As the title indicates, my car was sitting for about a month (on charger) and upon startup the CEL light came on "check engine visit service station" is I believe what it said exactly. The car was running extremely rough, almost as if only half the engine was working. At idel it sounded as if it was going to stall and when I hit the gas to try to limp out of my driveway it sounded terrible. I thought maybe the spark plugs or something (car is a 2007 though only about 16,000 miles on the clock) Pulled back in garage and took my other car where I needed to go. When I got back home a few hours later, I started up my
Boxster
again and everything was fine. Took it for a nice 20 minute cruise and no problems at all.
Has anyone encountered this? Should I be concerned or was there maybe just a little air/water in the gas lines from sitting so long or something like that so it made the engine computer run the car in limp mode with the CEL. The car is still under CPO warranty, but a visit to the dealer means a day off work and I would rather not if they are just going to say everything is fine. So what do you guys think? Should I be concerned and take it in, or just let it be as everything seems fine now?
Easy!!! Floor it!!!
I travel for work so when i first got my car i ran into a problem that sounds like this. Called the dealer and they told me to take it out for a drive and be a bit heavy on the gas. Get the rpm's up and what not. Anyways, drove it for about 15-20 minutes and light went off, white smoke was gone too. Anyways, it might not be the same thing you are experiencing but that's what happened to me.
Oh and that was over a year ago and problem free since. I ask someone to turn it on when i'm gone that long now.
Had something similar happen to me after the car sat for 4 weeks on a 1/2 empty tank in the dead of winter.
As long as the CE light is not blinking, get to a gas station and put some fresh gas in.
If the light is blinking, definitely don't try to drive it as damage to the cats can happen or worse.
I parked the car after the CEL warning message, then came back to it later in the day and started again and CEL was gone, idel felt normal (around 1k RPM then dropped down to about 750 RPM after got warm) then I took it for a 15-20 minute drive and performed as normal. CEL did not come back during the drive either. Sounds like I should be in the clear...
BTW, this is my 1,000 post! Think this was my first problem with the car. Sounds like it is not even a problem really!
Thanks guys!
Ended up taking the car to the dealer today... I got a postcard in the mail inviting me in for a free multi-point inspection as part of a service clinic they were running... more or less a way for the local dealer to see your car and sell you on everything that is wrong with it. So anyway took them up on the offer plus a chance to converse with other owners, grab some cofee and pastry to spend a saturday morning (met a couple planet-9'ers there and also referred a few potential new members to the board). So anyway, told the tech about the CEL last weekend, and asked them to check it out... Ended up replacing the horn, finding a minor oil leak from one of the seels around the engine, fixed both under warranty, and ordered parts to change out the spark plugs and the coil packs under warranty as well as that could have been responsible for the missfire.
All in all, I am happy I went as they found the oil leak and I am getting new plugs and coil packs with no out of pocket expense, I just have to go back again as they did not have the coil packs in stock. no big deal!
Also found out my drop dead date that my CPO warranty expires is 8/1/13, so I will be sure to get the 6 year service and a good once over inspection
next
year before that date.
It was a good morning!
I recently had a similar issue: Car sat for 2 months then CEL with:
P2314: Ignition Coil E Secondary Circuit
P0355: Ignition Coil "E" Primary/Secondary Circuit
P0305: Cylinder 5 Misfire Detected
P1364: [BMW] Misfire During Start Cylinder 12
Indy swapped #5 and #6 and then drove it for a bit with no further lights. Then I took a to a track day with 6 22 minute sessions and also no lights. So it was either a poor connection to the coilpack or some deposits from sitting for 2 months that needed to be burnt off. I guess the moral is to drive it more often if you can....
