So I get a little joy in my life by finally buying myself that PS3 I’ve been lusting after since it launched and of course this means there must be some minor disaster of some sort of another to balance things out. Today that minor disaster manifested itself in the form of my car’s Service Engine Soon light coming on and stubbornly refusing to go back off again. Better yet it waited until I had gotten to work and was traveling from the office to the tech center campus before it came on so I was firmly committed to the idea that I’d have to work out the day and then worry my head off on the drive home which is a good hour at the best of times and often an hour and a half to two hours on bad days. It was particularly sinister in that I couldn’t discern any change in the behavior of the car or its engine. It didn’t sound any different, wasn’t riding any different, and no obvious precious automotive fluids were spilling onto the ground. It was as though the car itself was suffering from a fit of jealously over my purchase of the PS3 and was determined it was going to get my attention whether I liked it or not.
And get my attention it did. I spent the day going over in my head what the problem could be and it could be anything from a dirty air filter to the near imminent collapse of the entire car into a shuddering heap of useless scrap metal. Should I risk driving home on the freeway or should I take back streets? The back streets would be less stress on the car, but would take much longer than the freeway. Does it seem like it’s running hotter than normal? Is that burning oil or engine coolant I smell? Was that a puff of white smoke sneaking out from under the edges of the car? What the fuck is wrong with my car?? In the end I drove home on the freeway with the radio off so I could listen to every creak and rev of the engine and my senses were on edge to detect the slightest change in how the car was running. It ran the same as it always does all the way home with nary a thing out of the ordinary happening. Well, other than that damned Service Engine Soon light staring me in the face the entire way.
So I’m taking tomorrow off from work so I can get the car into a shop and have someone hook up a diagnostic computer and find out just what the hell it wants from me. Going to have them change the oil while they’re at it as it’s in need of such at this time. Unless they tell me the car is just this side of death in which case I’ll skip the oil change and go straight into panicking over finding a new car soon mode.
Posted on 10/18/2007 at 11:01 PM 
Posted on 10/19/2007 at 11:50 PM 
Les,
All this is assuming your was built in 1996 or later:
The OBD II MIL (Check Engine Light) is required to be lit under a wide variety of conditions.
Fortunately most of them have to do with things that will not put you in any imminent danger of the car blowing up or falling apart. Something as simple as a fouled spark plug, a tiny vacuum leak in the EGR system, or an OBD sensor going bad can trigger the light.
Rest assured that as long as the car was running smoothly and was not smoking, stalling, etc. you shouldn’t have anything too majorly wrong.
Not that the diagnostic and repair will necessarily be cheap but it shouldn’t involve such things as rebuilding engines or transmissions.
If you’re mechanically inclined, you can go by an AutoZone or Advanced Auto Parts store and they’ll pull the code and tell you what’s up. You can then determine if you can fix it yourself.
Hope this helps a bit. Car troubles suck, especially when you have a lengthy commute.