Check Engine Light

[09TorredJim]

Driving down the road today at 50 MPH and the check engine light comes on. Did not seem to be a problem but I was close to the dealer so I took it in to have it checked. He could not find any problem but the mechanic did take a nice 15 minute drive in my 6 speed SRT. Probably drove the crap out of it! Has anyone else experienced this light for no apparent reason?

[hitop]

My friend, we are the proud, the few. We are an exclusive fraternity, we are the "Victims of the Dreaded Cylinder 7 misfire"!

No, let's back track a moment here, maybe not for you anyway. When your CEL/MIL light came on, did you feel a very noticeable loss in power? I mean if this happens there's no mistaking it. What occurs is a misfire in cyl 7 and only cyl 7.

This is an ongoing issue for some people on these boards and it is exclusive to the 2009 SRT8 with the manual tranny.

[mjmac]

Originally Posted by 09TorredJim

Driving down the road today at 50 MPH and the check engine light comes on. Did not seem to be a problem but I was close to the dealer so I took it in to have it checked. He could not find any problem but the mechanic did take a nice 15 minute drive in my 6 speed SRT. Probably drove the crap out of it! Has anyone else experienced this light for no apparent reason?

Try driving in 2nd gear while keeping the rpm at ~ 2800 for 20 secs. This is usually a fullproof way for me to induce the now infamous #7 cylinder misfire.

It sounds as though you may have had this happen, just not to the degree that the PCM decides to shut off the fuel to #7. Please see sticky:
6.1 engine misfire (help).

mjmac

[09TorredJim]

Each time this infamous misfire occurs, do you have to take it to the dealer and have the engine light turned off?

[mjmac]

Originally Posted by 09TorredJim

Each time this infamous misfire occurs, do you have to take it to the dealer and have the engine light turned off?

Well Jim,
It's supposed to reset itself if a certain amount of "event free" operation occurrs. Mine reset itself once while the misfire/fuel shut down was still in progress (just to add a new twist to the saga).

mjmac

[69cam]

How many miles did you guys have on your cars before this started happening?

[mjmac]

Originally Posted by 69cam

How many miles did you guys have on your cars before this started happening?

~40 miles. I have ~ 650 now. I do not believe it is a milage issue. I feel that if certain operating conditions are met, the anomaly is generated.
Remember, we are dealing with a sensor calibration issue. We may not even have a misfire but the PCM thinks we do and so it shuts off the fuel. That is when you'll know you have a problem. The engine will run on 7 cylinders, exhibit a definite loss of power and run very rough.. The first time this happened to me, the CEL came on and one bell ring sounded, but the car ran fine.

mjmac

[09TorredJim]

Mine had 1100 miles when the light came on for no reason. The engine was running great and I never felt a misfire.

[mjmac]

Originally Posted by 09TorredJim

Mine had 1100 miles when the light came on for no reason. The engine was running great and I never felt a misfire.

Yup. That is exactly how mine was the first time.

mjmac

[Kobaal]

Whats messed up is the #7 misfire is not a new thing for hemi engines. My friend who is a mechanic has worked on alot of Hemi engines in the past and says he sees #7 misfires alot. I thought he was full of crap at first until I started seeing these issues on the forums... I don't understand why they havn't fixed this yet.