Afternoon gents and ladies,

So, today while I was driving around in the frozen wasteland that is my hometown, I got a CEL.

I'll give you the backstory.

For the past four days it has been -40 degrees out (celsius or far, take your pick). I've had to use the RX as a bit of a snow plow here and there through 8 inches of snow or so, nothing big. There have been ALOT of bumpy roads from hard packed snow, so lots of wriggling around on the suspension. I've been letting her warm up for at least 10 minutes every time before I drive, but yesterday I noticed that the exhaust note seemed to be lower than usual...

Today, same deal. Low exhaust tone, and a bit louder as well. As I was driving, got the CEL... Did I do something to the cat-con by driving through snow/heavy bumps?
Shake the O2 sensor loose?
Shake the crappy filtering out of the Cat?

I have no idea... I'll be taking here to the dealership tomorrow to a computer check, but I was wondering if anyone here had any ideas....

Aside from the exhaust note, I've noticed NO change in the car whatsoever. Power's still there, oil's still flowing, no overheats....
Car has slightly over 60K miles. New plugs, wires, battery, rad, rad reservoir.

Thanks

 

does exhaust smell bad? cant really tell much until you get the codes read

 

First of all there is no need to warm up the car while idling. You can warm up the car while driving under heavy loads (just do not rev above 4k rpm until it warms up). Start the car wait a bit until rpms drop (it could take a few seconds up to a couple of minutes depending outside temperature) and then start driving gently. Our car runs very rich while cold. So idling to warm up is a waste of gas and a risk for frying your cat.

Like Xero said anything we say at this point with the provided info is just a speculation. Some members including myself had a SSV stuck Open CEL when weather got really cold (in my case this happened with 11 degrees F). After redlining the car a few times CEL disappeared and has not come up back again for about a year now (fingers crossed). Hopefully, it is a simple fix!

I doubt driving has caused any of the above.

 

I'll give this a try, CEL went off last night on the highway, then came back on this morn on my way to work....

Also, 11 degrees F?! That's a warm spring morning here mate! But man do I hate this bitter cold.....

 

I saw your location at your avatar and I honestly was thinking whether I should include the temperature in my post or not.

 

Do yourself a favor and get a code reader! Either a PLX Kiwi or some other wifi/bluetooth OBDII connector and a ipod/smartphone app or actual reader. The $100 you spend will pay for itself tenfold over the years.

 

^+1

 

Without the code, everything is pointless.
You can get a code reader off ebay for $20.

 

Well, strangely enough....the problem solved itself....
Once the weather 'warmed up' to a reasonable -15 celcius, the light went off. I assume something was just frozen open/shut...
Still going to pick up a code reader for sure, worth it with this car sometimes....
Thanks guys!