From making major repairs on my 10 year old car. The “check engine light” came on. I looked it up online and it can mean my car needs major work done on it. But I was in my apartment reading all the possibilities and one of the simplest things it could mean is my gas cap is loose or completely off. I went outside and sure enough my gas cap was hanging down the side of my car. I screwed it back on and now that light should go off. Whew, I had already planned to drop it off at the mechanic and have my sister give me a ride home and be without a car for a few days. But the internet saved me again.
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Have you tested it to be sure it was the cause?
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I’m in it right now. It sounds logical that was the whole problem but the internet said I might need to drive it a little before the light goes off.
I must have forgot to put the gas cap back on when I got gas last night. The engine light just went on today.
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I’ll be honest with you. I had a lot of older cars in the past and some of these lights would seem to stay on regardless of what repairs are done.
If your light doesn’t go off the “proper” advice is probable to take it in and get it looked at, but I did most of my repairs when I was younger and I had some old clunker cars. My view of it at the time was pretty much, that I wasn’t going to spend God knows how much money at a shop when I could address the most obvious problems myself, just ride the car out to the end of it’s life, and buy another clunker. For the cost of the cars I was buying it wasn’t worth cost of taking it to a professional. I realize that this probably isnt as common now with car prices skyrocketting, but this used to be my philosophy.
I know that there is supposed to be a “legit reason” for these lights to come on, but finding it yourself isn’t always easy.
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You can get an ODBII bluetooth dongle that plugs into your car’s diagnostic port. It pairs to an app on your phone that can tell you why each specific error or code was thrown. $30-ish for a good one.
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Yeah, working on these new cars is pretty much a thing of the past. I used to do the work on my old 1966 Chevy but now everything is computerized, even on a 2012 model.
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Check out the ChrisFix channel on Youtube. Incredibly helpful even if he is annoying to listen to.
Edit: I should mention that the last time I looked up a code on Vlad, I was getting CHECK ENGINE because some dirty @#$% made off with my catalytic converter. Dum dum didn’t notice the rear facing camera. Cops got him. $500 friggin’ deductible.
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Probably best to take velociraptors advice on this one if you want to take a chance on working on it yourself. I haven’t even owned a vehicle in 8 years or so, since my last one was lost during pscyhosis.
He generally has good advice, despite the fact that I think he just used your car care issues as an excuse to say “Dongle”.
I had some newer vehicles mixed in with the clunkers but most of mine were old school cars and trucks.
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Yeah some really good information on this channel.
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I think the first thing I’ll try is what was suggested on YouTube and take it to an auto parts store and they’ll plug in one of their own dongles for free and give me a code.
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Yes, I watched a good video on the “check engine light.”
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You may have to reset the check engine light with a computer. I always reset the code in my car after I fix something on it. It normally won’t shut off by itself.
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Yeah, I’m starting to get the picture about that. A video on YouTube suggests not getting it reset by a mechanic right away; it suggests I drive around on it a few weeks. As long as the "check engine light ": is steady and not flashing than I should be alright. I guess if I get it reset right away, the real problem may not be detected?
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Have you had the code already read? If so what did the code read? If you’re in the US many auto parts stores have a car computer reader available and they can read and reset the codes sometimes for free. If you do reset the code right away and it comes back then you’ll be able to tell if the closing of the gas cap was the problem or not.
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Yes, I am planning on going to the auto parts store today so they can read the code. It will be a bonus if they can reset the code right there, for free. It seems too coincidental for the gas cap to not be the problem since I filled my tank last night and this afternoon the light came on and I went outside and the cap was dangling down outside my car.
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Ya, that’s probably what caused the code then. Good luck getting it reset.
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Yeah, I drove it around a bit today. I actually drove it to the auto store and borrowed their code machine but it wouldn’t fit in the slot in my car. But I just noticed the light went out!
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The check engine light comes on in my van from time to time if the tank falls below a certain level for too long. We replaced tge gas cap and it doesn’t do ot every time now.
The light doesn’t have to be reset by a mechanic in those cases, usually, as you experienced.
You can buy a code reader on Amazon pretty cheaply. You can use one of those to reset it,too.
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I have an ODB 2 reader. I can check and clear codes. I have an aircraft mechanics license so I am pretty handy. Although I don’t have an auto mechanics license I have been working on cars since I was about 12.
I have two old Mustangs. 1970 models. There isn’t anything I can’t do to those except rebuild the transmission. I have rebuilt and can set the timing on the engines. They are pretty basic. New cars however are a lot more complicated.
I have a twenty year old Toyota with almost 200,000 miles on it. The check engine light has come on recently and that was the only time it’s ever come on. It was the gas cap. Had to buy a new one.
Check engine lights don’t really come on when you have serious mechanical trouble. So broken or loose valves or blowing a piston out or something will just happen. They come on when your car is putting out more pollution than it should. So lots of mechanical breakdowns can still occur without warning.
I have two 20 year old cars that don’t have a lot of miles on them and I have car shield. The cost is $89 a month or $99 a month on the other one. My Corvette had really low miles for its age so it has a better warranty than my wife’s Thunderbird.
The 20 year old Toyota has too many miles for a warranty but if you have about 100,000 miles on your car or less you can get one of those warranties.
Most things are covered on the Thunderbird. Nearly everything is covered on the Corvette. It only has like 47,000 miles on it. I have used the warranty on both cars and it has saved me thousands of dollars. Sure it’s about $1200 a year for each car but I have had to use them both. And when warranty work is done I only have to pay a $100 deductible instead of hundreds or thousands of dollars.
Something to think about. They offer towing and rental reimbursement too. I have towing and rental reimbursement with my auto insurance but have rental reimbursement declined because I have more than one car and don’t need that.
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My ABS module went out in the Vette last year and that was about a $4500 repair. The AC went out in the Thunderbird about 18 months ago and nearly all the components needed to be replaced. It was about $3500.
Both cost me about $99. It was nice. I have had more simple things happen too.
Like one of the power windows quit working in the Corvette once. It still cost me $99 or would have been like $400.
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