[SeanFulop]

I drove all the way from Fresno to Calgary, and as I was setting off on the third and final day of the trip, a check engine light came on as I was driving down the road. Everything with the car seemed fine, so I just continued all the way to Calgary. By happy coincidence the only Maserati dealership in the whole province is located two miles from where I'm staying. I went by there today and found them to be the friendliest dealership you could possibly imagine, must be a Canadian thing. I drove up on a Friday afternoon to ask about maybe getting an appointment next week to get the code scanned. Unbelievably, the service advisor just drove the car into the shop and asked for a tech to scan my car.

The result was a thermostat code. They cleared it and it didn't come back on yet, and the car was in traffic on a hot day, so the thermostat seems to be OK for now. He said it should be fine for a while as long as I keep an eye on the coolant gauge. Then he sent me on my way free of charge!

My question now is how urgent this is? I probably won't be able to get it repaired there because they are waiting two weeks for parts for the older cars and I plan to head home before then.

 

[[email protected] Enzo`s Atlanta]

It's not a big deal...Probably not closing all the way and setting a fault...Jason

 

[SeanFulop]

OK here's something interesting for you.

After this code was reset in Canada, the car was perfect and no codes. I set off on my 3-day road trip back to Fresno with everything good. This morning I was leaving my motel in Winnemucca and thought to myself, hmm, it's the morning of the third day of the road trip, I wonder if....

.... beep beep beep engine control system failure! Right as I was thinking the thought! It happened again as the car was warming up, during the first few minutes of operation following two days of long-distance driving. This is one of the most interesting quirks I've seen with this car, and there are a few.

BTW I made it all the way back to Fresno with no other issues, although she was breaking a sweat on the Ebbetts Pass hillclimb which gains about 4,000 feet in a very few miles coming from the East.

Ebbetts Pass is a very steep narrow road in the Sierra Nevada

Ebbetts Pass is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 2.666m (8,746ft) above the sea level, located in Alpine County, in the US state of California. The pass is not plowed for snow. It is an idyllic drive for those who crave tight switchbacks, tiny hamlets, and multiple alpine vistas.

www.dangerousroads.org

 

[xxtoobsxx]

What was the code? I swapped out my thermostat in maybe 45 min ish. super easy job if you have the means to do it.

 

[SeanFulop]

The dealership didn't tell me the precise code, only that it was a thermostat code. I don't generally work on my own car, so this will be something either for my usual shop the next time I get over there, or the local shop that can handle the job. I'm just not sure it's worth it to replace immediately when it is operating correctly, in general.

 

[rtduda25]

P0128 Thermostat fault plausibility - Invalid Signal is the therm code that I've been getting. I just finished replacing my thermostat, belts, and coolant. Haven't had the chance to drive it yet since I've moved directly to an EPB failure, but hopefully the new OEM thermostat will remedy it. The thermostat is a very simple job on these cars if you are even remotely mechanically inclined, I removed the air cleaner assembly and had all of the room in the world. Spent more time cleaning things then I did on the actual job!

 

[SeanFulop]

P0128 Thermostat fault plausibility - Invalid Signal is the therm code that I've been getting. I just finished replacing my thermostat, belts, and coolant. Haven't had the chance to drive it yet since I've moved directly to an EPB failure, but hopefully the new OEM thermostat will remedy it. The thermostat is a very simple job on these cars if you are even remotely mechanically inclined, I removed the air cleaner assembly and had all of the room in the world. Spent more time cleaning things then I did on the actual job!

Don't you have to flush the coolant out first before replacing the thermostat?

 

[rtduda25]

Don't you have to flush the coolant out first before replacing the thermostat?

If I know I'm replacing the thermostat either way, and not using an actual machine, I flush with the thermostat removed and run the car briefly in an attempt to flow as much fluid through as possible.

 

[SeanFulop]

Yeah that's far beyond anything I would attempt, especially on this car.

 

[SeanFulop]

It's always funny to me how people who work on cars generally think it would be easy for anyone. You're basically like a math professor saying "calculus is easy".

 

[rtduda25]

Yeah that's far beyond anything I would attempt, especially on this car.

The flush is definitely not necessary in all cases, if the fluid has been in there more 50k miles I'd do it for preventive maintenance as long as you're in there. The main reason I did is because someone before me put the wrong fluid in it according to my local dealer, so I got it as cleaned out as possible.

 

[rtduda25]

It's always funny to me how people who work on cars generally think it would be easy for anyone. You're basically like a math professor saying "calculus is easy".

Lol, touche, and even if the individual does accomplish the task, they may not be able to deal with issues that pop up nor final details (like bleeding the air from the system in this case). As far as auto repair tasks go, this was one of the easier in depth jobs I've been involved in and I do believe simple common sense would accomplish most of it, but, everyone's brain works a lil different!

If you have the means to have a qualified service tech perform the task for you, absolutely go that route, I'd much rather pay someone else to do this type of stuff so I don't have to, and when the opportunity affords itself, I most certainly do.

 

[SeanFulop]

OK well, after several more days using the car, the code went away on its own today. Pfft. Condition normal.