..................................................................................................................................


........ have recently purchased a replacement MAF

What's a MAF? please. It helps if you use full names so all of us know what the fault/solution may be. Cheers.

AL

 

[Crafoo]

MAF = Mass Air Flow sensor

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[oilcloth]

MAF Explained

Thanks Crafoo for info that MAF is Mass Air Flow Sensor.

Cheers. AL

 

[Dean_dubber]

Don't buy management components from Euro Car Farts is my advice.

What your software is telling you is that your bank 1 02 sensor is recording a lean measurement. Your 02 sensor is a probe which is set in your exhaust to measure oxygen content. This is also called a Lambda sensor.

Bank 1 = Pre catalytic converter.

Hope this helps!

 

[Dean_dubber]

Just realised I didn't really clarify what could be causing this.

Vacuum Leaks, Faulty Maf, Poor Fuel Flow/Injection, Exhaust Leak, Air Leak, Or the 02 sensor!

Hopefully that sorts it.

 

[Crafoo]

I want to go ahead and clean the throttle body but reading lots of the posts on here and a couple of other forums seemingly to do the job properly you need to open the valve to clean it thoroughly which requires a reset using VCDS, now as I don't have the software/cable to do this I'm a little wary about doing the job because I don't want to be in the position of having to reset the TB without having the software to do the job there and then obviously as I need the car for work.

Do I need to take it off completely and open the valve or can I work around this without having to reset the TB and still clean it thoroughly enough?

 

[Crafoo]

Just realised I didn't really clarify what could be causing this.

Vacuum Leaks, Faulty Maf, Poor Fuel Flow/Injection, Exhaust Leak, Air Leak, Or the 02 sensor!

Hopefully that sorts it.

That's quite helpful thanks fella, I still want to try and clean the TB to see if that makes the difference but if I get no joy then I will persue the suggestions you've made there, should put me on the right track, obviously want to try and eliminate the cheapest "fixes" first

 

[big rich]

hi mate its most likely you've an air leak, obviously there can be other reasons but this is where id start. Get hold of some brake cleaner or carb cleaner etc in an aerosol and with the engine running spray it around, if you hear a notable change in the engine then you know you've a leak, ie sucking too much air in (un-metered) hence system too lean.

 

[Dean_dubber]

What Rich has said is a great way to test this. Be sure to re calibrate your throttle body correctly if you are cleaning it .

A decent intake cleaner by the likes of Kalimex will sort your throttle body out if it's at fault.

 

[Crafoo]

I bought some carb cleaner from Halfords, Wynns stuff, was about £7.

When you say spray it round what actually should I be doing? Sorry for simple question but I want to make sure I'm doing it right.

 

[Dean_dubber]

Around any vacuum piping. There will normally be one vacuum pipe straight out of the throttle body, this may well be split. What engine is it?

 

[Crafoo]

Petrol FR mate 1.8 20VT

 

[Blanco92]

My money's on an air leak... so many people jump straight in and change MAFs, if I had a pound for every one changed in mis-diagnosis then I reckon I could afford a new car!

 

[Crafoo]

For the sake of £25 I was willing to try a new MAF to see if it made any difference, worst case it wasn't the fault and I'd have a spare

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Crafoo]

Had a quick poke around tonight when I got home from work to see if I could see any split pipes or reasons for a leak and everything I looked at appeared to be ok.

I tried the spraying of carb cleaner which made no difference to the engine note and unclipped a few bits and bats, couldn't see anything immediately wrong so put everything back as it was, started my car to move it out of the garage and noticed the EML light had disappeared?

Ran the Torque app again to search for any error codes and it showed nothing, so I'm a little confused now, surely the light would only go out if the error is no longer there, but simply turning the engine off and back on doesn't clear the light because it was on this morning when I went to work and was still on hours later when I started the car again to leave work, I'm guessing the light will come on again as I haven't really done anything but it's confused me a little.

Going to try and have a proper look at the weekend when I have more time/light to work with