Can I pull out the 'check engine' light bulb??
- Thread starter greaseball
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JHZR2
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Where I live in NY, if your '96 or newer car shows that the check engine light is on, your car will fail the required annual inspection. Can I just pull out this light bulb or cut the wires? or will the car start to go spastic when this happens? This check engine scenario has to be taken care of, and many times it's an expensive solution.
Please sell your car and forfeit your driver's license. Thanks.
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Vacuum leaks were very easily found with an ultrasonic leak detector. It's no long offered in any of the tool catalogs ..and mine was stolen at work, but I could find a leaking pump seal in a 120db environment just by using it as a pointer and then indexing it for the environment. Found the air leak in, literally, hundreds of feet of air line tubing. Mine was about $200 when I bought it. It came with an ultrasonic generator that you could place in the trunk or whatever and then poke around with the mic'.
For me, when demonstrating it, you would think that I just raised my staff and parted the waters. That's probably why it took a hike.
This is about the right price, indexed for inflation. It looks like something out of a Star Trek prop room.
Mine looked more like this ..but not as skinny. Like an industrial VOM with the flex thingie
vendor site
Sorry, but that is not correct. I have seen the NYS OBD-II inspection procedure first hand. Once the data link is connected up the first step of the procedure is to turn on the ignition and verify that the CEL(MIL)comes on. If it does not that's an automatic fail. Then start the vehicle and verify that the CEL (MIL) goes off.
If you remove the check engine light bulb or it burns out a DTC will be set that varies depending upon the vehicle. For example: for my Civic the code would be P0650. For my Kia Sportage it will be P1694.
Automotive smoke machines generate non-toxic smoke under a few psi of pressure. You feed it into the intake manifold where the brake booster lines goes, the dipstick tube, or any other place you want to leak check. Push the button and the volume under test will be filled with smoke. Even the tiniest leaks are immediately obvious, especially if the lights are turned off and light is shone across the engine bay. If the smoke is the UV type it'll leave a reside you can see under UV light but I've never needed that because regular smoke works so well.
The EVAP qualified ones will test flow and find the .020" leaks mandated by the EPA. They're expensive though. The beauty of smoke is it's all done with the engine off. The time savings alone make one worth every penny. About $400 for a non-EVAP one but as I said if you're handy you can slap one together for cheap.
The EVAP qualified ones will test flow and find the .020" leaks mandated by the EPA. They're expensive though. The beauty of smoke is it's all done with the engine off. The time savings alone make one worth every penny. About $400 for a non-EVAP one but as I said if you're handy you can slap one together for cheap.
Interesting...can you give a few more details, such as how does this machine generate this smoke? Some chemicals or what? If so maybe a sealable metal bucket or paint pressure container from Harbor Freight fed by very low pressure compressed air would fit the bill?
Considering what's inside it's amazing the ready-made ones are so expensive. Heres a popular one. Smallest machine made iirc. How they can get a kilo buck for it is beyond me:
http://tinyurl.com/yb9ua7
There are several recipes for smoke fluid on the internet. You can use glycerin or baby oil. I prefer to buy commercial smoke fluid. Don't use the stuff for party machines. All you need is either force the oil though a heater block or heat it in a tank. For example old appliances such as steam carpet cleaners etc, have heater blocks and tanks. Or buy a cheap party smoke machine and use the guts.
The way I made my first one was to buy the cheapest 12 volt tire inflater I could find. $15-20 at any auto store. I connected the output to a sealed box (a small weather tight electrical box as I recall) filled halfway with smoke oil. In the cover I mounted an old blower speed element as the heater and submerged it halfway in the oil. Fill the box only halfway because you need the rest of the space for smoke. Run some small tygon tubing out the top of the box and buy a handful of vacuum adapters to go on the end.
Add a pendent switch, some battery clamps and you're making smoke. Crude but effective. You can add pressure and flow gauges too. That way you can do leak back tests. Be creative. Whatever you end up with be sure to add a one or two psi pop off valve somewhere in the system. You don't want to pressurize beyond a few psi. 5 max.
Once you learn to creatively use one of these things you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. No more swapping gaskets, spraying carb cleaner, hoses stuck in your ear, etc. Leaks are found in 30 seconds. You can also use it to test vacuum actuators, EGR valves, all kinds of things. Anything you can pressurize you can test. Just look for the smoke.
http://tinyurl.com/yb9ua7
There are several recipes for smoke fluid on the internet. You can use glycerin or baby oil. I prefer to buy commercial smoke fluid. Don't use the stuff for party machines. All you need is either force the oil though a heater block or heat it in a tank. For example old appliances such as steam carpet cleaners etc, have heater blocks and tanks. Or buy a cheap party smoke machine and use the guts.
The way I made my first one was to buy the cheapest 12 volt tire inflater I could find. $15-20 at any auto store. I connected the output to a sealed box (a small weather tight electrical box as I recall) filled halfway with smoke oil. In the cover I mounted an old blower speed element as the heater and submerged it halfway in the oil. Fill the box only halfway because you need the rest of the space for smoke. Run some small tygon tubing out the top of the box and buy a handful of vacuum adapters to go on the end.
Add a pendent switch, some battery clamps and you're making smoke. Crude but effective. You can add pressure and flow gauges too. That way you can do leak back tests. Be creative. Whatever you end up with be sure to add a one or two psi pop off valve somewhere in the system. You don't want to pressurize beyond a few psi. 5 max.
Once you learn to creatively use one of these things you'll wonder how you ever got along without it. No more swapping gaskets, spraying carb cleaner, hoses stuck in your ear, etc. Leaks are found in 30 seconds. You can also use it to test vacuum actuators, EGR valves, all kinds of things. Anything you can pressurize you can test. Just look for the smoke.
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