The CEL lit up on my coach (04 Brave 34D with 8.1 no Ultrapower) a few days ago. Engine was runnning rough, and lost about 24% power going up grades...
I know the yellow Check Engine Light (CEL) can mean a lot of things, like engine misfiring, dirty MAF, knock sensors bad, etcetra.
But I went into my 'research' mode with the irv2 forums and quickly remembered my buddy, Dale Olson and his website at
www.oemys-performance.com. There's a real gold mine of good info and tech tips on that web site and what I found led me to decide that replacing my plugs, wires, and fuel filter would be the wise thing to do. I'd gotten some local prices on hi-heat Taylor wires and new AC plugs... -but after a few short emails to oemy, I was convinced that I should go-for-the-best, because after all, I didn't want to be doing this job again anytime in the next few years!
I ordered his Magnum Plug Wires (10mm silicone with braided stainless wire core, not carbon fiber that can break). These wires are super; very limp, cut to the perfect length, and have ZERO ohms resistance! They also have Mercury Marine style boots and a RF choke for no radio interference. All I had to do was add the dielectric silicone grease in each boot.
I also got the latest plugs offered from AC Delco (#41-101s with Iridium tips). Dale set the gap on them to 0.060" for me, and even painted the new plug threads with a thin coat of never sieze. Perfect!
-And I got a new GF481 fuel filter (I already had made the work around 'adapter' years ago to save money on the filters...).
The hardest thing on the plugs & wires job was pulling the original wire boots off the oem plugs! No really - I tackled the job from the inside lying on my belly above the engine. There were a couple of tight places, but nothing that was impossible. Just a matter of patience and having the correct good tools. This wasn't my first rodeo.
I should mention that when I first experienced the rough engine running we were at our first campout this year. I saw the dreaded "Reduced Engine Power" message on the Actia dash information panel. I had absolutely NO throttle response, despite flooring the accellerator pedal... When taken out of Park and shifted to Drive, the engine would stumble to 400 rpm and almost stall out. It barely had enough power to move 10 feet on the camping drive pad. The yellow CEL then came on the dash too. I was wondering how we were going to get home with the camper disabled at the campground. But out of the blue, I remembered you could clear Actia errors by unhooking the negative battery cable on the engine battery for a minute, then reconnecting. I did that and the Reduced Power message went away! Yea!!! I was now able to get throttle response on the gas pedal too, but the yellow CEL was still on the dash. Hence my saga to change plugs, wires, & fuel filter. My coach was driveable, but with a couple of plugs misfiring I'm sure. We limped home and did the engine work the following Saturday.
Just wanted to share my 'adventure' and tell people the good things I experienced with oemy's performance. Thanks Dale!