SES Light 95 Grand Am

cessnaguy1965

New member
Joined
Jun 4, 2013
Messages
18
Reaction score
0
Points
0
Location
Taylorville, Il.
The 1995 Grand Am with the wonderful 3100 V-6 and auto transmission is behaving wonderfully and is a total blast to drive. Except...When coasting, turning off the cruise, braking semi hard, or accelerating semi hard, the Service Engine Soon light will come on. No check engine light, just the SES. Will this set a code?? I have noticed that if I drive it with the softest kid gloves I have, nice and easy, I can keep the light off for the drive. It hardly ever comes on while driving in town but comes on with regularity on the highway?? Also, is there a way a person can search this forum??:confused: The Corvette Forum I belong to has a wonderful search tool. Thanks in advance for any and all responces.

Cessnaguy
 
you should see the word search about a third of the way down from the screen. Autozone and other stores do free code checks and it should be in memory
 
Yeah Mel - After I got done posting this question I noticed the search feature. Nothing like making an idiot of yourself for millions to see on the internet. With the car being a 1995 is this the obd one or two setup? Another funny thing, since I have asked this question, the light has refused to come on. I will take it to get it scanned, though.

Cessnaguy
 
95 is the year right on the cusp of the switch from OBDI to OBDII. The place where you have it scanned will be able to tell or you can look up the image of the diagnostic port for the two systems and compare to what you have.
______________________________
 
1995 might be the other oddball ODB year (the 1994 I worked on was the other, and I think there's 2 years that have the problem). If it does fall into this category, you probably won't be able to just pop into any local parts store for a quick code check. My research on the problem revealed that it's unofficially referred to as OBD1.5, it's the OBD2 system, with an OBD1 ALDL port. This makes it impossible for most scanners to hook up to, since you have to have an OBD2 scanner with interchangeable connectors which includes the OBD1 style connector. They do exist, but are pricier and not as common (and possibly not made anymore, the one model I know for sure works that anybody could buy was discontinued, but they still pop up on ebay, etc.).

I got into disagreements with a few different people at the places I went to first (Advance and Oreillys) because they assumed that with the OBD1 port, an OBD1 scanner should work, or the old jump the connector with a paper clip and count the blinking lights method. FWIW, I tried that method myself and it didn't work, the ECM isn't setup to spit out the codes that way, and some people have said that grounding out that terminal could potentially fry stuff. As far as I can tell, I never hurt anything doing it, but I wouldn't try it. Anyways, the ports are visually different, if you do some googling you should be able to find pics comparing the two, and just look at yours, it should be under the driver side dash, almost directly beneath the steering wheel.

That being said, your best bet is either a dealer or a full-service mechanic. They have diagnostic equipment that can handle virtually everything under the sun, including the oddball b.s. from the "transitional" years because nearly every manufacturer was doing their own thing until OBD2 was officially adopted in '96? (that was the whole point of OBD2 being federally mandated, it standardized the entire system across all manufacturers, eliminating the problem of different systems, different connectors, etc., amongst the different manufacturers). The only caveat, because of the cost of what some of this equipment costs, a lot of these places won't just check codes for free, some (and I assume all dealer service shops) will charge a fee, so call around first.
 
JUST GREAT!! Stuck in the middle with nowhere to go. Not that it is of any importance at this point. The water pump went out and after I had replaced it and refilled with fresh coolant, the light has refused to come on again. Coasting, with cruise or without, hard acceleration, you name it no light since then. Engine runs perfectly, so I believe that I have nothing to worry about. As a side note, I'd like to ask another question. This car seems to get amazing fuel economy. A fill up is right around 14 gallons and I can easily stretch this for ~ 425 miles. This equals to around a 31 MPG OVERALL average. Not exactly at the Hybrid figures, but still not too bad for a 160 HP V-6 automatic. I do not run the A/C because 1 - it does not work, and 2 - I probably wouldnt use it even if it did. Too much A/C gives me a whopping headache and I would rather live with heat than that. At any rate, thanks for the responses and I will check back if anything else pops up. At least I know where the search feature is located at now!!:D
 
Mine is a 96 4 door with the 3.1L, auto trans. When using it for a 60 mile commute running around 70 mph+/- I'd get about 28 mpg steady. That's with A/C as required. It's a nice driving car with decent economy, even now.
 
Back
Top