Sunday morning I woke up and drove to baseball practice. I came out, fired the car up normally(didn't notice anything strange) and my CEL came on. Hmmm, I opened the hood. Didn't find anything out of the norm. I drove the car home and the light was on the whole way. I was going to take it to my brothers shop to get it scanned and this morning the CEL was gone. Any ideas on what to do? Should I wait to see if it comes on again or should i get it scanned just to make sure nothing serious is wrong? BTW can this car be scanned by a normal auto repair shop? Does my brother need any special programs or tools to scan it??

 

I had a similar instance. I disconnected the battery to clear the light and it hasn't been back.

I was told by the dealer that it was likely caused by my hard start/long cranking issue (lack of fuel at startup).

As far as I knowany OBDBII(?) scan tool should work. If Autozone can do it, your bro's shop likely wont have any trouble.

I do know that HarborFreight sells a scan tool that will work for our cars that is like $40.00. I was going to buy it, but the more I think about it the more I realize that I wont ever use it.

For the record - if you disconnect the battery, you will lose the codes it has stored.

SQ

 

Could have been the gas cap. My CEL came on once too. Couldn't find anything wrong, turned the car off, took the gas cap off and put it back on, and all was good.

 

Exactly the same thing here & hasn't come back since.

 

Thanks guys! I did check the gas cap and it seemed ok, but it could have been the cause. Today I drove it for 45 miles and no CEL.