Service Engine Soon?

[Holaday2]

My Service Engine Soon light came on about 3 weeks ago. It's come on before, but it goes right off after about a week. It's not the gas cap. I have heard it might have something to do with the quality of gas I fill it up with. Please, any suggestions - the car continues to run great even even with the light on and with 146,000 miles. The light just alarms me.

Thanks

[Blaze420]

Mine has 160,000 and the Service Engine Soon Light comes on. The car still runs the exact same as before still and it's been on about 1 month. What happened was a mottor mount broke where the transmission is.

[The Burning Rom]

Take the car somewhere and have it scanned. A place like autozone would be a good choice. Get the code and find out what it means.

Don't use the buy parts until it goes away method to fix it.

[Retardo]

Couldn't you just use the OBD-II interface to find out what the code is?

Under the dash in front of the gas pedal, there's gonna be a small black box with some holes in it. Get a paper clip and straighten it out. On that interface, stick one end of the paperclip into the top right hole. Make sure it goes in there good and snug. Then stick the other end of the paperclip in the hole next to it on the left. Make sure the ignition is OFF during this. Once the paperclips are in there snuggly, turn the key ON, but do NOT start the engine. You should hear the 2 cooling fans in the engine compartment kick on. Watch the service engine light.

What it will do is, it will blink a certain number of times, then a pause, then blink a few more times. It will repeat this 3 times before moving on to the next code. The first blinks are the first digit for the code, then the pause, then the second blinks are for the 2nd digit on the code. 3 blinks, pause, 6 blinks mean to look up code 36. Could be a bad O2 sensor.

If it blinks a 12, it means the engine is running normal and nothing is wrong.

[The Burning Rom]

Originally Posted by Retardo

Couldn't you just use the OBD-II interface to find out what the code is?

Under the dash in front of the gas pedal, there's gonna be a small black box with some holes in it. Get a paper clip and straighten it out. On that interface, stick one end of the paperclip into the top right hole. Make sure it goes in there good and snug. Then stick the other end of the paperclip in the hole next to it on the left. Make sure the ignition is OFF during this. Once the paperclips are in there snuggly, turn the key ON, but do NOT start the engine. You should hear the 2 cooling fans in the engine compartment kick on. Watch the service engine light.

What it will do is, it will blink a certain number of times, then a pause, then blink a few more times. It will repeat this 3 times before moving on to the next code. The first blinks are the first digit for the code, then the pause, then the second blinks are for the 2nd digit on the code. 3 blinks, pause, 6 blinks mean to look up code 36. Could be a bad O2 sensor.

If it blinks a 12, it means the engine is running normal and nothing is wrong.

It depends on what year the car was made. Some are not ODBII. Some are ODB1.5. That's why it's just better to go to Autozone and have it scanned. They can also tell you right there what the code is.

[Retardo]

It's also better to do it on the OBD interface, since the interface is free, and autozone is $70 (atleast it is around here). I believe I'd go the OBD way.

As for OBD-1.5? It's either OBD-I or OBD-II


Please post the year of the vehicle, Holaday.

[GMMerlin]

On OBD2 equipped vehicles, you cannot retrieve DTCs by jumpering the DLC.
A code reader or scan tool is needed.

[The Burning Rom]

Originally Posted by Retardo

It's also better to do it on the OBD interface, since the interface is free, and autozone is $70 (atleast it is around here). I believe I'd go the OBD way.

As for OBD-1.5? It's either OBD-I or OBD-II

Please post the year of the vehicle, Holaday.

ODB-1.5 are the cars built in 94-95. They are not full-blown ODBII, but they are also not ODBI. You can also NOT get the codes via jumping the pins on the diagnostic connector.

The same holds true with ODB II cars...not accessible...as GMMerlin said.

And when you go to Autozone, they use the diagnostic conector (what you call the ODB interface) to pull the codes. But they also use a scan-tool that actually tells them what the code is.

[Retardo]

I stand corrected. Only way we can learn is to say what we know, and depend on someone to correct us with the right information. Thanks for the info.