2000 Cavalier Check Engine Light Extinguisher?

The check engine light on my 2.2L Cavalier (90,000 miles) came on the other day....Nothing seemed wrong with the engine...in fact it it was running great! Drove around a couple days with it on and tired of looking at it. Tried the "turn the ignition switch on three times & leave it on after the third to see if any lights would start blinking out a secret code"...nothin' happened. So I tried it again with 4 on/off sequences, leaving the switch on after #4 to see if something started blinkin' out the secret code...again nothin'....Gave up & went inside for the evening. Got up the next morning to go to the store, fired up the car ...and NO lit check engine light!!!! WOO HOO !!!! It's been a week and I'm still good...think I successfully reset it....Anyone know for sure if this is the check engine light extinguisher? YMMV...thought I'd pass it on.

Mutsky

The MIL was turned off because the PCM no longer saw the condition which caused it to turn on the lamp in the first place. After a number of successful drive cycles of the fault condition being absent, the MIL will turn off but the error code history will remain in memory. If you get teh PCM stored codes scanned, you can find out what initially turned the light on and investigate.

I understand what you're saying...but ah....I'm thinkin' that would be just tooooo coincidental for me to buy that one, since the light had been on for ~ a week prior and showed no signs of desiring to extinguish on it's own accord.

I understand what you're saying...but ah....I'm thinkin' that would be just tooooo coincidental for me to buy that one, since the light had been on for ~ a week prior and showed no signs of desiring to extinguish on it's own accord.LOL.............now you`re contradicting yourself and likely ticking off one of the Moderators hear who has in fact helped many people on this forum. I have read his synopsis before and not just from him ,so I`d take that advice.

Hello,

Yes, likely one of the 40 "environmental" flags - pending code that became real, and then unreal with some cleaner fuel, good long drive, EVAP440 solenoid "magically" became unstuck to purge a bit of vapour and read normal again...etc.

I have had that problem too. Check engine light will be on for about a week, then it goes out. Vehicle runs fine. Go figure, this has happend about two or three times.