Advice needed about multiple dash lights. Im clueless!

[Ashley26]

I'm a 20 year old female and know nothing about cars. About 2 years ago I bought a 2000 Ford taurus from a police auction. it was a detectives car with only 42,000 miles on it and im guessing they keep the cars very well maintained. I will be honest and say I have done nothing for my car except oil changes every 3k miles. i know there is other preventitive maintenance I should be doing, but I don't know what exactly?.

About 2 months ago my engine light started coming on. some days its on, somedays it isn't. my airbag light also comes on from time to time. and also another light i am not familure with has came on twice. it looks like a circular gear with a exclamation point inside it? and just within the past few days it has an issue starting up, like i have to turn the key twice to get it going. other than that i have no issues with the car running however, it does sound different then when I bought it. It makes a quiet "chug chug chug" sound almost like train, if that makes sense?

I guess I just wanted some opinions before i take it in later this week. and advice about prevenitive care. TIA

[534BC]

Hi, welcome to AF. Let's separate this into 5 parts: MIL , Air bag lite , circle lite, starting , engine noise.

For half of this you will need the owners manual or may download it online.

Engine light or MIL is telling us that there's a problem, potential problem with a system or component in the car and along with it comes a code that is read by a scanner. A mechanic or even auto-zone (for free) may get you a good start as to what this could be. It must be scanned to read the code.

Airbag light is the same story. It must be scanned with a scanner that can read airbag module to point more specifically to the problem.

Circle Gear lite , please check the dash pic in the owners manual to see what this light is for. It may be serious , maybe not.

Starting problem. You could take it to a mechanic or start a specific thread here in AF for your specific car and post the symptoms exactly. Someone may be able to point you in the right direction if you give them info such as cranking? , how long? hot, cold? how often? It is difficult to diagnose over the net , but there are many experienced users here (especially on the specific vehicle forums)

Noise is same story , post a specific thread on the specific vehicle forum. It could be many things , but from your description sounds like perhaps and exhaust leak or intake leak. This is just a guess.

It sounds like all in all you would be in a real good position if you read the manual thoroughly , and then beyond that establish a good relationship with a good shop.

Good luck and don't be afraid to post a few more threads for these problems. Hopefully 2-4 of these problems are inter-related and if 1 gets fixed maybe 2 other will be fixed at same time.