Check engine light...

[pullshard]

My car(2000 gts) came back from the tuner on tuesday. He installed tnt headers, a vec II, new fuel pump, etc. The car has 3 inch corsa exhaust with hi-flow cats. I fired it up today and I got a CEL. I never had a CEL before the headers were installed. When I was at the shop it did the same thing. He read the codes (o2 sensor-not sure which one) and cleared it. The car ran great, no CEL until this morn. I do not have a code reader, but would like to purchase one. I know there are models that are in the 150 range and on up to 600. I would like to get one that will read codes and clear them. Nothing to fancy. Does anyone have a suggestion on a reader to buy? I see that sean roe has a reader\clearer for around 60 bucks. http://www.roeracing.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=23&idproduct=76 Not sure is this is good enough???
He also has this: http://www.roeracing.com/ProductCart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idcategory=8&idproduct=75
The big question is can I drive the car with CEL lit? I did drive it for a while and it seemed to run great, but I'm not sure what happens when the CEL comes on. I know the car goes into safe mode and runs rich? Is this true?
Now lets say it's a prob. with the car running rich and the o2 is causing the code. How the hell do you fix this? Or do I have to bite the bullet and clear the codes every time I drive the damn thing now?
Thanks all.

 

[AJT]

I got my reader from Autozone. I think it was 160.00. Cheap & it workds great. Can't help you with the rest.

Andy

 

[pullshard]

Sent away for a reader. Bump on CEL.
Thanks

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

Hey pull man, I had this same thing happen to my 99 gts with tons of mods. One day when I started the car at home the cel came on but car ran perfect. I was bringing it to dealer for an all fluid change and asked them to correct it . It was simply a bad 02 sensor and was replaced under my ext. warranty. Why not do the same and let the tech fix it and forget an expensive gaget, trying to figure out what it says and then buying and installing the part if needed.

 

[pullshard]

Won-thanks for the post. I'm thinking it just may be the O2, but I'm not sure which one. I love gadgets, and I love trying to fix things myself. So maybe when I pull codes I'll be able to fix the prob. The one thing I have read is that with these headers, the front O2 sensors are farther down stream then where they were with stock manifolds. This causes the O2 to heat-up slower which tells the PCM that the mixture is to rich and throws a code. But I'm guessing. Won't find out until the reader comes in. If it's the rear O2, sims are easy to install. If it's the fronts, I don't know what the hell to do then.