This car is in great condition, garage kept and well maintained, has 101,000 miles and about 8,000 miles on a rebuilt transmission, repair done under the ownership of father-in-law. It has the V6 engine and the supercharger. After driving it for a few months I noticed some oil spots on the driveway and took the car back to the dealer that did the transmission repair. By the way this is a long story but it might be relevant information. Of course the warranty was up because of time, but not mileage, so the dealer wanted $100 just to take a look. After talking with my father-in-law and him telling me that the engine had always been pretty tight and he had never seen any leakage. Since I had this information about the car I thought something must have loosened up after the repair. Instead of giving the $100 to the dealer I took it to a reputable local mechanic here in town to find and repair the leak as well as change the oil. By this time the check engine light(cel) had come up on the instrument panel. Thus the oil change, I thought. According to the repair ticket the vehicles computer was accessed and codes 361 and 406 were reset. The cel never came back on until just recently. The cel doesn?t turn on every trip but activates in the same manner as before the oil change and repair. The cel does turn off after the vehicle is restarted and there is no noticeable change in the performance of the car. Given the age of the vehicle is there some sensor that has worn out or is plugged? Where can I find the codes description and is there a way that I can access the cel, without having to take the vehicle to the mechanic every time? Taking the vehicle to the mechanics is not cost effective nor is it time effective for me.
This car uses OBD-I protocol, and it seems to be impossible to find a list of codes for your car on line. Maybe you could call the repair shop and ask them what the codes mean and post that information. FWIW, there were special codes peculiar to a car or brand for OBD-I. After 1996 everyone used OBD-II which is standardized.
I found out the codes. The 361 is a starter coil problem. This must be related to the start up of the vehicle because you have to turn on the lights prior to starting the engine and if the vehicle is not started in this sequence it might cause a malfunction. The 401 code is the EGR malfunction. Do you happen to know how a resourceful DIYer can replace this part?