My very first EAS fault! How exciting!

[4X4V8]

Okay perhaps a touch too much sarcasm there. :)

Yet an odd fault situation. I noticed on a couple start-ups this morning in the driveway doing errands that the dash beeped and a message came and went before I could read it. Like about half a second and it was gone.

Then fired her up to go to an appointment down the road (same spot, the driveway) and I get the beep and dash 'EAS FAULT' message. The EAS 'arrow on a car' icon also lit on the dash, an all the lights up on the EAS position indicator in the centre of the dash. Luckily I didn't have it in access mode so off I went. Parked up, shut down, waited maybe 10 sec and restarted. Same fault. Came back to go home 40min later, no fault.

Checked fault codes with RSWV4 and it came up with RL signal incorrect (and 'vehicle has moved'). Both faults were there when I first tried the RSWV4 software last week, despite not throwing any EAS fault warnings on the dash (I cleared them while in there last week). Cleared the faults again today and while I haven't driven since, they were still clear after shut down and ign back on. I'm pretty sure 'vehicle has moved' isn't anything to worry about.

The RL signal fault is the position sensor, yes? I haven't heard of this situation, where the system isn't sure it has a problem or not. Anyone seen this before? I'm wondering if parking in the fairly steep, slightly angled driveway is upsetting the EAS.

[prelude]

The EAS does not care about angles. I have been doing some pretty rough rock crawling and have "parked" the car in the weirdest positions whilst having a lunch break and never a problem.

What most often happens is that the sensors wear on a certain spot, where the most movement is. Like with the HEVAC only a fraction of a second with no proper reading is enough to throw the system of. An old trick to try is to exchange the left and right sensor with each other since they will move in slightly different positions and thus wear differently. Also, the analog meter will be your best bet to see if the pot inside the sensor is worn and shows a non linear response (a break in the carbon for instance or dirt).

Removing the sensors: Take care with the rubber, a squirt of WD40 will help a lot getting the metal out of the rubber. The bolts tend to rust to the nuts which are pressed into the plastic so try and keep that in one piece. If it slips drilling them out carefully will leave you a way to mount them again else things get more difficult.

Mounting the sensors with a ty-rap or something will cause them to potentially shift up and down which will not cause an EAS error but the car will not sit true and it can start to pull left or right.

Good luck!
Cheers,
-P

[Scouse]

IIRC, the left / right sap applies to the earlier cars only. The sensors changed around 1998.