Mitsubishi Space Star II (2002 - 2006) - 2002 1.6 Petrol, engine management fault

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Fri 18 Jan 2008 19:36
2002 1.6 Petrol, engine management fault - Fiddy Shilling
I hope you can help me with this. My dad has a 52 plate Space Star II with an engine management light which keeps coming on despite various solutions being applied to rectify what appears to be an oxygen sensor failure.

His local Mitsubishi main dealer told him that one of the two oxygen sensors had blown and that despite running the diagnostic checks, they didn't know which one it was. They replaced one of them a few weeks ago but the warning light came back on soon after.

My dad then took the car back and they replaced the other sensor. The light went out and everything was fine until today, when the warning light came back on. What I was wondering is has anybody had any similar experiences and do they know what he should do next?

He seems resigned to going back to Mitsubishi and forking out more money (it's cost him about £600 so far) but I said to him that he should complain and demand that the problem be rectified free of charge by them. However, if this persistent problem is a more serious indication of a bigger problem with his car, then maybe there isn't any simple solution.

Thanks

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 18/01/2008 at 19:40

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Fri 18 Jan 2008 19:57
2002 1.6 Petrol, engine management fault - Screwloose

An oxy sensor has "blown" and they can't tell which one - with dealer equipment!!

He was talking to a moron. What was the actual code?

More than half the oxy sensors changed are perfectly OK; just because the code says "sweep rate too low" or "sensor signal out of range" etc. it does not mean that the sensor is duff. Don't shoot the messenger comes to mind.
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Fri 18 Jan 2008 20:01
2002 1.6 Petrol, engine management fault - Fiddy Shilling
I'll be honest, neither my dad or I are very mechanically-minded, and we don't know what the code was that came up.

Could there be a fault with the actual engine management light itself? That might be implausible, but I just wondered...
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Fri 18 Jan 2008 20:17
2002 1.6 Petrol, engine management fault - Screwloose

The light is just there to indicate that there's a problem. It's common title is MIL - [malfunction indicator light.] If it comes on, there will be codes stored.

There are literally dozens of different oxy sensor codes and all codes on multiple sensor systems [up to eight!] will be very specific about which sensor they refer to - sensor 2, bank 1 etc. [The post-cat sensor on a single bank engine; or bank 1 of a V-engine.]

To say that they didn't know which sensor the codes referred to is ludicrous. That can only mean that the retard that was doing the code-read didn't know which sensor was which.

Diagnosis by moron gets very expensive. Insist on both a refund and that all subsequent work is carried out by properly trained staff. If they refuse, threaten to inform Mitsi.

It's very likely that this dealer - like many others - has lost their diag tech. It may be necessary to move to another dealership that has still got one; they are getting very thin on the ground now and soon there will be only the clowns left - nobody seems to be concerned about it though.
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Fri 18 Jan 2008 20:22
2002 1.6 Petrol, engine management fault - Fiddy Shilling
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Would Mitsubishi be bothered? I'm not dismissing the idea of threatening to inform them, but would the gesture of a threat to do so give the dealer the kick up the backside they need?

Edited by Dynamic Dave on 19/01/2008 at 01:24

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