Hard Failures
Hard failures cause CHECK ENGINE light to illuminate and remain on until the malfunction is repaired. If light comes on and remains on (light may flash) during vehicle operation, cause of malfunction must be determined using diagnostic (code) charts. If a sensor fails, SBEC will use a substitute value in its calculations, allowing engine operation in limp-in mode. In this condition, vehicle will run but driveability may be poor.
Note. A start counter (key counter) appears at bottom of fault message on DRB-II to show number of engine starts since fault code last occurred. This helps determine if fault is intermittent. As an example, if DRB-II displays 0 STARTS SINCE ERS, it indicates zero engine starts since fault occurred, and fault code is a hard failure. If start counter (key counter) shows more than zero engine starts since fault last occurred, then fault code is an intermittent failure.