Friday 8/27/04, I was down in Chicago with the Ram, on my way back home
to Point. I saw my check engine light was on and instantly I was in a
bad mood. I made it over to an AutoOne and they pulled a code P0442 -
"Evaporative Emission Control System, Small Leak Detected"
I had them clear it, and was thankful it was not an O2 sensor or
something worse. I tightened the gas cap - thinking that it might have
been that - the gas cap wasnt real tight so I shrugged it off to that.
Got home with no problems. Back at work Saturday, couple guys wanted to
hear the Ram's exhaust. One owns an 1989 Dakota 4x4. I went out and
started her up - and reved the engine - it sputtered and stumbled for a
moment. I shut it off and could smell fuel real strong outside the
truck. Sucker must have been running real rich. I think it was just
too much throttle for an engine that was still cold.
Drove home from work afterwards, check engine light came back on.
/me pissed
Went back to work - popped the hood and climbed up on top of the engine
and stares directly into my valve cover via the hole in it, right where
I DID NOT have an oil filler cap screwed in. Duh. I changed my oil on
8/2/04. It appears I never put the cap back on. I bought a new one and
figured that must have some how buggered up the computer into a fit and
threw a check engine code. (same one P0442) I cleared the code and went
home.
Yesterday the damned thing came back on again. P0442 - something is
fubar. Any suggestions? I know the obvious... I'm going to go over all
the emissions and vaccum lines and check them out. Bad gas cap? Bad PCV
valve? The PCV valve isnt that old... I changed it back at 30K-some
miles when I did cap, rotor, plugs, wires. Hose to the crank case
breather is attatched at the valve cover and at the air box. Hose is on
the power brake booster. PCV valve is in the drivers side valve cover.
What else am I missing? Its seriously pissing me off. I feel like
this truck is starting to fall alart on me. The fog lights stopped
working again, the window on the drivers side rattles again, I still
need to do the front end steering and chassis parts... (sigh)
-- Terrible Tom -- AIM & Yahoo Name: SilverEightynine http://members.aol.com/silvereightynine/
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