3.5L 3000 Jackaroo Check Engine Light

Submitted: Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 00:53
ThreadID: 43149 Views:11401 Replies:6 FollowUps:11
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Car was service Thursday - Nothing wrong.Friday the check engine light comes on
Any suggestions?
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Reply By: On Patrol (Aust.) - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 07:13

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 07:13
Yeah WDR, check engine. LOL

Best talk to the mechanics that did service.

On Patrol
AnswerID: 226875

Reply By: Member - David A (QLD) - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 07:38

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 07:38
I imagine that the check engine light in a jackaroo is similar to the one in the frontera. Mine has come on twice - both times it was an O2 sensor. First one in warranty, second one substantial $$. Both times had sudden onset with no symptoms. I got the holden bloke to attach his "digital thingy" to it before booking in. This allayed my fears of the engine about to blow up as it is my daily drive.

Cheers
David
AnswerID: 226876

Reply By: gav99x - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 08:18

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 08:18
I wouldn't be thinking along the lines of coincidence if it was ok before they touched it, and not ok after.

At a guess they may have left a sensor that they disconnected during the service off.
AnswerID: 226878

Reply By: MEMBER - Darian (SA) - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 09:00

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 09:00
and...... before you pay big $$$ (what doesn't cost big dollars these days) keep in mind that the engine light being on may be the only real problem you have. My Check Engine light has been on for 4 years (3.0L TD Jack) - its an error in the throttle body sensor - will have to get something done before I trade it, but if I'd fixed it years ago, it might have come up as an issue again ! The mechanic at the dealer where I had the fault analysed suggested that if the car was running fine in all other respects, leave it (at that time, it was going to cost about $700 - a rip off of course).
AnswerID: 226880

Follow Up By: Gerhardp1 - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 17:20

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 17:20
Hi Darian, do a bit of a search of USA spare parts places.

They have many sensors available for Jacks (Isuzu Trooper over there)

I got an O2 sensor for $US50 versus $660 here, and got a few extras such as Transmission service kit, air filters (I wanted paper for the Cape York Trip rather than the washable one I mostly use) Wheel bearing seals, platinum spark plugs.

Total cost delivered in 5 days was about $330. Cost of stuff here would have been colse to $1000.
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FollowupID: 487795

Follow Up By: MEMBER - Darian (SA) - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 18:02

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 18:02
Indeed G - will check that at some stage down the track just before the Jack goes to owner number 2 - I bought my Poly Air bag kit direct from the States - 50% of the local outlay.
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FollowupID: 487801

Follow Up By: Mr Fawlty - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 19:06

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 19:06
I'll wager the throttle body sensor is faulty due to oil contamination. Do you have a reuseable air filter?
Best thing to do before replacing it is to remove it and clean it in metho or alcohol. Then replace it and see what happens. GMH has made a fortune out of this brilliant feature designed to defeat people who refuse to pay extortionate prices for genuine air filters...
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FollowupID: 487815

Follow Up By: Gerhardp1 - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 19:30

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 19:30
That's a definate possibility Mr F, but you need to cast the slur on everyone not just GMH for the air filter cost.

In reality, though, it's probably not GMH who invented the air flow meter which is used in pretty much every petrol engine these days. All are susceptible to dirty wires and you read plenty of posts where these devices are replaced. No stats done, but Nissans seem to figure heavily in this area, and without exception they are madly expensive.

I use a washable filter but I am VERY careful how much I oil it after washing, and I have cleaned the wire/resistors with electrolube contact cleaner, the one without lube. That seems to work well, and you don't touch the wire at all with fingers - which is good since my arthritic buggers seem to be getting clumsier rather than the other way round :)
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FollowupID: 487822

Follow Up By: MEMBER - Darian (SA) - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 20:14

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 20:14
Guilty - I use a Unifilter oiled foam type - I had put the problem re the sensor down to oil quite some time back - I intend to clean the unit out before I buy parts - will go back to paper filters of course - as you say, they are rip-off priced - but I originally went to foam because of the dirt ingested from the wheel well - since putting a snorkel on, the problem is not really an issue. Re the sensor and oil contamination - met a bloke a few years back who had the same issue on the same car and he had used paper right from the start - might have been a different contaminant - and it could be the turbo seals).
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FollowupID: 487827

Reply By: Im.away - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 09:09

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 09:09
As a former Jackaroo owner... one that was really put through its paces.... I can tell you that the check engine light covers a myriad of things. The previous poster was right when he said it indicates that the throttle positioning sensor is faulty (this problem has occurred in so many Jackaroos that it should have been a recall), but it also checks a million other things.

The dealer will be able to plug his diagnostic computer in and find out what it is. It is important to get it fixed because it will mask any other alerts that come up. The TPS problem caused me to ignore the light for a while, and then I found out that another problem had come up and I wasn't aware of it (injector issue).
AnswerID: 226882

Reply By: Gerhardp1 - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 10:29

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 10:29
Most likely the Air flow connector has been left off, as it is hard to change the air filter without removing it.

But the engine runs pretty rough with this off.

As mentioned above it could be coming from a lot of areas. I use a Scanguage permanently on mine, it tells me what the error code is and I can clear it as well.

An easy thing for you to try is to disconnect the battery for 30 minutes and reconnect. This clears all the computer settings including learned ones and clears all error codes, and the engine light will be off. If it then comes back, go to the dealer and get them to put the tech II on it while you wait and it will tell where it's being triggered.
AnswerID: 226905

Follow Up By: WDR - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 13:35

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 13:35
Just picked it up from dealer - You got it in one - No apologies etc of course - However it did lose everything on the way into dealer this morning and stopped dead - I was not so confident that it was a sensor after that.
Wife is ^%%$$# she was driving and wonders what would have happened if she had been turning across traffic etc when it shut down.
Such is life
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FollowupID: 487764

Follow Up By: Gerhardp1 - Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 17:14

Monday, Mar 12, 2007 at 17:14
Electronics are so sweet - when they are plugged in :)

I've actually done this myself after re-oiling my filter. Even after reconnecting the plug, you still have to discharge the computer to turn the check engine light off if you don't have a Tech II or a scanguage.

I had a 1988 2.6 EFI Jack before this one, and it would throw a hissy every now and then, just out of the blue it would go into a crude "Limp mode". The RACV man was totally perplexed as everything checked OK, then he had a brainwave - let's disconnect the battery for 10 mins and then see what happens - result was engine running as sweet as a nut again. That one didn't have a check engine light.

Cheers
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FollowupID: 487793

Follow Up By: Member - Bradley- Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 01:28

Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 01:28
yep beat me to it, the afm connector is left off all the time on these babys.

now tell me more about the scanguage on a v6 jack? i know the terracan guys use them a lot, but what can they do on a jack. ie - just fault codes or can you "bend" sensor outputs to the ecu etc etc...

cheers Brad.
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FollowupID: 488311

Follow Up By: Gerhardp1 - Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 09:44

Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 09:44
The Scanguage is just a reading guage, you can't modify sensor inputs as far as I know.

I use it because it's nice to know what the sensors are telling the ECU - you don't always get the engine light even when something's wrong.

It's also great for me because I have 645/75-16s on, only a bit oversize, but the scanguage has a speedo readout which is easily tweaked to allow for the oversize.

If/when you do get a check engine light, it tells you where to look for the problem by looking up the error code.

Then it can be easy to fix, eg plug the MAF connector back in, use the scanguage to clear the code, and all is well again.

In my view they are a great instrument and inexpensive as well.
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FollowupID: 488344

Follow Up By: Member - Bradley- Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 22:55

Thursday, Mar 15, 2007 at 22:55
Cool sounds good, now only 2 more questions, $$$$$ & where from??
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FollowupID: 488481

Follow Up By: Gerhardp1 - Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 09:04

Friday, Mar 16, 2007 at 09:04
www.scanguage.com

$US169.95
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FollowupID: 488562

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