June 11th, 2009
inkdick: june 11 2009 check engine light
I’ve only had this car since October (it’s my mom’s and brother’s old car) and have never had to deal with “check engine lights” or “taking my car in to get it fixed” before. I kind of wanted to put off doing all that for the first time for a little bit longer. Oh well. Life.
NOTE: The engine light went away later. So yay?
July 9th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Oh nooooo that’s the worst. What a horrible feeling, that little light flickering on.
The same thing happened to my brakes, the light turned on, then off…but I’d still get it checked out if you have a chance, it could be bad…
July 9th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
If your car is OLD, but is still running fine… you may be able to hold off on the check engine light fix (mine was on constantly for a good 3-4 years at a time). The check engine light can come on for nearly any reason. This includes if ONE piston misfires ONCE, or it could be a “you didn’t tighten down the gas cap enough”, or “a sensor is going”. Basically, If it shut itself off, don’t worry about it. And just an FYI - many car places will try to charge you for plugging the computer into the car and reading what the error message is and then clearing the light out (ie: on a VW, it’s not uncommon for people to try to charge $75 to do this), so if the light turns itself off, or the car seems to be running find (nothing sounding odd/off, no leaking fluids, no new smells, and it’s maintaining the normal gas mileage per tank) then I wouldn’t freak out too much about it.
Otherwise, when you go get the oil changed, if you talk really nice to the people there, they can run the scan for you (and may do it for free). Some people have had luck w/ an auto parts store running the scan for free - but that’s typically w/ domestic cars.
July 11th, 2009 at 2:48 am
u need a “maintenance” soon
February 21st, 2010 at 10:42 pm
I have an old family car (ford taurus- p.o.s.) that’s had the “check engine” light on for over a year. Nobody has found a reason for this. American cars, huh?