Bizarre problem fixed....maybe...... Help please..

[dougie212]

Hi there

Ok, this had me totally confused....... Hope someone can shed a bit of light on it....

Yesterday, I took my 51 plate 2.0TD Grand Vitara to Sainsburys to fuel up....

Shortly afterwards the engine management light came on, and the engine held revs for a second or two when the clutch was depressed to change gear.

This developed into every time I depressed the clutch or brought the car to a stop, the car was revving highly literally accelerating on its own. When I managed to stop the car the revs held up high for a while, the eventually dropped down to around 1200 rpm where it was idling.

Arriving at home, I opened the bonnet to see that the throttle cable was moving freely and returning normally which it was. On the side of the throttle cable housing, (I'm not technical so excuse the simplicity) was a connector. My thinking was to unplug it, leave it a bit a plug it back in, and see if that reset may reset the sensors or easy fuel/air sensors it may be running. As luck would have it, it worked, and the car now seems to run a hell of a lot better than it ever did before, although maybe this is just psychological.

My question is does anyone know what may have caused these symptoms, and could my fix be a permanent fix or have I just temporarily masked it? The engine management light is still on, but I'm thinking that this will stay on now until I get it reset.

Thanks in advance

Duncan

[donkeychomp]

Plug it into a diagnostic tool and see what comes up?

[Rhinoman]

The Check Engine Light should go off by itself once the problem is fixed and its been through whatever drive cycles are required by the ECUs self test programme. Unplugging the sensor won't reset the ECU and the light is on so I would think that you still have an issue.

[Ginger_boy]

Hi if you think you fixed it and haven't got access yo the EOBDll reader/reset tool. Disconnect the battery for over 30s this should clear the ecu. The car may do some strange stuff when you reconnect like the revs dieing when stopping. Mine did this the first couple of time i reset the ecu this way. I just left the engine to run and idle for about 10mins had no prob's when i did that. I have a reader now for the checking and resetting.

[dougie212]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I shall try taking the battery off for 30 seconds. What kind of reader do you guys use?

[Rhinoman]

I use either a Tech2 or an SDT, it depends on the year/model. A 2001 may not be OBD2, I would recommend that you either buy a cheap tool, like an ELM, or borrow someone else's and see if it works.