Question Code P0492

[Z16Jim]

My car has thrown this code twice in the last week. It says secondary air injection system ( bank 2). This is the first time the car has had the check engine light come on. Any ideas what can be causing this?

 

[hemicat]

From another forum. Not sure how helpful it is.

The general problem is with the secondary air system check valves. There are two, one on the driver's side of the engine, and one behind the driver's side engine head.
Guess which one is the general problem one! Right, the difficult to reach one. I was happy last year to hear about the WD 40 trick. By spraying the WD into the system and running it a bit, it frees up the stuck valve and the code does not re-occur. If you do a search you will see a lot on this, even someone has dissected one.

 

[Z16Jim]

Thanks hemicat I sprayed WD40 in the tube, reinstalled, and then started and let run for a bit. cleared code. Hopefully this will not come back. Thanks for the help!!

 

[XFIRE82]

as Maxwell Smart would say : " the 'ol spray in the hole WD40 trick " .................

 

[Z16Jim]

Today I put on over a 100 km and no code so far!!

 

[Z16Jim]

Well here we go again, code came back today.

 

[Riley P]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! Dang it. I was reading how the car was working again, then bam!, a post about the code coming back and all my happiness got slapped out of me. .

Hopefully we can find some tips to help you permanently resolve this.

 

[Z16Jim]

Update. After clearing the code on June 19th I still have no code coming back so far.

 

[Z16Jim]

Well the code came back last night, I am going to try more WD-40. If it comes back again I will have to change the check valves.
If I keep driving it could it be damaging anything, or just affecting gas mileage?

 

[hemicat]

Maybe it will just have more emissions? Found this explanation of how it may work:

"This system pumps fresh air into exhaust system during cold starts to feed oxygen and exhaust gases. This ensures a more complete burn of harmful emissions – hydrocarbons. After about minute, the system turns itself off."

So if it is stuck shut then it would not let clean air into the exhaust during this phase?

 

[Z16Jim]

Thanks for the explanation Hemicat.
I sprayed some WD-40 down the tube and then started it up and let it idle until it was hot. lets see how long it lasts this time.

 

[carol w]

This may sound bizarre but I’m just putting it out there. Is it possible that there’s some gunk of sorts that continues to stick?. Perhaps some carb cleaner to get rid of the gunk then the WD?

 

[Z16Jim]

I am not sure if carb cleaner will work. I have only tried WD. So far it has not thrown a code since July 17.