CEL on hard acceration
The diagnostic trouble code(s) need to be read.
Tester
Is the CEL lit up steadily when you accelerate, or is it blinking/flashing?
blinking, obd code is P0300
From fixdapp.com
P0300 indicates that two or more cylinders are experiencing misfires. A misfire occurs when an insufficient amount of fuel is burned in a cylinder. The efficient burning of fuel is essential to engine operation as the combustion of fuel is what provides the energy to power the engine. A misfire from two or more cylinders can be caused by many reasons from a faulty ignition system, fuel system, or internal engine failure. When P0300 occurs, it should be fixed immediately as long term driving with engine misfires could cause consequential damage to your engine and catalytic converter(s). Many times, P0300 occurs when there are worn out spark plugs, spark plug wires, or a faulty ignition coil.
P0300 Symptoms
- Check Engine Light is on
- Check Engine Light flashing
- Engine runs rough and shaking
- Lack of power from the engine
- Fuel smell from the exhaust
- Hesitations/Jerking when accelerating
Note this warning from above:
ā it should be fixed immediately as long term driving with engine misfires could cause consequential damage to your engine and catalytic converter(s).ā
A blinking CEL indicates a major misfire.
Continuing driving the vehicle with blinking CEL can cause engine/catalytic converter damage.
Tester
it only blinks when I accelerate above 3400 rpm as in passing. when it happens the engine runs a touch rough for a minute or two, the CEL goes out and everything goes back to normal. As long as I stay below 3400 it never flashes. I can accelerate with no problems. From all that iāve read this is āprobablyā a fuel delivery system problem since no individual cylinders are misfiring. It could be a catalytic converter problem but one would think that would be a problem that would get steadily worse. The blinking CEL has only happened 4 times over the last 60 days or so, and only under heavy acceleration.
I reiterate.
Tester
I reiterate, Iāve seen a holley 1350 carb running on a 3/16 inch fuel line and it was almost the same type of thing. In the last 60 days it has happened AT THE MOST 5 minutes total. FIVE minutes. Thatās not intermittent, thatās less than .01% of total drive time. IF it was all of those āDIREā conditions it would have left me walking some time ago. And as I said it ONLY happens on hard acceleration OVER 3400 RPM. IF it were plugs or coils or injectors I would have a code that included a sing (or a few other) cylinders. This is not any of those. I am a nuclear trained reactor operator. I troubleshoot for a living. Iām only asking for someone to give me their best guess on what it is, as long as their solution does not include a single cylinder failure scenario
Does your reactor control panel have warning lights?
And, do you also ignore those?
Tester
7 Likes
Flashing CEL means get your car fixed ASAP. Weāre not there, we canāt diagnose the detailed problems from here, so donāt be surprised if you get the #1 advice for a flashing CEL.
+1
That is why I asked about the crucial detail of whether the CEL was blinking/flashing.
I really hope that the OP heeds Testerās advice and takes his car to a competent mechanic before MAJOR damage to the catalytic converter (and possibly to the engine) take place.
Does that mean you only want replies that match your thoughts ?
3 Likes
Letās go back to this, the obd code is P0300, general misfire on ALL (everyone of the) cylinders. THERE WERE no other codes. THAT means the problem is not an individual cylinder oriented problem, so WHAT problems fit that paradigm. Iām asking for an EDUCATED guess. Not a gloom and doom catastrophic failure. I KNOW WHAT THOSE ARE, NUCLEAR MELTDOWNā¦ I wanted someone, anyone to give me their BEST recommendation on WHAT the problem is. I do NOT want some YAHOO trying to blow smoke up my skirt when I take this in to the dealer on friday. I would like for you to eliminate the BS 2000 dollar solutions that I know they will propose.
You might post this on an Edge forum, maybe another owner had that problem.
Also, P0300 doesnāt mean all, it means more than one, or random.
2 Likes
Then that is what you will get after the dealer shop does the diagnostic work . Your position is to tell them that you want to approve any work they want to do . Using caps on the web means you are yelling at Mr. Tester . If we had a 1 to 10 rating for members responces he would probably get a 10. Telling a shop what to fix can only lead to you spending more money then you should .
3 Likes
Thatās funny, All Iāve heard him say is Youāre stupid for not taking it to the shop right away. And yet 60 days later it still runs. If his advice was so great then why didnāt it break down within the first 10 minutes AFTER it happened the very first time. The clue is it only happens under heavy acceleration. Thiink, THINK. What could cause that? All I asked for was to take what I told you the symptoms are and give me a valid idea on what the problems could be. HINT, it cannot be cylinder parts related OR the obd codes would have included cylinder failures. Thatās how that computer works. It senses a problem across the board, all cylinders EQUALLY. I program computers that do just that, it takes the data itās given and spits out RESULT codes. All cylinders equally, heavy acceleration. Thatās the data. My thought process is fuel related since it happens on high fuel demand. Either you have an educated guess or not. If you donāt then your response does me no good.
Tester
And I have read all of that, and more, much more. and yet only a very few have actually correlated the facts, a few have hit upon it. It only happens under heavy acceleration. This does not happen all the time. And it is only present when that occurs and the problem goes away within approximately 90 seconds. IF it were a cylinder part such as plug or coil or injector the PCM would report a specific cylinder as a problem. If ALL the plugs or coils or injectors had a problem then it probably wouldnāt start much less run, and certainly not for over 60 days with only 4 failures reported. So by the process of likely elimination it is not cylinder related. Whatās left, well just about everything in that list of likelies would happen across the board all of the time the engine is running. Every time this has occurred I have reset the codes, and checked them quite often and the only time that code shows back up is after the heavy acceleration and it only lasts for a VERY short period of time. It is ONLY due to heavy acceleration, and it is not cylinder related. No one has offered up a viable explanation from where I sit, the only thing you can say is take to a mechanic. So you have the discernable FACTS. And please only provide what your best estimation of what the ACTUAL problem could be. Take it to a mechanic is rhetorical. thatās not an answer.
Sorry we canāt solve your problem, obviously itās a tough one, but you seem to think weāre holding back the āreal answerā. Nope.
6 Likes