Gas Cap & Check Engine Light

Hi everyone. I recently did an oil change on my 2002 Ford Focus ZTS - I have done a thousand of them with no hitchs. May not even be relevant. My gas cap light came on in the morning recently and of course I referred to the owners manual and checked all that could apply. The cap is tight - I've driven it 3 cold cycles and the light is still on. Then - later in the afternoon the check engine light came on steady. Now when I start the car - both lights are on steady every start. Also, when I am breaking to a red light the car feels like it's going to stall but doesn't. She still has great pick up, doesn't seem to be any power loss. I am at my wits end with this p.o.s. and I still ower $5K. Sigh....any thoughts??? :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

Might have generated a leak somewhere in the evap system somewhere causing this. I would at least get the CEL scanned to see what the code is and post it here. Could be related.

I also had the same lights go on. Just put my 02 SE wagon in for 60,000 maintenance. The error code given by the computer was for a minor evaporative fuel leak. They reset the lights for me, but the check engine light came on again the next day. I followed up with my repair shop, and they said unless I was smelling fuel in the cabin, a minor evaporative leak was not a big concern and that older cars used to run with these all the time but did not have the computers/equipment to detect them. Checking for this runs from the gas cap all the way up into the engine, so detection can be expensive. I'm leaving mine alone for now.

A smoke machine is used by shops to find these stubborn evap leaks. They are very time consuming.