engine light

I have a 95 taurus 3.0 with 30k original miles, was our grandmothers car, it runs great but the check engine light comes on after about 15-20 minutes of driving, then its off the next day until the 15 or so minutes of driving again..Wondering if anything I should check or change b4 I have it looked at...Thanks

You can pull the diagnostic codes to determine what the car's computer thinks is wrong.

Some of the chain auto parts stores may be able to pull the codes at no cost, or you can do it yourself by jumpering a couple of wires on the EEC connector under the hood, turning the key on, and counting the flashes and pauses of your check engine light.

See this page (http://autorepair.about.com/cs/troubleshooting/l/bl_dtcs_70a.htm) for more details. Scroll to the bottom for info on how to jumper the self test connector.

-Rod

Just wondering. Do you have a gas cap on the car or is it missing?

I don't believe that Ford incorporated the emissions monitors on the 1995 model year which would notice a loose, missing, or faulty gas cap. I think they waited until the 1996 OBD-II mandate for that.

-Rod

You are right Rod. 1996 was the first year for the across the board OBDII for Ford. Also on your previous post, scroll to bottom of link page to see how to retrieve codes.

Some early fords,1994 and 1995 are the early OBD II,the Coutour/Mystiques and the 1994 and 1995 Mercury Cougers have the early OBD II systems