Flashing CEL anyone?

[biggie]

It happened a few months ago then not again until yesterday. Flashes 10 times and then goes away.

My guess is that it's going to be the Cats. And I don't know of any cheap alternative (HFC) for the 5.6L, so that could suck some money from bank account.

Thanks

[armybrat]

Check A/F sensors before cats, and O2 sensors, after cats. If those are ok, check MAF sensors, gas cap and spark plugs...cats as a last resort. Driver's side cat changeout requires pulling the motor, around 2K plus...

[Ilya]

Flashing CEL is just flashing the P0 code to you. Let me guess...some flashes are long and some are quick? That combination is just telling you the rest of the code.

P0405, for example, might be 4 short flashes and 5 long flashes...or vice versus.

I'd get the car scanned with an OBD-II scanner...code should be registered there. I use a bluetooth dongle that I leave plugged in and use my Torque app on my Android phone to read the car date in real-time (all sorts of cool sensors) and also check for codes.

[SwissCheeseHead]

Flashing CEL is just flashing the P0 code to you. Let me guess...some flashes are long and some are quick? That combination is just telling you the rest of the code.

P0405, for example, might be 4 short flashes and 5 long flashes...or vice versus.

I'd get the car scanned with an OBD-II scanner...code should be registered there. I use a bluetooth dongle that I leave plugged in and use my Torque app on my Android phone to read the car date in real-time (all sorts of cool sensors) and also check for codes.

Will have to agree here. No point in throwing money at replacing and troubleshooting when you have OBDII to tell you the codes. I also have a BT dongle and Torque app that I can use to pull codes. Otherwise, most autoparts stores will pull them for you for free.

[biggie]

I will definitely check the code first, just curious if anyone else was having cats go out on the '11 models. Replaced cats on my wife's '06 QX56 last year (of course it was totaled a couple months later).

[Ilya]

Yeah I think someone else mentioned they had a failure or it's starting to fail...might have been DFW.

[Debonair]

I don't think most modern OBDII cars do not flash codes through the Check Engine Light. A small number will, but as far as I know you have to command them to with a series of button presses on the dash. Much more common on pre-96 vehicles.

A flashing Check Engine Light generally indicates the detected problem could damage the catalyst system and that the car should not be driven. On solid = check soon, flashing = pull over and shut down.

As said above get a scan tool on the car ASAP, retrieve the OBDII code, and report back.

[Ilya]

I don't think most modern OBDII cars do not flash codes through the Check Engine Light. A small number will, but as far as I know you have to command them to with a series of button presses on the dash. Much more common on pre-96 vehicles.

A flashing Check Engine Light generally indicates the detected problem could damage the catalyst system and that the car should not be driven. On solid = check soon, flashing = pull over and shut down.

As said above get a scan tool on the car ASAP, retrieve the OBDII code, and report back.

Actually...

You may be right. Now that I'm going through my brains memory banks, I remember on the old 4th gen Maxima's you would have to turn a screw on the ECU behind the kick plate and then it would trigger the blinking. If you 'closed' the screw, it would stop.

[biggie]

If the flashing would happen more often I'd already have checked it. This has only happened twice and it was over 2 months in between the times.