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Literaly happened to me tonight. I’m supposed to sell the car tomorrow. Peak comedy.
Marker pen over the light and they won’t know any difference.
Eh I’d just clear it. Should be enough for a day lol
Mines been on for years, I find comfort in it now.
Mine straight up burned out several years ago. Still runs and passes inspection. I ain’t no coward.
My bike is immune
I cast run over by self driving car
(Hope n ot)
Thar be what the 2nd is for
I cast bluetooth OBD clear codes… goodbye CO2 sensor code… until we meet again or I finally replace it.
As long as its not flashing just run it.
Jokes on you, I already have one because my o2 sensor spacer isn’t fooling the car anymore!
The BMW cantrip
Buy an OBD reader from China. They’re cheap and allow you to read what is wrong with your car. Afterwards you can decide if you fix the issue yourself or let an expensive garage do it.
Your local library may also have one you can borrow if it has a library of things. It a pretty cool.
I got one, swapped a part myself, realized that wasn’t it, went to my mechanic, and he fixed it just by guessing lol
But yea they are useful so you at least know the exact codes that you fixed
Scary pumpkins
The oil pressure light is by far the scariest one.
100%. Check engine light can mean a bunch of pretty minor things. Oil pressure? Stop the car. Stop the car NOW. You’re gonna have to pay for a tow and repair, but if you don’t stop RIGHT NOW you’re going to need a new car. Or at least a new engine.
Literally opened this thread only to say this. Check engine light means the engine is doing something to increase emissions, up to and including misfires and such. Can be harmful but over a somewhat longer period of time than being out of oil.
My check engine light came on and freaked me out. Found out the code was P0171: Bank running lean. I currently have a mix of gas and E85 in the tank and the computer doesn’t like it. Nothing is actually wrong.
Mine was a loose gas cap. I’m not paying $300 to a dealer to turn that light off.
You can buy a cheap Bluetooth OBDII scanner online and use a free phone app like Torque to read and clear codes.
I think most chain auto part stores will also let you use their scanners for free.
I hadn’t bought an odb2 scanner in decades. I didn’t realize they have gotten advanced like that. I guess I should have.
I did get a cheap one but I work on my own cars so I now bought a much nicer one that has dealer level access.
MOST of my cars are too old to have OBDII. 35 years and older…NO CUP HOLDERS.
Something as serious as a misfire can also cause the check engine light to flash.
Why yes, I did once lose a whole-ass cylinder in a 4-cylinder, manual transmission car. While a couple hours from home! It broke a freaking exhaust valve while we were just cruising along, and the light started flashing immediately with a code for cylinder X misfire.
Funny enough, other than the loss of power it drove alright while in motion, including on the highway. It would immediately stall if left to idle at a stop light, though. I think I ended up using the hand brake to hold still while keeping my foot on the gas to keep the revs up. Fun.
I drive a Toyota,
I have a Lexus and a Toyota, both 9 years old. Do they even have a check engine light? I hope so, because I forgot where the dealer is.
I drive an EV. I have no engine.
Engine and motor are synonyms. Broadly speaking, newer technology gets called motor to differentiate it from older technology.
See steam engine. Motor car. Etc.
And yeah, electric motors have fuck all to go wrong. Love my EV.
(Sorry for being a pedant)
electric motors have fuck all to go wrong.
Tesla motors are infamous for burning out rotor bearings, coolant leaks and leaking coolant into electronics.
Even electic motors have an optimal operating temp, but its not as detrimental to run outside it
I only have a bike. Completely immune.
Not immune to Ford trucks I tell you what.
Is that a threat?
My dog cast that today.
She had bloody poop and couldn’t stand.
So I’m here.
Waiting on a phone call from the emergency vet.That sucks big time, emergency vet visits are always rough. Best of luck to you and your pup. Hope you can get in and get things figured out safe and quick.
Thank you. It looks like she’s going to be okay.
Ate one of those plastic cups that you put on chair legs to prevent it from scraping the floor. And a cat toy. But they could pull it out endoscopically.
She’s 15, and a big girl that’s already survived a softball sized tumor that caused her spleen to burst about 5 years ago. She’s a tough girl.
Glad to hear they could pull it out. We had a cat that had diabetes, and we had to use a pill shooter to administer one of her meds. Unfortunately, my wife did it one time and didn’t notice that, in addition to the pill, the rubber tip came off and my cat swallowed it. I see it the next day, and by then she (cat, not wife) was ill, and it had moved into and lodged itself in her intestines. It was an incredibly rapid decline, so make sure we all get extra hugs in, you never know with these pets.
Oh, that’s so rough. I’m sorry you had to go through that.
Got a OBD reader for 40 bucks and it takes a lot of the stress off. Highly recommend to anyone who doesn’t have one yet. You can look up the code, and usually that steers you to what part you need. Saves time, money, and stress.
Or you can also go to any auto parts store and they’ll do an OBD reading for you for free and give you a printout of the code.
Forty bucks is a ripoff. I got a Bluetooth one for like 10.
I’ve had good luck on Android with these, but I’ve had no luck getting two different ones to connect to iOS for some reason, and they even boldly claim iOS compatibility right on the unit. I just grab my old Android when I need to check it.
It’s a Bluetooth incompatibility. There’s something wrong with most scanners and how they support Bluetooth Low Energy.
I bought this scanner in 2020 and the one I bought then has worked fine across two different iOS phones.
Seconded the Veepeak. It’s still an ELM327 clone but a high quality one so if you get one that says it supports BTLE, it works on IOS. Mine does.
$2.65, but I’m sure it’s proprietary app is snooping, so I just use an old phone when I have to check anything out.
Pay $5 for the Torque app.
There wasn’t a proprietary app that I can recall, and +1 on Torque that’s what I use
Lol, seems I already had it purchased. I’ll be honest, I haven’t used the little blue guy in years after getting a newish Avalon.
Yeah this is front of mind for me lately because I need to figure out where mine is now that the 40mpg grocery getter is throwing a code
Usually they have a standard chip like an ELM327 clone (basically all the cheap ones) so you can use any app
Here they charge you for the readout 🙂
Well that’s not very nice.
If $40 is too much for you, Auto Zone, Advance Auto Parts, and O’Reillys all have free code readers you can use. If your car can make it there.
Yeah, mine just started nagging me about some emissions bull shit as soon as it rolled over to 100,000 miles.
I cast: Electrical tape over the fucking light 🖕🏻
Bro casted counterspell and won the duel (until next long rest)
