Service Engine Soon

[Railroadman]

I recently had the SES light come on I had it checked out and the guy took off the gas cap and turned over the large o-Ring and replaced it, reset the light and all has been well until last night. I recently fill up with gas. I went to start the car and let off the key before the engine started. The next try it started right up but SES light is on. I wonder if I could reset the light and try the o-ring trick again before i pay to have it checked? I might just buy a new cap. Not sure what to do! Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks Railroadman

[methodmix]

First off, you don't need to pay anyone to check your SES code. You can take your car to most auto parts stores (i.e., Advance, AutoZone, Pep Boys, etc...) and they'll do the diagnostic for free!

I would get the code diagnosed just to confirm that it's the same issue, but considering the circumstances you just described it sounds very much like it could be a faulty gas cap. Just curious, after how many miles of driving did the SES light come on again for the second time? If it was less then say 25 miles or so, then I would presume that it really wasn't fixed properly the first time around. A lot of times, certain trivial SES codes (an imperfectly sealed gas cap being one of them) can be manually cleared, and without even fixing the problem the SES light can stay off for a certain number of driving miles, hence giving them impression that maybe it was an erroneous trouble code or perhaps the mechanic fixed it but really didn't do it right to begin with.