A severe blow to my hybrid karma today - the "Service Engine Soon" light came on half way into my commute to Boston. The car still ran fine and continued to get excellent mileage for the rest of the commute - about 20 miles. When I got to work I read the manual - hey, I'm only at work - what else did I have to do - didn't seem to be any rush to have it taken care of - so I called the dealer and made an appointment for the 24th when I'll be on vacation.

I did some surfing on the net - remember, I'm only at work - what else did I have to do - and found directions on how to read the codes and what they mean at nissanclub.com:

http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/new...edure-07s.html

At lunch I walked over to the parking garage and ran the procedure - it took a couple of trys to get it to work - and pulled the code 0133 which translated into "Oxygen Sensor Circuit Slow Response". I cleared the code from the computer and after driving home from Boston and running errands tonight it hasn't come back on.

I think I'll keep my appointment with the dealer on the 24th and if it hasn't come back on by the 23rd I'll cancel and continue to monitor. I hate to have to do the dealer thing unless I'm sure it's a real problem and not a one time transient thing - the emission system has the California warranty for 10 years or 150,000 miles so it's not like there's a big rush. At the worst it would mean a trip to the dealer to have the sensor replaced but they would probably only reset anyway and see if it would come back on before replacing anything - exactly what I'm doing. As long as it continues to run fine and keeps getting good mileage I'm going to try to not loose any sleep over this.

My wife's 2005 Passat had to be brought in four times in two months to get the same light taken care of - didn't have the convienent method to pull the codes with her car.

 

Nice info. Thanks.

-Gren

 

You're welcome

I also should have included a link I used to troubleshoot the code:

http://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/index.php

This site actually suggested resetting the CPU first to see if the code comes back before doing anything else.

 

Thank you, for the Info,
I tried it and it worked.

 

WOW - This was a blast from the past - over three years since I posted this. I'm still driving my 2007 NAH with about 30,000 miles on it now and haven't seen the "Service Engine Soon" light again - best car I've ever owned.

 

Okay, this isn't working for me. My husband tried it 2 times in a row, following the instructions to the letter, then the next night I tried it 3 times in a row. We don't want to try it too many times for fear of flooding the engine with all the pumping of the accelerator. How many times do we need to do it? And any other options when this doesn't work? I would hate to have to pay the dealership to check this out. The light has been on for over a week now, maybe 2 weeks (can't remember). Any advice would be appreciated!
Thanks

 

you can also disconnect the battery for a few minutes (it'll be annoying to reset radio stations and stuff though).

but the process does work. I don't think you'll flood the engine as newer cars don't have drive-by-wire. you are pressing a button (accelerator) that has no mechanical connection to the engine

just to be sure, this is what you're doing, right?


To get to Diagnostic Codes

1. Confirm that accelerator pedal is fully released, turn ignition switch “ON” and wait 3 seconds.
2. Repeat the following two procedures quickly five times within 5 seconds:
   1. Fully depress the accelerator pedal (HARD).
   2. Fully release the accelerator pedal.
3. Wait 7 seconds, fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it for approx. 10 seconds until the CEL starts blinking.

Slow flashes indicate the first number of the 4 digit code, faster flashes indicate the other 3 digits.
There will be a pause of about 1 second between each digit of the code.
10 flashes = 0, 1 flash = 1, etc...
Reset SES Light (continuation of above)

1. Fully release the accelerator pedal (while the CEL is still blinking)
2. Wait about 10 seconds.
3. Fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it for more than 10 seconds.
4. Fully release the accelerator pedal (The CEL light will continue to blink).
5. Turn ignition switch to “OFF” position and now you can start the car. The CEL light should be gone.

 

Yep, that is what we are doing. Maybe I will try it a few more times if you say it does work. So if it does eventually work, and the light is gone, how do I determine whether there was really a problem? I know the codes will tell me why the light is coming on, but do I need to have the problem checked out regardless? And are these emission problems under extended warranty (because my 3 year warranty is already up)?

 

Flooding the engine by pumping the gas pedal was only a problem in prehistoric times with a carburetor. There was a small pump in the carburetor that would inject a small stream of gas into the throttle every time it was pushed. Fuel injection and especially drive by wire have no such problem.

It took me a number of times to get this to work. Pressing the pedal five times in five seconds can be tricky. I would think that any emission problem should be covered as this car has the PLEV rating which I thought was covered for 15 years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partial...ssions_vehicle

The other thing may be that this procedure was for a 2007 NAH. I doubt that it would be different for later years but maybe Nissan changed something.

 

Thanks. Yep, that's the year I have: 2007.