engine light coming on

tomboy

I am having problems with my 88 cutlass ciera. the engine light comes on and when I shut it off it won’t start for about 5 minutes. It is worse in the warmer weather above 50 degrees, and the light comes on immediately when I turn on A/C. I bought an OBD scanner and it gives me a code of 41. My dad was a mechanic, but has never worked on anything newer than a 1975 and cant help me with which of the listed problems it might be. The A/C was replaced 4 years ago and I have replaced all of the air sensors and O2 sensor.

imidazol97

Code 41 Ignition control error / MEM-CAL error / C³I Cam Sensor Signal error

That's the symptom. Don't use that to replace without further diagnosis.

What I don't understand is the light comes on when the car is shut OFF? And then it won't start for 5 minutes.
Does it crank over okay but just won't fire up and start running?

I don't know how those engines are set up with the ignition control modules and so on.

If you have inexpensive parts to switch from a pick-n-pull recycling yard, for instance, that might be worth trying. Looking up parts on rockauto.com, you can click on the blue link in description and a list of compatible models will come up to help you find donor cars in junkyards.

Otherwise, I think you're looking at a quality visit to a dealer or local mechanic.

The one thing that sticks in my mind is that it could be the main computer. I had an 89 Century where the main computer would go in and out. A cracked foil line on the circuit board would lose contact.
That was handled by the dealer at the time so the car wasn't very many years old.

Which engine do you have.
The 2.5 uses an ignition control module. It has a distributor and coils if I read the parts right at Rockauto.com
That must be the "computer." Not like things today.

It has fuel injectors so there must be a computer for that somewhere.

However, a little intuition tells me that rockauto.com shows an ignition control module CONNECTOR for replacement for a reason. Are people needing connectors because the originals have failed or were damaged. Take a good look at the
connector to your ignition control module. A poor connection there would be temperature sensitive.