urgent - engine warning light

wraith

wraith

engine warning light - code 1131 swirl valve circuit?

Hi all,

Match 2000 Almera 1.5 no ABS.

Driving fine this morning, washed the car (lots of water round wheels) hard braking twice in driveway and had a deep groaning from front left brakes. It cleared-up and brakes seem fine (tested them plenty on the road) but engine warning light is now on. Car seems to be running fine, temperature normal, brakes fine, steering etc fine. Suspect I just got grease/oil on the disks but would this cause the engine warning light to come on? If so when will it clear or do I have to see a dealer? Any other thoughts?

BTW I can't tell the level of the power steering fluid (I think that's what it is, white plastic cylindrical reserviour a bit shorter but wider than a tin of beans behind coolant reservoir). Is that normal? - steering seems fine.
 
Excellent, thanks.

Been to three suppliers looking for a plug-in reader but two were closed (christmas eve sunday) and the other one only had them for Ford, GM and Peugeot.
 
Ran test mode II (who thought paperclips could be so useful) and it returned code 1131 which according to the service manual I have refers to the swirl control solenoid valve (circuit). The manual describes how to check the system and although I have a multimeter and can shurely blow through a valve to see if it works I don't have a vacuum guage so can't diagnose everything myself.

Anyhow, can anyone give me a bit of background (ie. what the swirl control solenoid system actually does, if it's more likely to be a part or sensor failure, how critical it is and whether it will be safe to drive my car for a few days before I can get it to a garage (bloody christmas holidays - everyone's shut and I've got relatives to ferry about).

Cheers.
 
usally if the engine light comes on the car will go in to SAFE MODE this will usally reduce power on the car but inadling you to drive home etc.
 
A bit of reading and sussed out what the swirl control valve controls the spin of the the air in the cylinders to allow smoother combustion, especially when starting off.
It's likely a sensor circuit fault rather than the valve itself.
The car does not seem to have entered 'limp mode' as it runs fine and revs and runs normally (way past the 3000 rev limit I believe is in place during 'limp mode') and is running smooth enough. I'm due a 55k service next week anyway so I'll just trust my luck until then and get my local garage to fix the faulty circuit at the same time.

Thanks for the advice (more welcome if I missed something, of course).
 
Yea I read it too, it's a butterfly valve of sorts inside the intake that restricts the intake at low revs to increase air speed. It's most likely an electrical problem with the solenoid that actuates it rather than the actual swirl valves.
 
I ha problems with the drivers side front brake. I had replaced the front brakesand i go a juddering sound from it. It turend yout the brake pad was to tight and when it got hot and expanded it made the noisey even worse. I got different make of brake pad and problem was fixed
 
Hi, i have had my engine warning light come on twice now for no apparent reason and then goes out again after a couple of days. Was going to go to a dealer to get the fault code read but it keeps going out before i get there(saves me a fortune), so in my opininon it may be a bit of muck in a sensor or valve in the airflow mas meter or something around that area.
Although come to think about it when its come on its always been really wet conditions :confused:
 
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