I was just driving home from work no more than an hour ago and my car did something really weird, something I'd never heard before. I pulled away from a light, and gave it some gas just for the hell of it. when I let off, I noticed a loud gurgling noise, almost like I had a huge whole in the exhaust. the car didn't sputter or misfire, and I didn't notice any loss of power. no CEL came on, but the top 1/3rd of the lcd display went totally blank, which I thought was pretty weird. I pushed in the clutch and revved the motor, to try to see if it was coming from the engine or if it was wheel-related. it is definitely an engine-related sound though. it did this for maybe 3 blocks, and then stopped entirely. I can't reproduce the problem now, and I still have no CEL light coming on. the other strange part of what happened is that I got a yellow warning light in the display (once it came back on, about the same time the engine quieted down), it's the yellow circle with "MPH" in it, and a "1" above and to the left of it. I know this is something to do with the cruise control (yes, I RTFM), but my cruise doesn't work... it wasn't even turned on at the time. it also went away after a little while, but it comes back every time I push the test button. this is also weird, because it says in the manual that nothing is supposed to happen when I push the test button as long as the vehicle is moving.

any ideas? I haven't had a chance to look under the hood or under the car yet, it's pissing rain and in the low 40's.

99.5 1.8TQM, 100K miles (just rolled over today ), bone stock.

 

The yellow circle with MPH is an alarm you can set to warn you if you exceed a certain speed. The way to set it is to drive a certain speed and then press the check button. When you exceed the set speed, the alarm with the yellow circle will come on.

 

ahh yes, I remember that now. that clears up that part of the mystery, thanks man.

 

bumpity. anyone?

 

come on guys, no one has any idea what this could have been?

what else would you have to know then, to make a guess?

 

Let's see... do you have an aftermarket exhaust?

 

thanks for the reply, but nope I don't have an aftermarket exhaust. the car's bone stock.

 

I can honestly say ive never seen or heard a problem like that before, was there a sporatic fault in the ecm?

 

who knows, it's possible I guess. I would think that I'd get a CEL if that were to happen though, don't you agree?

if it's any help, it was PISSING rain when this happened, like raining as hard as it possibly can. gotta love the pacific northwest. is it possible I sucked some water into the intake tract somehow? I can't see how though, because the stock airbox is nowhere near where any water could get up into it. and also the fact that it didn't lose any power, didn't even drive funny. just made the damn noise.

I wish I had a vag, I'd run it and see if there's any hidden codes that aren't tripping the CEL. does anyone have the link for that vag locator thing?

 

Mostsporatic faults don't throw a CEL un-less it happens a certain amount of times, but i doubt you sucked water into the engine it would have been sputtering like a banshee and probably caused a flashing check engine light. Find someone with a vag and scan it.