Transaxle Problem??

[towerhill2]

Earlier today I hit a pretty nasty pothole. About 20 minutes later, my O/D light began flashing and the check engine light came on. The O/D light then went off but the check engine light remained.

According to my manual, a flashing o/d light means that my transaxle has an electical problem and one possible reason the check engine light is on is because the engine's electical system has a problem.

My search online and in this forum have found people with similar symptoms but where the lights got screwy because of a situation with low gas, not a pothole. In those cases, they were given the suggestion of unplugging the battery terminal for a little while and stepping on the brakes and that cured the problem.

Is there any reason why I shouldn't attempt the same? Thanks. I'm a car-idiot.

[MagicRat]

Welcome to the forums!

As with any advice thread, the most helpful thing is for you to state the car make, model, year and mileage, and in this case, if you have noticed any driveability or performance problems that have accompanied the warning lights.
Is this the '03 Protege you list in your profile?

Any OD flashing light and/or 'check engine' light you get means the ECM has detected a problem and has stored one or more codes.
The starting point is to get the ECM scanned to see what code(s) are stored. Your car uses an OBD II system (On Board Diagnostics II) system. There are sites on-line that can help you interpret the codes. However, often they are not self-explanatory and require some interpretation to arrive at a repair procedure.

Feel free to post back with any codes and we can help you further. A mechanic can scan the codes for you or someone else may have a procedure or tell you if a scan tool can help.

Look here for more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OBD_II