Alright add you car experts help me out before I go to the dealer tomorrow and most likely get raped by their service department.
I went to leave for lunch today, turned the key heard the engine kick over, released the key and it died. I then tried again and it turned over ,caught but the front of the car started vibrating badly. I gave it some gas and it calmed down a little.Put it in reverse and drove out of the parkiong lot.About a minute later I noticed my Service Engine Soon light is on. I drove to my bank than to thje fast food place and back to work. The light is staying on yet my car is running normally. Now I’m not an auto expert but my WAG is because the Engine didn’t run right the first time I started it there was gas in the cylinders and because of that they misfired the for a bit until they gas was out and beause of this a flag has been set in the computer. If this is the case I can get a peice of black tape and cover the orange light.
Disclaimer-Since it is hard to diagnose a car remotely unless you are the clampett brothers I would not hold anyone who replies to this message responsible if their advise fails to solve the problem and/or causes damage to my car
It’s the Tapit brothers, not the Clampetts. I don’t know if Jeb had a brother.
From my experience the “Check Engine” light can mean a whole lot of things. My Camry had the light go on and when I brought it into the dealer it took them two days to figure out the problem. As it was, the computer that gave out the signals to indicate “Check Engine” had failed. Fortunately, my car was still under warranty and it didn’t cost me anything.
If you’re lucky, the dealer may just have to reset something to turn the switch off. It’s obviously not a big deal because if it were really important it would a red light and not a yellow one (like OIL or GENERATOR). I would get it fixed at your convenience and get an estimate in hand.
It is probably on to report that it detected a misfire. It would not be a bad idea to go to a repair shop other than the dealer and have them run a diagnostic check on your car. It will cost $40 - $50 and will tell you why the light is on AND turn off the light as well. At that point you can determine whenther it was a one time thing and there is no problem, or you have a problem that need attention.
I believe your car has an OBDii compliant computer. Thoise can be quite picky, sometimes setting a code simply because the gas cap didn’t seal properly, for example. It is possible that there is nothing wrong with your car at all, and the light is on to report that it detected a misfire.
“Check engine” is very vague, and usually doesn’t mean anything. My mom’s Windstar kep showing the CE light, and when she called the dealer, they said it was just a minor emissions thing and not to worry too much about it.
OTOH, my dad’s old E-150 service van (5.0L V8) spun a rod bearing and overheated, burning the oil into a sticky sludge. We did all we could to get the sludge out, including removing the oil drain plug and pouring air conditioner coil cleaner (kinda like brake cleaner–dissolves oil) in with the engine running. After about 20 minutes of running like this, the engine finally seized up and died (permanently). As I was taking the key out, the “check engine” light came on.
Cent #1) One of the car guys when I was test driving cars says that often the “Check Engine” light will go on because of a problem with your current tank of gas and will go off once you refuel (completely).
Cent #2) You can always do what I do when I have a car problem. I call my dad.
10 years ago I had an '84 Olds Cutlass - the “Check Engine” light used to go on all the time. Turned out that it was something with the electrical in the dashboard…computer chip or something funky like that - the neighborhood mechanic took care of it for a reasonable cost.
I guess that is pretty common for alot of cars…my 1994 Escort did that when it got cold a couple of years ago. I had it checked out by 2 different mechanics that I trust completely and they told me nothing was wrong with the car (Won mentioned that it was fairly common for cars to have electrical problems that way) and repaired the short in the electrical system in the dashboard.
BobT-Thanks for the correction
Meephead-Thats what I thought
Gunslinger-Your first have was encouraging your second wasn’t
Handy-Oil is a quart low. I planned on having an oil chance tomorrow so I didn’t put it in. I novied it low yesterday when I filled up the car.
Kat-If it happened yesterday I would attribute it to the gas as I filled up from a 3/4 empty tank when it was below freezing the past few days
I recall that GM cars would display the CE light for the duration of the drive if, as suggested above, it detected a misfire. The CE light is primarily a nod to the EPA; it usually flips on if it detects unusually bad emissions from your vehicle, which would be natural when a slightly flooded engine turns over on starting. If the starting problems continue, check it out. Otherwise, forget it.
Starting problems fall into several categories, but we can discount many of them due to the circumstances you described. If the problem persists you will likely discover it is one of two general things: fuel delivery or emissions.
A fuel delivery problem can result from crap in your fuel filter (a $10 fix), clogged injectors (sometimes actually can be fixed by running cleaner gas through it) or a sticky carbureator ($5 for a can of Gunk), or clogged fuel lines or a failing fuel pump (your ass and a second mortgage).
Emissions can be a bear, introducing arcane terminology such as Hall sensors, PCVs, and vacuum leaks. I hope you don’t have one of those problems, as they are difficult for the backyard mechanic to diagnose.
By the way, handy might be dead on. Check your oil first.
