Pete 2004 LS V-6
Active LVC Member
Anyone know what this means?
Engine check light blinking
- Thread starter Pete 2004 LS V-6
- Start date
I would not drive it! if you continue to do so, you will damage the engine beyong repair! pull into an autozone and get the codes ASaP, better yet, leave the car parked wherever it is and pull the codes. borrow a scan tool..knowing the codes will get you far!
Don't drive it! You stand an excellent chance of damaging the "cats". Get the code(s) read or take it to a competent shop to find out what part of the emissions system is at fault. My bet is one, or most probably multiple, coils have failed.
Where to begin........
FDR
Dedicated LVC Member
You urgently need to check your engine.
We can't tell you what it means specifically. You have to get the code. But it's most likely 6 coils and 6 plugs.
We can't tell you what it means specifically. You have to get the code. But it's most likely 6 coils and 6 plugs.
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
I agree with the rest. A blinking CEL means there is a catastrophic failure with the engine. The last time I had a BLINKING CEL, this was the 5000 dollar problem I found:
TOW your car to a repair shop. Incidentally, this was a 4.8 in my Chevy truck, not my LS.
TOW your car to a repair shop. Incidentally, this was a 4.8 in my Chevy truck, not my LS.
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
this is not true, the engine could run like a turd with a blinking CEL and then later you could fix the problem and have no damage done to the engine itself...
it does mean that there is a serious problem and driving with it happening COULD lead to serious damage if driven too far (which is not too far for the catalytic converters to melt solid) but it doesn't mean you you have catastrophic failure and your going to be pulling parts of rods and pistons out of your crank case...
RigsLS
Dedicated LVC Member
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2012
- Messages
- 7,756
- Reaction score
- 532
It's a summons from your Local Ford/Lincoln dealership, time for you to stop by and open wallet.
OP: your answer is in the owners manual... i had it once <coil related> and i remember looking it up while sitting in a parking lot. that was yrs ago, so i dont remember exactly what the deal was, but i want to say the cel starts blinking on or after the 3rd time that something happens.. the something was either a misfire code or a wrench light...
Yup..... Drove my old V6 like that, missing like crazy, for about 100 freeway miles and I ended up destroying one cat. That car now has about 190K and still runs great. Burns no oil, leak nothing, shifts like it should and the only "concern" my mechanic mentioned was the rear suspension bushings looked like they didn't have much life left.
1LoudLS
Dedicated LVC Member
lol, with my V6, I picked it up from the collision shop, and they had just sprayed the engine down with a power washer right before I got there... went to drive it home and I could feel it missing a little within the first mile, turned right back around and took it back, the manager said it drove fine for him an hour ago when he personally did the test drive to make sure it was good before calling me and it must just have a "spot of bad gas" just drive it home and if I have any other problems to give him a call tomorrow. well about 3 miles toward home the miss got way worse, the CEL started blinking so again I turned it around, threw the keys on the counter and said try it for yourself bro and call when when you un-fukc my car, then left. the dude calls the next day and tells me i must have had a cat starting to go bad and it just happened to die right then...
well after going to the dealer (cause the ford collision wasn't going to try to fix that...) I asked them what they found, the tech said half the plug wells were full of water and it caused this kind of damage... so I asked him could this be caused if I power washed off my motor right before driving it? he said it sure as hell was probably the problem and that I never should have done that... I tell him thanks, and replace what ever he needs to no matter what the cost but please put it in writing that the power washing is what did the damage. he could believe I didnt have a problem spending a couple grand more like that... then after speaker to corporate ford, and giving them all of the info and explained to them that since the body shop had the car for over a month, there was no way I could have got water in the plug wells and that the shop manager even told me it was one of the things his guys did right before I got there. long story short, the body shop manager was not a happy guy when he say that his shop had to foot the bill.
there there was the time I had a couple of coils go bad on my way to work and started throwing ETC failsafe codes with a blinking CEL but i still had a couple of miles to go, and I needed to get it to the shop to work on it so I just drove it there, restarting the car as needed. yep, took about 5 miles and then the cats were so clogged that the motor would just stall when you gave it much gas. as that was directly my fault, I did not pay to have them replaced...
depending on the severity, you may be able to drive a lot of miles, or you may be able to drive a few miles! but really, just dont drive it!
Telco
Dedicated LVC Member
Yeah, bit of a mistype on my part, thanks. Should have said high probability of a catastrophic failure. Still and all, when my engine dropped a valve into the chamber it was immediately followed by a blinking CEL, which of course was quickly followed by an engine shutdown.
joegr
Dedicated LVC Member
In any event, I think that we can agree that continuing to drive with the check-engine light flashing can (and probably will) get very expensive.
The flashing light indicates that there are fairly severe misfires going on. This means that gasoline is going into one or more cylinders and not getting ignited. This raw gasoline quickly gets pushed to the catalytic converters where it will ignite and melt them. Also, you could get enough raw gas in the cylinder(s) to wash the oil off the rings and cylinder walls and do damage there as well.
The flashing light indicates that there are fairly severe misfires going on. This means that gasoline is going into one or more cylinders and not getting ignited. This raw gasoline quickly gets pushed to the catalytic converters where it will ignite and melt them. Also, you could get enough raw gas in the cylinder(s) to wash the oil off the rings and cylinder walls and do damage there as well.