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Laugh as I drive 100,000 more miles with the check engine light on.
Yeah wouldn’t fly here. Instant failure on the annual safety and emissions check
But if it’s an intermittent code you can just clear it and hope it doesn’t come back lol
my 330000 mile tacoma has had that on since the first of the year. investigation with my scantool says its a failed transmission temp sensor #2. it is a known issue that the a340 transmission in the truck has a corrosion problem with two pins on the harness connector for the tranny to the ecu. so rather than open it up to replace a maybe bad sensor, i just clear the code and let it pop back on once the truck is up to operating temp. winters keep it cool enough most times not to throw the code at all
This is the way. You open it up and you’re introducing more chaos. Guess you’ll just need to be a little vigilant when the light comes on to make sure you’re not running into any other issues.
That being said, you can usually feel if there’s a problem. Or smell, but if you smell the problem it’s usually too late.
yeah when it first popped up i hooked in my scantool, reset/cleared and went on to work. came on again halfway home, so jacked in, reset/cleared, then drove around with live data active to see at what temp the tranny was running when the code popped. 158° f to code on, so continued to watch it live as i was driving for the next couple days and it never exceeded 178°. optimal temp for the a340 is specced to 175°, so im assuming the cooler is working ok and just got a bad sensor/harness. aisin states that the usefull life cycle of the tranny is 400000, and mine sits at 330 right now, so am not gonna dink around with it until rebuild time
Jokes on you, I already have one because my o2 sensor spacer isn’t fooling the car anymore!
As long as its not flashing just run it.
i hope your cast removes it, cuz been on for years
Got a OBD reader for 40 bucks and it takes a lot of the stress off. Highly recommend to anyone who doesn’t have one yet. You can look up the code, and usually that steers you to what part you need. Saves time, money, and stress.
Or you can also go to any auto parts store and they’ll do an OBD reading for you for free and give you a printout of the code.
Here they charge you for the readout 🙂
Well that’s not very nice.
Forty bucks is a ripoff. I got a Bluetooth one for like 10.
I’ve had good luck on Android with these, but I’ve had no luck getting two different ones to connect to iOS for some reason, and they even boldly claim iOS compatibility right on the unit. I just grab my old Android when I need to check it.
It’s a Bluetooth incompatibility. There’s something wrong with most scanners and how they support Bluetooth Low Energy.
I bought this scanner in 2020 and the one I bought then has worked fine across two different iOS phones.
Seconded the Veepeak. It’s still an ELM327 clone but a high quality one so if you get one that says it supports BTLE, it works on IOS. Mine does.
$2.65, but I’m sure it’s proprietary app is snooping, so I just use an old phone when I have to check anything out.
There wasn’t a proprietary app that I can recall, and +1 on Torque that’s what I use
Lol, seems I already had it purchased. I’ll be honest, I haven’t used the little blue guy in years after getting a newish Avalon.
Pay $5 for the Torque app.
If $40 is too much for you, Auto Zone, Advance Auto Parts, and O’Reillys all have free code readers you can use. If your car can make it there.
Mines been on for years, I find comfort in it now.
Mine straight up burned out several years ago. Still runs and passes inspection. I ain’t no coward.
That’s not a bad one. Make it blinking, then your day is ruined. Or make the oil or alternator light flicker or come on. Most of the engine lights I ever got were from older cars and basically a hiccup from old emissions. I did get a flashing one once, that was scary, pulled over immediately. Never figured out why, it didn’t reoccur after starting again. I hate those kinds.
Flashing is a misfire event detected. Your engine may have managed to cough out whatever was causing that cylinder not to fire. A blockage in the fuel injector most likely, at least if it managed to cure itself.
My wife got the flashing one with very rough idling, I checked the fault codes and it was misfire on multiple cylinders. I replaced the ignition coil and now it purrs like a kitten again.
I had that happen, and it ended up being the valve cover gasket leaking oil into my spark plug wells. I thought it was just the coils but after replacing them, the error came back a few days later. The gasket fixed it until I replaced the car.
I cast mend butt crack followed by diarrhea
I counter with ISO 15765-4 with a Bluetooth and torque modifier.
If you own a used car or is getting ready to purchase one, buy yourself an obd2 scanner. You can avoid making a bad purchase or getting scammed by a mechanic when it is something you can easily fix yourself.
And if you are truly broke, you can at least determine if the check engine is something you should addressed immediately or wait a couple weeks.
It never occurred to me I could just buy my own in lieu of the weekly trips to auto zone. Do you have any brand recommendations (only what to stay away from)?
I bought a OBDLink Mx a long time ago and it has worked on every car i have had to diagnose. (Mercedes, Skoda, VW, SAAB, Porsche)
Veepeak and obdlink are good generic ones in my experience, BimmerLink even recommends a specific obdlink one for example, think it has an STN2120 rather than the usual ELM327 clone chips and thus is a bit higher quality, but for most cars and most apps, the ELM based ones work.
If you use or might one day want to use IOS, get one with BT LE support and connect via app, not the Bluetooth menu. If you do, you’ll have to restart the phone to get it to show up again, stupid iOS thing.
Or if your car is old enough, and you don’t mind investing some cash, you might find the official diagnostics equipment available on eBay.
With a bit of hacking about you can program new keys, train in new parts etc etc.
My car gets angery when I plug in my cheapo Bluetooth OBD2 thingy. Like “ESD service required” angery and I have to unplug the thingy and restart the car to clear it.
Totally fine after that.
Is my Bluetooth thingy too cheapo?
My previous car didn’t care at all. It was older though and didn’t have ESD and all that.
Edit for future travelers:
I looked it up and yes it looks like (especially) cheap ones can interfere. It seems the likelihood of it actually breaking something is low but bad quality wiring in cheap electronics can be a factor in these “ghost problems”.
Scary pumpkins
The oil pressure light is by far the scariest one.
100%. Check engine light can mean a bunch of pretty minor things. Oil pressure? Stop the car. Stop the car NOW. You’re gonna have to pay for a tow and repair, but if you don’t stop RIGHT NOW you’re going to need a new car. Or at least a new engine.
Literally opened this thread only to say this. Check engine light means the engine is doing something to increase emissions, up to and including misfires and such. Can be harmful but over a somewhat longer period of time than being out of oil.
My check engine light came on and freaked me out. Found out the code was P0171: Bank running lean. I currently have a mix of gas and E85 in the tank and the computer doesn’t like it. Nothing is actually wrong.
Mine was a loose gas cap. I’m not paying $300 to a dealer to turn that light off.
You can buy a cheap Bluetooth OBDII scanner online and use a free phone app like Torque to read and clear codes.
I think most chain auto part stores will also let you use their scanners for free.
I did get a cheap one but I work on my own cars so I now bought a much nicer one that has dealer level access.
MOST of my cars are too old to have OBDII. 35 years and older…NO CUP HOLDERS.
Something as serious as a misfire can also cause the check engine light to flash.
Why yes, I did once lose a whole-ass cylinder in a 4-cylinder, manual transmission car. While a couple hours from home! It broke a freaking exhaust valve while we were just cruising along, and the light started flashing immediately with a code for cylinder X misfire.
Funny enough, other than the loss of power it drove alright while in motion, including on the highway. It would immediately stall if left to idle at a stop light, though. I think I ended up using the hand brake to hold still while keeping my foot on the gas to keep the revs up. Fun.
Had a car, that got like 5 yellow engine lights in 6 months… I had the car so I could get to work, in the end I had the work so I could pay for repairs on the car…
My bike is immune
I cast run over by self driving car
(Hope n ot)
Thar be what the 2nd is for
