Intermittent Check Engine Light - 94 4cyl 626 A/T

i've got a check engine light that comes on occasionaly. had a friend read the codes. he found a lean condition (as i remember) and checked sensors and eventually found a vacuum cap off somewhere on rt rear of engine. he also discovered that it actually had both a mazda and a ford data connector for code reading. surprise. he also said it would not give him the data stream of other info that he thought it should store and have available. just a few codes.

i've driven the car a couple of days and it lit check engine light for a few seconds. the car has about 115K on it. i've considered just replacing sensors, but w/my luck, i'll replace them and still have the intermittent light. car runs pretty good. had a little hesitation starting from a stop.

i'll replace air filter, spark plugs, and pcv tomorrow.

my son will be driving the car and i would prefer not to leave him stranded. actually, my wife will get me a lot of grief also. what are your thoughts about the check engine light? likely causes and are any of them the sort of thing that might leave you dead on the road side?

I have the same issue with an intermittent check engine light in my 1994 626 V6. Its been that way for 30k miles and i have found any problems that might be triggering it. I tried to get an error code with no avail. I just ignore it now. If it stays on for too long i look but normally if theres anything wrong i can hear/feel it. If it really worries you take it to mazda, otherwise just have him ignore it, the light isnt THAT obnoxious.

I have taken it as a bit of a challenge to fix this. I'm stubborn. I agree that many of the things that cause a check engine light are emissions related and don't necessarily affect drivability. On the other hand, some of the things can lead to problems that are hard to ignore. If you get used to seeing the light on, you won't realize when its cause is something new and maybe more serious. I'd rather have it off, soon as I can figure out what is causing it.

I have the same issue with an intermittent check engine light in my 1994 626 V6. Its been that way for 30k miles and i have found any problems that might be triggering it. I tried to get an error code with no avail. I just ignore it now. If it stays on for too long i look but normally if theres anything wrong i can hear/feel it. If it really worries you take it to mazda, otherwise just have him ignore it, the light isnt THAT obnoxious.