89-90 Check Engine Light. Why does mine NOT work?

[Prelude Guy]

Hey all,

I will make this short. I CANNOT get my CEL to come ON. I am having a MAJOR issue with my car. I check the code....55 every time. Is this common?

I pulled the O2 sensor, EGR hose, plug wire, TPS sensor......NOTHING. No CEL or anything. Why??

EDIT: 89-90 I mean, a 89-90 KA24E motor

[S13inBatnRuge]

what sort of issue? whats it doing

[ricebike]

umm, stupid ? but....

do u have a CA-emission car? the federeal-emission car didn't come w/ a check engine light.

if so, then whoopee, i have no idea what the problem is.

mebbe the previous owner of that CA-emission car had removed the bulb from the cluster or somethin' somethin'

[PMan_S13]

its not going to turn on in the older models because the ecus are not designed to look for that kind of failure.

Realize that the CEL was not designed to turn on at the first cough until OBD2 came out..

[ricebike]

its not going to turn on in the older models because the ecus are not designed to look for that kind of failure.

Realize that the CEL was not designed to turn on at the first cough until OBD2 came out..

really???? wow,learn something new today... is this for the nissans only?can any1 confirm this???

i have a federal-emission car (NJ) & dont have a CEL light @ all... so CA equipped vechiles, chime in & verify please.

(i saw most other manufacturers' vechiles w/ CEL pre-95 obdI always go on for a few seconds as a system check b4 cranking the engine over)

[CaoBoY]

its not going to turn on in the older models because the ecus are not designed to look for that kind of failure.

Realize that the CEL was not designed to turn on at the first cough until OBD2 came out..

really? so when is it supposed to come on? my buddies(89 240sx SE/stock ka24e) CEL came on when he had his egr vacuum hose off for a while(cracked and he was going to get a new one) and the cel was on the whole time... i thought the CEL was to let you know when stuff starts to fail, like sensors go out, stuff like that? when is it supposed to let you know that there is something wrong with the car? when the engine blows up?

[NISTECH]

CEL are not for you on any vehicles. they are there because the goverment told car manufactures they had to have them to moniter emissions eguipment. If the light was a manufacturers choice it would moniter much more then it does. When obdI came out the government told car manufacturers they had to have a way to moniter emissions componets and if one failed the consumer should see a light come on so they will go get it fixed and stop their car from polluting, now california made it a requirment in the early 80's the feds didnt untill early 90's . so some nissans and other car manufacturers dont have them till they were required too. These systems on nissans under obdI were typically rational codes ,basically is it on or is it off[is the voltage above 0 or not, or is it below max voltage or not] it knowns nothing in between. so you could have an emissions part failing but if its within 0 to say 12volts or 5volts[depends on sensor] it has no idea somethings wrong. in the egr case it looks for voltage to mearly change when the egr solonoid opens, it dont care how much just as long as it changes. That is obdI also it will erase any code if it sees the part fixed instead of keeping it stored for ever.

Now OBDII is a totally different animal as it uses logic now as well as rational. but it still only moniters emissions. but all obdII cars have to have a service engine soon light [CEL]