ses light

[PhantomZ28]

wholy krap! i swear my car is purpousely trying to tick me off now!! ok the ses light came on (i didnt have the egr tube blocked or removed if youve been reading the past week threads)
its says catalysy efficency below threshold bank 2 and bank 1. now thats my cat converters right? i put everythign back to how the exhaust was with the egr tube but now i dont know whats going on. if it is the cat's can i just get simulators to take care of the problem? would that work or do i need to spend another 200 bucks and get 2 new cats?

i swear though if one more thing breaks i'll set that car on FIRE!! (jks)

[Injuneer]

Well... as usual, no info on the year of the car, but since you have "after-cat" sensors and OBD-II we can assume your car is a 96 or newer. Did you just make any changes to the exhaust system? Seems odd you would get the same code simultaneously on both sides of the engine. Did you do anything recently that would affect cat performance, like use leaded racing fuel?

Sims would eliminate the code/SES light. I'd try and figure out what caused the problem first.

[PhantomZ28]

lol sorrie about that. mabey i should just out what i have in my signature but i did just buy a hypertech power programer 3 days before. and i still have the origional cats from 1996 when the guy before me bought it.

[fastTa]

Weird for bank1 and bank 2 to simultaneously trigger a problem. Sounds emissions related.
You weren't real clear on what you were saying about your egr system. Can you expand on that?

[PhantomZ28]

sure. the egr system mainly the pipe that leads from the passenger side exhaust manifold to the intake manifold, i wanted to block and ultimately remove. i made a steel plate for this hole on the back of the intake manifold. i did that and then teh same day i got the ses codes of bank 1 and 2. so i took the plate off thinking this would fix the problem. but it did not. i got teh code again.

[fastTa]

Typically the EGR system will add about 3% more pressure within the intake plenum. If you disconnect your EGR tube like you said, whether or not the EGR opening is closed, the MAP (manifold absolute pressure) sensor will notice this and throw a code. This will also usually result in a bank1/bank2 catalytic inefficiency code like you had. You must have the PCM reprogrammed to delete the EGR w/o throwing a code.

Fred will probably give you a more detailed explanation, but I just hate typing that much!

[Detroit_Bird]

What's the advantage to having EGR disconnected? I thought it would give a slight increase in part throttle response with optimal tuning, but since the stock tuning is expecting a slightly leaner mix (along with higher intake pressure and temp) wouldn't this actually decrease part throttle power and defeat the purpose? Or am I missing something-

[PhantomZ28]

but the codes where thrown AFTER i removed the plate too! thats what i'm stumped about.

and the advantage in my opinion is that the tube will cause teh lt1 oil leak if you take it out cuz the heat will be gone