Checking Engine Light is intermitantly coming on and then going off.
Thread Starter
|
New User
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 2
Likes: 0
Checking Engine Light is intermitantly coming on and then going off.
Yesterday the Check Engine light started coming on. I stop the car, and restart, it is off. Then maybe two or three trips later it will come on again. keeps doing this on a trip off a trip, then on again, off again.
On a previous car that I owned when it the light came on it stayed on and as I was told when I talke to a mechanic friend it was time to take it into the garage so that they could turn it off and see if there was any work to be done. A neat way for the garage to make money. I have no desire to do this especially now with the holidays spending, unless it's absolutely necessary.
The car has 87,000 miles on it, the oil was just changed etc. Any ideas on what it could be and what I should do?
On a previous car that I owned when it the light came on it stayed on and as I was told when I talke to a mechanic friend it was time to take it into the garage so that they could turn it off and see if there was any work to be done. A neat way for the garage to make money. I have no desire to do this especially now with the holidays spending, unless it's absolutely necessary.
The car has 87,000 miles on it, the oil was just changed etc. Any ideas on what it could be and what I should do?
Postmaster
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,742
Likes: 2
From: UT
When the check engine light comes on, it means the computer has seen some kind of fault. the computer should store a trouble code in memory that can be retrieved. On '91-'95 EEC-IV Explorers, you can retrieve trouble codes by following the procedure under tests at www.dalidesign.com/hbook/eectest.html On later Explorers, you need an OBD-2 code reader or scanner to retrieve trouble codes. You can get OBD-2 code readers for about the price of a trip to the shop. Sometimes, places like Autozone will read the codes for you for nothing in the hopes of selling you something (Don't expect a thorough diagnosis, though, they'll just read the codes).
