98 carmy XLe engine light come on

[netericw]

We just brought it yesterday, that night , my wife drove it back and told me that the lights come on! We took back to the car dealer, they said that it's code error and reset it promptly. is it real? the guy doesn't show me the code, so we don't know is there hv any potential problem hiding from them!!


Because of the cars' in salvage title previously, that's mean it was crashed. Before we brought it, we reviewed there hv "salvage title / certificate issued" on car fax report, but the dealer shown us the copy of the title come in clean, we don't understand why it can come in clean, yet they explained to me that had error on Car fax report only! Should we go to DOt to vertify it has accident which may cause the engine light come on?

When we tested it on road, we believed that most of the problem was fixed because of it's running smooth, no noise, no rumbling....( beside the air condition turning to "high" , so we believed that most of the problem was fixed then we brought it in my budget.

anybody help is deeply appreicate!

B.rgds
Eric

[Airjer_]

If it was a problem it would have come right back on! As far as the salvage title it sounds suspicious to me!!

[RIP]

Try driving it a while to get the service engine light back on. Once it's on head to your local AutoZone or Advanced Auto and have them connect a scanner to get the code. It's free. Post the code here and we can tell you what's up.

Agreed. Your title sounds shady. Yes, contact your state's auto licensing organization. They should be able to tell you the real status of the title. They will need the VIN number.

[Brian R.]

Originally Posted by Airjer_

If it was a problem it would have come right back on! As far as the salvage title it sounds suspicious to me!!

Some codes require time to reappear. There are many which are "two trip detection logic" and require more than one consecutive drive with the error to activate the check engine light. This is very common. This may delay reappearance of the code indefinitely if it is intermittent and resets the detection logic by fixing itself before reoccuring. This is a real problem for bad contacts within a detector circuit where it may form a bad and good contact during driving because of rough roads.

Another time this may fool you is where a sensor is sending a signal which triggers an error code, but the sensor is only borderline and swings back and forth between trigger and no trigger, depending on the speed or conditions under which you drive.