Grrrrrrr.......Sienna Woes

[Tim]

My '98 Sienna runs great at 228k miles. A/C still works fine, cruise stem busted loose recently...but not a big deal on a commuter.

Well, now my airbag light is on, and I have an O2 sensor CEL.

Either light will kill the annual inspection coming up in October.

Fixing both will likely cost more than the van is worth. I might just drive it until I get nabbed...then try to sell it to someone in a state without inspections.

Owned this thing since new and it has been great...I hate to lose it over a couple idiot lights. Sure, airbags are nice....but not that nice!

Maybe I'll just park it at the hunting lease and use it for beating around the ranch........


Rant off.

 

[JHZR2]

An airbag is only good for about 10 years...

Can you disable the airbag/warning light and get by? I can't imagine they scan the airbag system - it's likely just a visual check.

You should be cognizant of the fact that after 10 yrs, an airbag may not work as it is designed to.

 

[adamjeeps]

Clear the CEL before you take it for inspection. It will probably take a few restarts to show back up again. Pull the fuse for the airbags to kill the light.

 

[nthach]

If the cruise stem busted off, you could have a severed wire in the wiring harness between the airbag/horn/cruise control switch and the spiral cable.

 

[asiancivicmaniac]

Originally Posted By: adamjeeps
Clear the CEL before you take it for inspection. It will probably take a few restarts to show back up again. Pull the fuse for the airbags to kill the light.


I think they would be able to tell that the CEL has been cleared that recently. I think it takes several drives for the system to be ready after a CEL is cleared.

 

[nthach]

And airbags are good for more than 10 years - I know there was a test that NHTSA and Morton did on the very first car that had airbags a while ago - and they deployed perfectly.

However, sodium azide is some nasty stuff.

 

[adamjeeps]

I cleared my CEL with the Torque Droid app and checked it on the next start up and it was gone.

Does the inspection even hook up to the OBD2 if there is no light on?

 

[bdcardinal]

When you clear the CEL, there will be a P1000 code that will show up, but wont set off a light. I know in CA if you have a P1000 on a smog check its an immediate fail. Basically P1000 means that not all the monitors have run.

 

[crazyoildude]

you have to fix the cel and the airbag light problem and drive the car around for 50 miles to make sure it is ok if its not the inspection will know and fail you..There are things you can do to "beat the system" but the cost is high and if you get caught it can get pretty expensive

 

[Cutehumor]

my 96 sunfire check engine light just came on a few weeks ago and my inspection is due in august. car runs fine. I'm hoping it's something simple

 

[Tim]

Thanks for all the comments.

I had an abs light on my '91 240 despite the abs working. I pulled the cluster and yanked the bulb! May have to do similar surgery on the Sienna airbag light....pulling the fuse, as mentioned by adamjeeps.

The o2 sensor may be tougher...they do hook up to OBD and the do a tailpipe test on a dyno roller. If you aren't clean, you fail regardless of idiot lights.

 

[Hokiefyd]

The O2 sensor can't be more than 75 bucks can it? Certainly the van is worth THAT!

 

[MrCritical]

Could be a lot cheaper than you think to repair-a sensor and/or a wiring problem.

Trust me, you don't want the legal liability of selling a vehicle with airbag problems regardless of how explicitly they were stated or what waiver the buyer signs.

 

[addyguy]

Originally Posted By: Cutehumor
my 96 sunfire check engine light just came on a few weeks ago and my inspection is due in august. car runs fine. I'm hoping it's something simple


My '02 Cavalier had the check engine light on when I went in for one of our 2-year emmission tests....they just noted it was on, ran the test, and it passed with flying colours.

Don't know if your 'inspections' are the same.......

 

[NateDN10]

Originally Posted By: addyguy
My '02 Cavalier had the check engine light on when I went in for one of our 2-year emmission tests....they just noted it was on, ran the test, and it passed with flying colours.

Don't know if your 'inspections' are the same.......

This varies from place to place. In NYS (excepting NYC) for the emissions portion, you pass as long as there are no codes. So a CEL is an automatic fail. I believe in NYC they use sniffers as well.

 

[JTK]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
When you clear the CEL, there will be a P1000 code that will show up, but wont set off a light. I know in CA if you have a P1000 on a smog check its an immediate fail. Basically P1000 means that not all the monitors have run.


Exactly. In any States that are required to scan OBDII systems that I'm aware of, even if you pulled a battery cable you'll fail the readiness test. Most vehicles need a bit of driving to clear that out 100%. ~50mi or so.

 

[sleddriver]

There is a loop-hole regarding monitors/timers/flags in certain 98 model cars with OBDII. I know because my 98 Volvo wagon is one of them.

Some of these show up as 'Not Ready' when they poll the OBDII.

In other words, even though some of these flags are set when I get my car inspected, it's still passed because it falls under this exclusion.

 

[hypervish]

The 02 sensor is only about $106, on amazon oem denso part too.

The van is still worth at least $5k.

 

[Tim]

I just ordered a front O2 sensor from Autohaus AZ for $86.


Time to start spraying the old one with Liquid Wrench! Been in there for 228k miles...

 

[crazyoildude]

here in NJ you wont pass inspection if there is a cel on even if you take out the bulb the computer will be sure to nark you out