Maybe in newer cars the "Service Engine Soon" pilot light implies something serious, but in older cars (say, mid-to-late 90s) it just indicates that the stealership's gonna make some $$ off of you. My mother's 1997 Ford Escort has had it on since the early 2000s, with no consequences at all. I spoke to a friend who's an ace in computer diagnostics issues, and told me that's just a gimmick car manufacturers use to scare customers into going to the stealership to have them reset it, for which they charge $weet $$ for them. Obviously, it's $our $$ for us! My 2004 Touring Coupe's doing great, so far--SO HELP ME GOD!!! Greetings.

please don't get into the habit of ignore the idiot light it does mean real things are happening it's just that it is mostly california and the epa's fault for putting so many god damn emissions related parts on cars now that one or two of the hundreds of the little bastards is bound to break eventually and then the stupid light comes on. my advice is take it to an auto parts store they can read and clear the codes for free, and sell you a code reader if you want to do it yourself even. it's how i found out the o2 sensor took a crap on my neon but when it said it was sensor 2 (emmisions only) i just kept ignoring it but at least i knew what it was.

My SES light came on on my 370Z Roadster over the weekend. Only had 1,090 miles on it. Bought it back in January of this year. Took it to the dealership this morning and, apparently, a small evap leak was discovered. So, now just waiting to see what's happening. Luckily, still under warranty but....still sucks. :shakes head:

Cause of problem...and I am quoting the invoice..."Found evap code P0456. Evap small leak. Pinpoint test found vent control valve sticking cause of concern. Replace control valve and rechk operation- okay at this time".

Again, glad it is still under warrant. Repairs were completed in the morning and have the car back already.

wtf? how could a brand new car like that have issues already? I'm modded to the hilt and only SES I got was because my HFC's were tripping my 02's, stuffed some steel wool in those bitches and havent got the light since.

Thank you 2010370z.

this is the exact answer I was looking for:) So the SES light never came back since?

vent control valve... is that the same as the solenoid?

I figured, I'll just order the part and just install it without the ceremonial diagnostics. :tup:

Guys,

I got the P0456 bug and its getting annoying. Dealer insists its the gas cap, but going to bring it in anyway. Can you guys talk about what you/dealer finally did to fix?

Mine seems to have fixed it's self. Has not happened since I last posted about it many months ago.

Graybullet, My issue was the gas cap. It took a lot of toying around, but we discovered that despite my twisting the hell out of the cap to tighten it the damn thing would just pop right off. On the other hand, the technician would tighten it simply and it would seal and stay on properly. It was all a matter of luck. I think the cap has two sets of threads so it could start to engage either at 0 degrees or 180 degrees. One way was just fine. One way was bad. That may not be it exactly but I proved to the dealership's satisfaction that there was a flakey issue with the cap that prevented it from sealing properly every time. They replaced the cap and it has never been an issue since then. Insist on a new cap and I bet your issue goes away.

i just bought my 40th on 4/22 and with 79 miles on it the SES light came on today :shakes head: hopefully its not an issue

Mine threw a "service engine soon" light after some car audio electronics work done on it, and this is what I did to clear it:

1. Confirm that accelerator pedal is fully released, turn ignition switch ON (DO NOT depress clutch while you're doing this) and wait 3 seconds.

Repeat #2 procedure quickly five times within 5 seconds:
2. Fully depress then release the accelerator pedal.

3. Wait 7 seconds, fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it for approx. 10 seconds until the CEL starts blinking.

4. Fully release the accelerator pedal (while the CEL is still blinking)

5. Wait about 10 seconds.

6. Fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it down for more than 10 seconds.
7. Fully release the accelerator pedal (The CEL light will continue to blink).

Turn ignition switch to OFF position

Turn ignition switch to ON position and now you can start the car. The CEL light should be gone.

Rep me if this works for you as it did for me.

Usually, that just clears the light temporarily. If it's an actual mechanical issue type code, then it'll just pop back up after 50 miles or so.

It's best to actually get the code read, so you know what the issue is before resetting it off the bat.

go to Autozone and get it read for free and cleared.

Its a forum rule that if you ask for a rep that you actually lose 2 rep points.

Guess they didnt resolve this in the '10s. I have 1800 miles on my car and the SES light came on. Evap leak.

They said gas cap and sent me on my way, it came back on 2 hours later. Now I have to drop it off on Tuesday and get a loaner cause they said the smoke test can't be done until the engine is cold. Not happy.

If you are getting a CEL it should be stored and be able to be pulled regardless if the light was one or not, or at least thats the way it was with VW and Audi not sure if the Nissan ECU will go ahead no dump the code when the light goes out?

Once the SES light starts blinking, it is actually blinking out the DTC fault codes that's causing the SES light to be illuminated. It's a 4 digit code...the long flashes are the first digit (ten flashes for 0) and then it will quickly flash the 2nd digit, pause, quickly flash the 3rd digit, pause, quickly flash 4th digit and pause, repeat. No codes is 0000. So, with this, there is no need to have the codes read by anyone...the car will tell you what the codes are.

You can depress the accelerator pedal to erase codes and reset ECM ANYTIME during the codes being flashed out. So, this is much more than just a way to reset the ECM and SES light.

This is a tricky thing to do and that 7 seconds is VERY difficult to time exactly right. Need a stopwach for sure with this because it is a VERY EXACT process with timing it. Usually takes me 3 or 4 tries to get it right. Turn ignition off for ~10 seconds between tries.

NOW...for the next trick.

At the END of the 7 seconds, you floor the gas pedal and it SHOULD start flashing codes after 10 seconds if you've done it correctly. If you keep the acc pedal to the floor after it starts flashing and just keep it there for about 10 seconds after it starts flashing, the SES light will stop flashing and light up solid. IF you start the car within 3 seconds, that is the idle-air volume relearn. Any kind of intake mods will require you to do this.

To do this, the engine must be at operating temp, ALL accessories OFF, steering wheel pointed straight ahead, vehicle in neutral and no fault codes stored. Just let the engine idle for 2 or 3 minutes then race the engine a few times and verify that it falls smoothly back to a normal idle speed. DONE.

Late,
Trav

I have a question, the evap lines for some of you were the cause. Did any of you have the FI cat back when you took it to the dealer? Mine came on 3 days ago and my gas cap seems fine and I checked all the imediated sensors under the hood which are fine. Im just wondering what the dealer is going to say since I recently had to order brand new oem headers and all 4 sensors due to Nissan's sh*tty manufacturing and building and I have a feeling the dealer is going to to bring that up for warranty reasons.

Okay, I took the car to the dealer, sure enough he said it was a gas code. Not a big deal. However here is something interesting he told me. He said that even though te exhaust and intake effect the way the A/F ratio run compared to stock they shuld not void the warranty. He told me in some cases long tbe headers MAY void a warranty but he hasn't sen that issue yet on a 370z (probably because it is still new). He said if it was evap lines the exhaust won't void the warranty even though I removed the heat shield at the rear end of the car to install the exhaust. Furthermore I have this insanely annoying "creek" in the hatch area of my Z. He said that as long as it is withing 12k miles it wil be covered. After 12k miles it will now be covered and the dealer told me they couldn't fix it I would have to take it to a body shop which would be covered which I think is sort of :bs: The passeneger side of my hatch has a 6-7mm gap comapred to the 3-4mm gap on the driver side.


I think we should provide a sticky of all the little issues that our Z's have had and how dealer respond to them with warranties, stock, modded, etc. It provides much more insight I think to other members who have these small things like a gas cap that seems to work fine but throws CEL's or a creek in a hatch that can't be fixed wuthout a week in a body shop.

The procedure worked for me after installing luminated kick plates. Thks alot! check engine and driver window problems after disconnecting battery.

it's the gas cap. same thing here. took two trips to the dealer and two different gas caps and finally it cleared up. this is a known problem

Hey guys. So we're still back to the gas cap?

I thought it was a part (valve) replacement. Final verdict?

This is annoying. I have a code reader/eraser in my car because of this.


(I exported my usdm nismo so can't bring it in for warranty)

I had the Service Engine Soon light. Called dealer. They waited two days to see if it clears. It doesn't. I made an appointment today, and they replaced the fuel cap. Possibly design malfunction on the 2009-2010

Apparently it's a known issue to Nissan.

Its a known issue i had mine replaced 3 !!!! times before it helped.
If it comes back on have them replace the fuel filler neck also.

Well, I'll join the club of the iluminated light. Not at all impressed to see this many reports of a known issue and the dealer service departments still knowing relatively little about it.

Shame on Nissan.

It's a known issue. Just keep bugging them about it.
They even had to pressure my system and blow smoke in
It to search for small evac leaks

I have the same code but it is because I broke a connector in my carbon evap canister and had a loose tube... I hope to fix it by gluing back the connector because my car is not under warranty :(

If not I must have to buy a new one ($350), that damn thing is a black plastic box hidden behind the passenger side rear wheel, with tubes coming out of it. Connectors seemed to be rather weak.

Just got F.I. rest. Test Pipes + TDX CBE installed. After 300 miles my SES lit up, how do i know if it is the test pipes leak causing it? and if so what can do about it? I was under the impression that one shouldn't throw an SES light with the test pipes because the 02 sensor still connect to them. any advice will help thanks.

Fern to the Z

I have GTM resonated test pipes and don't seem to have any issues. The CEL has only come on once after filling up. I just turned the gas cap several clicks and the light went off after a few days. It hasn't come on again since.

I'd pull the code and go from there. Procedure is a few pages back.

Ok, I just installed HFCs and cat back exhaust. I did disconnect the negative battery terminal because the directions stated to. Now I have a Service Engine Soon light when the car is running.
I tried the above meathod to clear the SES light with no luck. Will removing the negative battery terminal for a minute or two clear the code like the gas pedal meathod? If so, how long should I keep the negative terminal disconnected for before I reconnect it?
Thanks!

Service engine soon light on
 

Had the same issue with my 09 370Z...Pulled the MAF sensors off and cleaned them with MAF cleaner and replaced air filters on both sides. Did a reset on the warning light and haven't seen it since :) thanks for the heads up!